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Local low-carbon solutions


Basics #

Question What can be done at the local level to address climate change?

Contest main page Submit proposals at https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/13

Deadline June 15, 2013, at 11:59 Eastern Standard Time

Rules All entrants must agree to the 2012-13 contest rules.

Prizes The contest winners will be invited to present their work at the Crowds and Climate Conference at MIT November 6-7, 2013, and at the event, a $10,000 Grand Prize will be awarded to one of the contest winners

Related contests

Guidelines from the contest Advisor and Fellow #

Opportunity/challenge #

Citizens around the world are taking action at the local level to address climate change and build a more sustainable world. For example, in the Transition Movement, a network of communities around the world are working to achieve energy security, climate resilience, and economic stability. In so-called 'Transition Towns' throughout the world, small groups of concerned citizens are thinking of innovative ways to engage their communities to build solutions to the problem of climate change and to address other sustainability challenges. The efforts of this movement demonstrate the potential of local, grassroots approaches.

Other communities are pursuing similar efforts through such initiatives as the Global Ecovillage Network or Green Power Community Partnerships (the latter are organized under a program sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

Some recent examples of communities taking low-carbon action are:

Key issues #

Many local-level low-carbon initiatives have been highly successful, but clearly there is value in new, innovative approaches to encourage individuals to make low-carbon choices and to spur initiatives with local businesses. Some of the most important local-level issues are:

Contest focus #

The contest asks what can be done to establish low-carbon solutions at the local level. It is worth noting that local-level communities throughout the world differ tremendously. If your proposal is specific to a particular region of the world, please indicate this in the geographic focus section of the proposal.

Judges and prizes #

Carolyne Stayton, Co-founder and Executive Director of Transition US

Bob Daniel, Geoscientist

Debi Baker, Member of Transition San Lorenzo Valley

Barbara Matessa, Member of Transition San Lorenzo Valley

In addition to any contest-specific prizes or events planned by the Advisor and Fellow, all teams that prepare winning proposals will be invited to present their work at in person or virtually at an event at MIT to be held in mid-2013, where all the winners from 2012-13 Climate CoLab contests will be featured. The Climate CoLab staff plan to invite a range of policymakers, business executives and investors and NGO officials to this MIT event.

References #

If you'd like to suggest a new reference, please send a message to Erik Duhaime eduhaime@mit.edu