Capital of South Australia Launches Zero Carbon Challenge Contest

March 18, 2016 – Adelaide, a city of 1.29 million, fifth largest in Australia, is offering individual entrepreneurs a $250,000 AUD prize to reduce its carbon footprint, and create a greener economy. Its goal to eliminate the close to 1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions the city produces annually making it carbon neutral. To do this the city is focused on finding carbon reductions in the following areas:

• waste
• energy
• liveability
• transport

The contest opened on March 16th. The entry deadline is May 30th, 5 p.m. local time. The assessment by an expert panel will occur from May 31 to June 14. Short listed finalists will be notified on June 15th. The final winners will be announced in October.

If not from Adelaide or Down Under, entries chosen for the short list receive return flights and accommodation to work on their ideas with the assistance of the city government and its staff. Those not from South Australia need a local partner. The city will help find a local partner for your project idea since this is a prerequisite to win.

In the categories Adelaide is looking for the following:

Waste

Today 5% of the city’s total emissions come from waste in landfill. What the city wants is to maximize recycling including food waste from building developers and owners, residential homes, and businesses. Ultimately the city wants to recycle almost everything, incorporate recyclables into materials used by the city, and develop low carbon materials for all future builds.

Energy

The biggest contributor to Adelaide’s carbon emissions at 60% is energy. The city wants to improve the energy efficiency of all government and commercial sites. It wants to develop incentives for businesses and residential home owners to install solar, battery storage and other energy efficient technologies. Since 2010 the city has reduced its operational energy use by 15% while growing its office space by 16% and reducing emissions by 23%. Now it wants city users to be collectively empowered to reduce emissions and energy use in a similar way.

Liveability

Today Adelaide is in the top 10 ranking of liveable cities in the world. Now it wants to become even more liveable by adding more green space, larger natural environments, and developing cultural, recreational and street life that enhances its inhabitants experiences. Reducing the heat island effect by expanding the tree canopy is one of the current projects underway targeting a decrease in city street temperatures of up to 9 Celsius (16.2 Fahrenheit) degrees. What the city wants to see is projects that develop local green food initiatives, preserve and enhance water resources, and address climate change.

Transport

Adelaide wants to change the way people move about the city. Today transportation contributes 35% of its carbon emissions. The majority of these emissions come from individual transportation use, in other words, cars and trucks. In 2008 the city introduced the first solar electric bus. Since 2003 cycling volume has doubled. But to reduce transportation’s carbon footprint the city wants to do much more including transforming itself through a build out of mass transit options, through improvements to the pedestrian and cycling infrastructure to get people out of cars, and through adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles by city government and residents.

How to Get Started

If you want to submit an idea you can participate in the Adelaide to Zero Carbon Challenge through Facebook or Twitter. The contest website provides many examples from other urban centres to give you an idea of the types of potential project submissions. Don’t copy them though. The city is looking for original submissions.

A good set of background documents to help you get to know the city and its carbon neutral mission can be found at this AdelaidetoZero page.

How Will You be Judged

The judging panel offers the following insights into what it is seeking from submissions. Projects should:

• strengthen entrepreneurial and innovation capacity in low carbon technologies, renewables and clean technology;
• generate new solutions for Adelaide to become the world’s first carbon neutral city;
• reduce emissions in Adelaide;
• improve the liveability of Adelaide and the lives of our community;
• develop new partnerships, attract investment and create opportunities for local business, new economy jobs, and industries; or
• provide a catalyst for local action and behaviour change.

If you have more questions about the contest visit the FAQ page.

So Why Can’t Other Cities and Governments Do the Same Thing?

The idea of offering prizes to solve human challenges is not new. I have often described initiatives by organizations such as NASA, DARPA, and the private XPrize consortium to inspire innovation and invention through the offering of prizes.

These initiatives have spurred commercial development in aerospace, genomics, robotics, and artificial intelligence. They have funded contests to solve real world problems such as helping to spread numeracy and literacy, inspiring private commercial ventures in space, creating new technologies to clean up oil spills, restoring pH balance in our oceans, and transforming the delivery of quality healthcare.

So why aren’t governments using prizes as a means to address the challenge of reducing our collective carbon footprint and successfully transitioning to a low carbon world? Doesn’t this mechanism make sense?