Winner of the #OurCommonGoals competition announced!

NEWS

In the final stage of the #OurCommonGoals 2018 competition, projects of two foundations, First Places Are Always Free and Foundation X competed for the support of Internet users in an online vote.

Most votes were cast in favour of the First Places Are Always Free foundation which received the financing for its project called the Green Power Hackathon.

The winning Green Power Hackathon project responds to the present-day environmental issues and to Sustainable Goal number 13 of the United Nations which is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. The purpose of the two-day hackathon will be to develop innovative technological and business solutions which will contribute to overcoming environmental challenges.

Congratulations to the winners! And this is what they told us:

What does winning the competition mean to you?

Since our victory is not a result of a decision of a panel of judges but of the votes cast by Internet users, we believe that the idea of the Green Power Hackathon meets the expectations of our society. We think that a growing number of people come to realise that our planet is in serious trouble which we ourselves have caused and that if we do not persuade a great number of people to counteract climate change, in a dozen years or so it will be too late to do anything. The award in the competition is also an incentive for us to engage in projects which bring together technology and ecology.

How come you decided to submit your project to #OurCommonGoals competition?

Among the vast number of environmental initiatives on the market implemented by companies as part of their CSR efforts, by NGOs or by individual activists there are very few, if any, which in addition to preventive measures would provide innovative technological solutions improving the quality of our climate and engaging young people. Youth should be the real engine behind the changes, both the ones related to our awareness and conscious actions. Unlimited creativity and innovativeness, openness to challenges and – above all – willingness to act are the best qualities of young people which we want to harness during the Green Power Hackathon. If we inspire them now, in a few years’ time we might see really interesting start-ups.

We also want to publish a brochure about the event which will outlive our campaign and be a source of knowledge and motivation for people in the future.

What will be your first actions now when you have won the award?

Of course we will spread the news as much as we can. Creating buzz before an event is important because the subject of combating climate change is really urgent now. In addition to promotion we need to find experts who will take part in the event and reach young people, potential participants with the information.

We also want to congratulate Foundation X which qualified to the second stage of the competition and competed for the votes of the internet users for their project ”Change Now”. Both organisations showed very high environmental sensitivity and proposed interesting solutions responding to UN Sustainable Goal 13 ”Climate Action.”