The EU rewards 3 Liger Leadership Academy students for their energy-efficient project
22 October 2019 - Vandara Sin

Written by Abigail Perriman 

The EU rewards 3 Liger Leadership Academy students for their energy-efficient project

 

Phnom Penh, 21 October 2019 –  On Saturday 19th, Impact Hub Phnom Penh with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia has organized a one-day Hackathon in Phnom Penh, where 50 young entrepreneurs and students focused their efforts on solving four climate challenges related to clean energy, single-use plastic, air pollution and sustainable consumption. 

The hackathon is part of ‘Climathon’, a global year-round programme initiated by EIT Climate-KIC to mobilize citizens to take part in climate actions across the world. As part of the European Climate Diplomacy, the EU Delegation encouraged Cambodian youth to reflect and innovate on how to address climate-related issues in the country.

During the Hackathon, the participants were split into eight different teams and mentored by Phnom Penh city’s climate challenges initiators: EU Delegation, Global Green Growth Institute, EnergyLab and GoGreen Cambodia. The four suggested challenges were: 1) How can we reduce and even cut out single-use plastics in Phnom Penh?; 2) How can we support a rapidly growing electricity demand using clean energy?; 3) How can smartphone technology be used in Cambodia to empower sustainable consumption?; 4) How can we improve air quality through behavioural change initiatives?

 

After 10 intense hours of brainstorming and collaboration, the jury selected the project of 3 Liger Leadership Academy students, Sovannou Pich, Sotheara Khim and Somphors Yun, as the most promising and impactful idea. The winning team would like to develop a consulting agency providing energy audit services to Cambodian organizations and small enterprises. The main purpose is to collect and analyze energy consumption data from organizations to reduce energy inefficiencies. 

 

 

 

“What an amazing event! As a first time co-facilitator for a Hackathon event,  I was so impressed with the number of new ideas and energy coming from participants. Everyone involved worked hard to find solutions to make Phnom Penh a greener and healthier city to live in. It was refreshing to see within one day how much each team can accomplish. They formed a team, brainstormed ideas, selected an idea to work on and pitched to judges. And the judges were so impressed by their quality, well done!” – SENG Socheata, Community Builder, Impact Hub Phnom Penh.

 

The EU Delegation warmly congratulates the winners who have won $500 to develop their project and a 6-month support from Impact Hub’s Entrepreneurs Club.

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For further information, please contact Ms. Abigail Perriman of Impact Hub Phnom Penh, Tel. 015674420 or E-mail: [email protected]  

For photography from the event see here


NOTES 

Impact Hub Phnom Penh

Impact Hub Phnom Penh is an innovation space, a business incubator, a social enterprise builder and above all, a community of like-minded people who believe they can make the world a better place. Members benefit from an international platform and locally rooted network. 

Impact Hub Phnom Penh’s community is a flourishing group of entrepreneurs, creatives, techies and impact-makers, committed to working together to contribute to a more just and sustainable Cambodia. They do this primarily through delivering in-house curated programs to young aspiring entrepreneurs, to support and inspire them to develop their ideas and create an impact in Cambodia.

 

EU Delegation

The EU Delegation has a similar role to any other accredited foreign diplomatic mission. The Delegation represents the European Union in its relations with the Cambodian government for all matters within EU jurisdiction. The EU Delegation does not duplicate the activities of the EU Member States’ Embassies; instead, it aims to coordinate the actions of the EU and EU countries.

 

Climathon 

Climathon is a year-round programme with a powerful solutions-hackathon at its core, generating projects, supporting climate-positive businesses and start-ups and addressing local policy changes. 

Climathon empowers citizens, cities and local economies to come together to develop local solutions to cities’ climate challenges. Powered by dynamic and dedicated Local Organisers, Climathon has grown to over 100 cities and with a global reach in the millions. Climathon is supported by EIT Climate-KIC, a body of the European Union. www.climathon-climate-kic.org

 

Climathon Global Community

New this year are the inaugural Climathon Global Awards, a celebration of transformative solutions developed during Climathons between 2015-2019. The awards serve as a platform to celebrate the community built so far. It is also a far-reaching global call for city leaders and citizens to collaborate with scientists, NGOs, entrepreneurs and other innovators to develop innovative local solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

In particular, there will be a strong focus on ‘transformative solutions’ through its Citizen Award and ‘systemic innovation’ through its City Award. Climathon Global Awards winners receive financial and non-financial support to take their ideas to the next level.

 

About EIT Climate-KIC 

European Institute of Innovation and Technology Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (EIT Climate-KIC) is Europe’s largest public-private partnership addressing climate change through innovation to build a net zero carbon economy. With over 380 formal partners from across 26 countries, its mission is to catalyse systemic change for climate action through innovation in areas of human activity that have a critical impact on greenhouse gas emissions – cities, lands, materials and finance – and to create climate-resilient communities. Education underpins these themes to accelerate learning and to inspire and empower the next generation of climate leaders. 

At the heart of EIT Climate-KIC’s approach is ‘systems innovation as a service’ whereby it creates a space for a portfolio of strategic innovation options and experiments, oriented around structural levers of change, designed with and for problem owners like city and regional governments, industry owners and directors, community organisations and policy makers. The organisation acts as a multi-sided platform, working across boundaries and across sectors, fostering innovation as a catalyst for transformation. It facilitates the creation of innovation consortia and community driven change. It challenges and enriches business model design. It offers tailored support for experimentation, implementation and scaling. www.climate-kic.org