GIScience/HeiGIT researchers and geography students with Pledge4Future web app official winners of the “The Climate Challenge Hackathon”
Jul 6th, 2021 by uw411
Pledge4Future is a free web app for the calculation and visualisation of work-related per capita CO2e emissions in research. The aim is to provide individuals and work groups with a simple tool for the long-term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions towards compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement. The calculation includes heating, electricity, business travel and commuting. The development of the app is supported by Scientists4Future Heidelberg and other actors of the forFuture network, Goethe institute, as well as by GIScience and HeiGIT. Pledge4Future aims to contribute to climate protection by raising awareness on the importance of climate protection in science, providing scientifically sound data on CO2e emissions in research and practising bottom-up climate protection.
During the weekend of 30.10-01.11.2020, Scientists4Future Heidelberg and the Goethe Institute organized “The Climate Challenge Hackathon”. The goal of this event was the development of ideas and projects to tackle the climate crisis. An external panel composed of experts selected the 4 winning teams, which were then awarded with € 3.000 as a funding incentive to further establish the idea. In addition to that, the winners were given the opportunity to work for 8 months on their respective projects. A second, newly composed panel, would yet again have the opportunity to select one of the projects based on the progress and fund it with further € 5.000.
Out of the 4 winning teams, Pledge4Future (previously WePledge), has been awarded with the additional funding to continue with their project. Pledge4Future consists to a large extent of geography students and research associates of the GIScience research group and HeiGIT. Last autumn they formed a workplace-related sustainability group and developed the idea to not only measure and reduce the CO2 emissions of their own research, but to develop an app that facilitates climate protection across research groups and fields. The team, composed of seven researchers, students and workers, is currently working on a variety of topics with the goal of launching a beta test phase until the end of 2021.
They are looking for further support concerning the implementation of a dashboard visualizing the CO2 emissions and the implementation of the front-end user profile section including forms for data entry. If you are interested in supporting Pledge4Future in summer or becoming a long-term member of the team, contact them via info@pledge4future.org.
If you, your working group or your institute are interested in becoming a beta-tester of the app, contact us via info@pledge4future.org or use the contact form on www.pledge4future.org/.
For further information and the development follow Pledge4Future on Instagram (pledge4future_de) or on Twitter (Pledge4Future_de) or subscribe to the newsletter via www.pledge4future.org.