Turn Your Green Idea Into Cash
Posted on August 13, 2007 - Filed Under Cool Ideas
Source: Business Week Magazine
If you have an idea for an innovative, executable consumer product or service that can “contribute to an eco-friendly lifestyle” then get ready to jot it down, draft blueprints, and fill out the submission form: Your idea could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Picnic Green Challenge, is an eco-contest organized by Picnic, an annual conference and idea festival that takes place in Amsterdam this year from Sept. 23 to Sept. 29. The best ideas (one or several, depending on the quality of the entries) will win up to €500,000 ($670,000) in funding, plus free consulting and help opening doors that could bring the project to fruition.
The winning projects should be executable; the submissions (which must be received by Aug. 30) will include a concrete plan to bring the idea to market. In addition, organizers are looking for well-designed products and services that can “enable large numbers of people to effortlessly reduce their personal impact on global warming.”
The winners will be selected by a jury chaired by Richard Branson, who has launched several environmental initiatives recently, including devoting part of the profits of Virgin Airways to research on greener fuels. Other jurors are representatives of both big business (Unilever and Tommy Hilfiger) and environmental organizations (Greenpeace and the Climate Group) as well as designers and tech investors.
The great thing about this challenge is that there are no pre-requesite qualifications. You don’t have to be an established business person or scientist with a complex product knowledge. You just have to an idea and a plan to make it happen. The winner(s) could be a 17 year old high school student from Vancouver, or a middle aged car mechanic from Brazil. It’s a pure stage where only the ideas matter.
Now to get thinking…
- Christian
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