After Ryerson University, The Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change hosted a joint Hack-to-Action event challenging participants to to develop and pitch creative policy solutions for climate change, the winners have been announced.
The first place prize went to Team Ease, which developed an app that demonstrates greenhouse gas and fuel savings based on an individual’s method of transport to encourage multi-modal transportation; second place went to Best Practice, which connect young farmers to landowners with backyards to rent for local food production; while third place went to Team RG Green, which created the CarbonConquest app that uses gamification to teach and engage young people about how their choices impact their carbon footprint.
The three winning teams will share $9,000 in total prize money to continue development of their product, and will also participate in a networking lunch with Paul Evans, deputy minister of Environment and Climate Change.
“Climate Hack-to-Action was Brookfield’s second major initiative as part of our Policy Innovation Platform, connecting academic, industry, government, not-for-profit and entrepreneurship sectors, to infuse new ways of thinking into tackling government policy challenges,” said Sean Mullin, executive director of the Brookfield Institute. “We are thrilled by the high caliber of solutions and to be the convener of so many diverse and enthusiastic partners committed to empowering people in putting an end to climate change.”