Designers, tech-heads and a bunch of strangers for forest conservation

It all started with a wish to make even a small positive impact on the worryingly changing climate. To make this wish come true we partnered up with the design agency Idean and reached out in social media for fresh ideas for a cooperative project with a positive impact on climate. (Read more about the campaign on our earlier blog post and check the campaign post on Facebook.)

For the chosen idea we promised to offer software development worth 10 000 euros, and Idean threw in service design expertise worth around another 10k€.

We were super happy to receive 12 great ideas, and are very thankful for each one of them. However, and unfortunately, we had to choose only one. So our jury, comprising of Idean folks, Montelieers and our special guest Leo Stranius (who was asked to join the jury to evaluate the climate impact of the ideas) had to make a hard decision.

The chosen one

Ilmastometsä is a participatory nature conservation NGO that aims to sustain carbon sinks and biodiversity by conserving nature sights, and moreover, to make it super easy for anyone to take part in the conservation of these sights. The idea of Ilmastometsä started from a post on social media just a year ago but already they have established their first conservation area.

The idea Ilmastometsä shared with us is to create an online platform where anyone can pick from a map a square metre, or square metres, he/she wants to conserve. The price of a square metre is just one or two euros, so anyone can take part. One can also see from the map how the conservation of the area proceeds until every single square metre of the area has been picked for purchase. This way a bunch of strangers can together create a whole nature conservation area.

Brilliant we thought. Can’t wait to take part in creating a conservation area together with other nature lovers!

But it wasn’t just a matter of feelings, there were many good reasons to choose this idea for the collaborative project: most importantly we think this platform has great potential for big impact (carbon sinks are needed to fight climate change, and easy ways to join forces to create these carbon sinks are needed), the idea was well thought through and was presented to us with clear vision, and as a bonus we also found the idea super exciting to design, visualise and technically implement.

The collaborative project will be kicked off in November. Stay tuned for more news about the project!

The number 2

We were also lucky to receive a great idea from FIBS, Finland’s leading promoter of sustainable business: an online self-assessment tool for companies that would educate the users on how to make their business more sustainable. FIBS has studied Finnish companies on how they are currently promoting sustainable business and this research data would be used for the tool.

Again we saw lots of potential for great impact. Thus we invited FIBS peeps to come over for a workshop to at least help to plan the idea further.

All the other great ideas

We would love to see all these great ideas become reality so if you wish to collaborate with any of these actors on their great ideas please ask us for contact details. These are up for grabs!

Viikki Tropical Resources Institute, VITRI, shared with us a feasible project idea. They need help to make the world’s first carbon footprint calculator tailored for CSOs/NGOs more user-friendly. The calculator is free, open to all, and CSOs and also many small and medium-sized companies have welcomed it with enthusiasm and started to use it. The scientific data it uses is fresh but the technology...well it is a scary excel file (their words) that needs to be turned into a cool web-based easy-to-use tool.

Carbon Deed is a company with a mission to plant a billion trees: they provide means to clean up consumers’ and companies' carbon emissions by doing a carbon deed anytime anything is produced, transported and consumed. The world currently lacks an easy to use CO₂ calculator for small companies, Carbon Deed wants to fix that problem by creating an easy to use tool for SME-companies to calculate their emissions. Moreover, Carbon Deed also shared another idea of creating “a unique tree identification” for every single tree that they plant for their customers: this way anyone could track the location, growth etc. of the trees planted for them via Carbon Deed.

A group of tourism business students from the University of Eastern Finland has a great idea: an open-source tool that any online shop could add to their webshop. The tool would allow their customers to donate a chosen amount of money to a verified climate actor with the aim to compensate for the emissions their web shopping produces.

UFF also took part and sent us an idea about a carbon footprint calculator that would help to see how much one can cut their personal emissions by reducing buying new textiles and by recycling used textiles.

Restaurant Loop suggested an idea to fight food waste. In a collaborative project, an existing application would be further developed: the app would be integrated into their ongoing pilot on a deposit system for food containers. Advance payment and regular customer systems would be added to the app, as well as a calculator that would inform customers about the carbon footprint of their dish.

Spark Sustainability asked our help for a platform they are already developing: the platform connects the millions of climate-conscious consumers with the companies that can provide practical solutions for how to live more in accordance with a One Planet Lifestyle.

UseLess Company shared a great idea about a tool for anyone to calculate, track and reduce one’s personal carbon budget.

Tessa sent us an idea about an application to fight the emissions of tourism and travelling: This application could be used in two ways, before travel to see how much CO₂ emissions the selected travel plan would create and help to adjust the plan to cut down the emissions through the suggestions, as well as after travel to compensate for the emissions.

And Jonni had an idea about climate portal website that gathers links to pages providing information related to climate change: content would include products and services that are especially climate-friendly, everything that helps people understand climate change and make all life choices in a more informed way

Also, Kamupak shared a really good idea with us but wished to keep it as a trade secret.

Again thousand thanks for all the great ideas. Wish to see them all come true.