Climate-KIC Nominated for Two 2016 Guardian Awards

London, United Kingdom, March 18, 2016 --(PR.com)-- Climate-KIC, the EU’s main climate innovation initiative, has been shortlisted in the Communicating Sustainability and Collaboration categories of the 2016 Guardian Sustainable Business Awards.

“This year saw a record number of entries across thirteen categories,” a Guardian statement reads, “It was a particularly high quality year for entries and competition for places was strong.”

Nominees for this year’s edition of the Guardian’s annual sustainable business awards range from multinationals such as IKEA, PricewaterhouseCoopers and SABMiller – the world’s second-largest brewer – to organisations like Climate-KIC, The Carbon Trust and the Carbon Tracker Initiative.

Climathon

Climate-KIC’s 2015 Global Climathon and accompanying communications campaign – which saw the project trending on social media in major cities such as London and Washington D.C. – has been nominated in the Communicating Sustainability category, the Guardian announced.

The 24-hour hackathon-style Climathon saw people across six continents work together simultaneously to solve the climate change challenges of 20 participating cities in June 2015. The winning teams presented their solutions at the UN climate summit in Paris.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be shortlisted for such a prestigious award alongside so many other high-impact organisations. This nomination is a well earned recognition of Climate-KIC’s fantastic community across Europe and around the world – they have put so much hard work into this project,” said Angela Howarth, European Head of Communications at Climate-KIC.

Global Calculator

The Global Calculator – a project Climate-KIC highlighted at at the COP21 climate change summit in Paris in collaboration with the Financial Times – has been nominated in the Collaboration category. The project was coordinated by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and co-sponsored by Climate-KIC.

Built in collaboration with a number of international organisations from the United States, China, India and Europe, the calculator is an interactive tool for businesses, NGOs and governments to consider the options for cutting carbon emissions and the trade-offs for energy and land use.

“The world has an unprecedented opportunity to create a prosperous low carbon future, driven by innovation, jobs, and investment. At Climate-KIC, we are seizing this opportunity for Europe, and initiatives like our Climathon and Calculator – and the Guardian’s sustainable business awards – are some of the projects that allow us to reach out and communicate that,” Howarth said.

The category winners – along with the reader voted awards for leader of the year and unsung hero of the year – will be announced on 27 May 2016, online and in a special Guardian in-paper supplement.

About Climate-KIC

Climate-KIC is the EU’s largest public private partnership addressing climate change through innovation to build a zero carbon economy.

We address climate change across four priority themes: urban areas, land use, production systems, climate metrics and finance. Education is at the heart of these themes to inspire and empower the next generation of climate leaders.

We run programmes for students, start-ups and innovators across Europe via centres in major cities, convening a community of the best people and organisations.

Our approach starts with improving the way people live in cities. Our focus on industry creates the products required for a better living environment, and we look to optimise land use to produce the food people need.

Climate-KIC is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.