In Climathon – Green, Smart Municipalities, in which 14 interdisciplinary teams sought solutions to the challenges offered by Latvian municipalities, team’s “Mademoselle” project to reduce waste and promote the circulation economy in Ventspils was recognized as the best. The Climathon in Latvia, developed by the Climate-KIC community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), is organized by the Design Factory of Riga Technical University (RTU).
In order to promote Latvia’s progress towards achieving the priorities of the European Green Course from October 8 to 10, 49 hackaton “Climathon – Green, Smart Municipalities”participants, students and professionals from various fields worked on solutions for the challanges offered by Liepaja, Valmiera, Gulbene, Smiltene, Ventspils, Kuldiga and Cesis municipalities. The event took place in a hybrid version – in person at the Green and Smart Technology Cluster in Liepaja and online.
The first place and 1200 euros for the further development of the idea were won by the team “Mademoselle” responding to the challenge of Ventspils municipality to increase the involvement of residents in promoting waste generation, sorting and recycling. Its offer includes not only the creation of a special point for the transfer and sorting of unnecessary items, but also practical and creative activities aimed at reusing seemingly obsolete household items, giving them new value. The authors of the idea of an innovative intelligent ventilation system won the second place in the hackathon, solving the challenge of Liepaja to provide cooling and the desired microclimate in historic public buildings. In third place were the participants who, within 48 hours, created a climate change modeling tool that would allow them to predict the effects of climate change in the future – floods, rainfall, drought – in Valmiera municipality. A special prize of 1,500 euros was given to develop the idea of a creative set of measures to improve the composting system in the old town of Cesis. The prize fund was provided by EIT Food, Liepāja, Valmiera, Gulbene and Smiltene municipalities.
