2017 Wellington Winners!

Wow! That was awesome. 40 ideas pitched on the Friday night and they merged and worked their way to 15 pitches on the Saturday evening all up to win Prizes from Wellington City Council, Victoria University, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Akina and MOTIF. 

On the panel judging;

• David Lee - Wellington City Councillor
• Marjan van den Belt - Assistant Vice Chancellor (Sustainability) Victoria Universtiy
• Michael Elwood-Smith - Victoria Entrepreneurs Bootcamp & Loomio

Prize winners were;

• Overall all champion $1000 from Greater Wellington Regional Council - Vege Tops
• Entry to Victoria Entrepreneurs Bootcamp - Reckons
• $5000 Victoria University  Summer Research Scholarship - Vege Tops
• $1000 from Greater Wellington Regional Council - Nude Grocer
• $1000 from Greater Wellington Regional Council - Little Brown Bin
• $1000 Victoria University  Summer Research Scholarship - Welly Waste
• Wellington City Council Low Carbon Challenge Workshops - Well_e_Scoot
• Wellington City Council Low Carbon Challenge Workshops - Welly Waste
• Akina Foundation 3x 90 minute workshops - Economate
• MOTIF 3x90 minute workshops - CRAP

Idea Overviews

Vege Tops

Vege Tops are on a mission to create city rooftop gardens that provide spaces for communities to engage with the environment.

Benefits

1. Building owners have more valuable buildings, businesses gain a better public image, and residents get to engage with the natural environment. 
2. Green roofs filter out carbon dioxide and pollutants, and as people would get engaged with one aspect of the environment they would be more inclined to be engaged with other aspects combatting climate change. 
3. A more appealing city that is cleaner and greener, and green roofs reduce storm water run-off, provide insulation and so reduces the need for heating and cooling by 26%, and it is estimated that the installation of green roofs increases the value of houses by 7%.

Where To Next?

The research scholarship will be used to research the problems of building in a windy, earthquake prone city and coming up with solutions. The stipend from Greater Wellington Regional Council will be used to help cover the cost of establishing the first public rooftop garden.

Reckons

Reckons is improving civic engagement of young people through creating an app to make submissions digitally accessible and engaging.

• Digital and accessible
• Tailored notifications
• Summarised, shareable content
• Opinions collated for the official submission

Nude Grocer

Nude Grocer is on a mission to reduce the amount of packaging waste going to Wellington landfill by connecting consumers with zero waste food suppliers in an accessible and economic way.

Nude Grocer will do this through providing consumers focused on zero waste with a home delivery or depot pick up option to receive zero waste packaged food and consumables. This

The Nude Grocer won $1000 from the Greater Wellington Regional Council to take the next steps in their solution development.

Little Brown Bin

Little Brown Bin are on a mission to reduce the amount of food waste going straight to landfill.

Wellington urban dwellers and workers don’t currently have the option to compost their food waste. Organic waste pick-up services do exist, but only on the larger industrial scale, such as restaurants. We provide small compostable cardboard bins to apartment dwellers or urban workplaces, which are then dumped into larger communal bins that can be picked up by existing organic waste pick-up services such as Kai to Compost.

They will be using the $1000 from the Greater Wellington Regional Council to buy Green Lid bins and contract Kai to Compost for a three months pilot programme in one apartment building and one Victoria University department.

Welly Waste

Welly Waste are on a mission to Empower children to make an impact towards waste reduction.

Welly Waste is a fun colorful 2-5 player card game for children to play with friends and family. Kids are encouraged to make good conscientious waste related decisions while empowering them to make an impact towards waste reduction. Because children engage well with games, delivering waste conscious values via a medium of fun and entertainment makes an effective and lasting impression.

The game is intended to be distributed via schools for the students to bring home to their families. Parents who are already waste conscious now have a new game to play with their children to reinforce those values; and those who aren’t may well be influenced by them to adopt better waste handling habits.

Overall we see Welly Waste as a fun, low cost, and meaningful method of tilting perceptions and practices towards a greener future, game points included.

Welly Waste will be using the $1000 Research Funding from Victoria University and the Wellington City Council Low Carbon Business Workshops to invest into further research and development of the game and the business.

Well_e_Scoot

Well_e_Scoot are on a mission to create more efficient and sustainable transportation for communities in New Zealand by selling and renting electric scooters in Wellington. They will have electric charging stations and battery exchange booths in petrol stations across the city and be raising awareness for the benefits of electric scooters.

They will be using the Wellington City Council Low carbon Challenge Workshops to progress their idea further.

Economate

the Economate team are on a mission to minimise waste and save school budgets by establishing a digital communication channel where builders can directly divert their construction waste (timber) to school design technology projects.

They will be using their workshops with Ākina Foundation to progress their business model and make the next steps in their business progression.

CRAP - Compost Resource Action Plan

Compost Resource Action Plan (CRAP) are on a mission to to reduce the amount of human waste entering the landfill and reduce the amount of energy and water used in the current process.

The short-term focus is on implementing eco-friendly emergency composting toilets in Wellington to improve the resilience of our local community.

They will be using the workshops they won with MOTIF to progress their business model.

Other Ideas!

Forgot A Bottle is a PLA water bottle, sold empty, which are then filled up in store – using New Zealand’s top quality tap water - with a percentage of profits going to riparian planting to improve water purity and quality of the source of that tap water.

EVX started planning how to transform all of the 4.9 million petrol cars into EV's by streamlining the process engineers are already taking through modular conversion kits to make it a commercially viable service.

Bike to the People explored creation of a corporate-sponsored electric bike fleet that supports a growing cycling community through long-term rental agreements. Promoting everyday use, thereby supporting healthy lifestyle and reducing traffic congestion (and CO2).

Bokashi Bros explored getting Bokashi bins into every office in Wellington, and help to build relationships between inner city offices producing food waste and the garden in which the food waste ends up.

Green Hand were creating an online companion to scan your checkout and review what you have purchased in terms of recyclability. It will also provide information on how you can re-use or recycle various items you are looking to purchase, and suggest alternatives that are more recycle friendly.

Make It Rain were exploring creating climate pledge app where people are empowered to commit to meaningful action, and the app then uses the power of behavioural psychology to support them to keep the pledge.

Sam's Team looked into diverting food and green waste going into Wellingtons Southern Landfill by introducing the use of green bins in areas with suitable access.