Win €500k with your green solution to help our planet! Ready? Set. Go!

This year too, the Postcode Lottery will organize their annual competition to find the most innovative green idea to reduce CO2.

In 1989, the Dutch Postcode Lottery was founded to support charitable causes. When Bill Clinton visited the Postcode Lottery World Meeting in 2006, he spoke about the importance of supporting entrepreneurs in the field of sustainable innovation in the battle against climate change. As the Postcode Lottery aims for a greener and fairer world in all they do and strives for a zero carbon economy, it prompted the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge and within a year, the first competition was held.

Do you have this year’s winning idea? Sign up, submit your idea and win that 500k! Entry is open until June first!

Last year’s winner and runners-up with the jury, organization and the Dutch queen, Máxima. Source: None

This competition, for entrepreneurs of sustainable innovation, supports people with CO2-reducing ideas, who don’t have the means and trust yet to bring their ideas further. It’s aimed at start-ups so they can bring their product or service to the market.

Since the beginning, Sir Richard Branson has been involved and in 2013, he returned as chair of the jury.

The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge calls on entrepreneurs to find solutions to climate change, one of the most urgent issues we face today. I encourage everybody around the world with a great green idea to enter this prestigious contest. One smart, creative idea can make a huge difference.”

Every year, people from all over the world can submit their sustainable business plans.

Then in July, the organization announces the 25 nominees who have a chance of becoming finalists. In August, five finalists will be selected for the final round in which they present their business plan in front of a selected audience and an international panel of experts during the finale in Amsterdam.

And every year, wonderful plans have been concocted and the winning plans can make differences beyond belief. Underneath you’ll find some highlights of the past years.

Biodegradable plastic from Mango Materials Source: None

Mango Materials

In 2012, Molly Morse, from the USA, won with her cradle-to-cradle solution, Mango Materials: it produces non-toxic, biodegradable plastics. The plastic is made from waste methane gas and will degrade at the end of its useful life.

More specifically, it’s made from bacteria using methane: an abundantly available and extremely potent greenhouse gas. They create pellets that manufacturers can then convert into a variety of plastic products: plastic products that will not roam the earth until the end of time polluting the environment. Rather, this plastic naturally biodegrades back to methane, not harming the environment in any way.

Molly Morse Source: None

Ecovative

In 2008, Eben Bayer from the USA won with Ecovative, the company whose core mission is to envision, develop, produce, and market Earth-friendly material that can have a positive impact on our planet’s ecosystem.

They created Mushroom Materials which is a new insulation material using agricultural waste and mycelium.

The mycelium and shredded agricultural waste are put together after which the mycelium forms a matrix of white fibers and coats the waste particles. Broken up into loose particles and put in a mold, the mycelium keeps growing and forms a solid structure, filling any void space. A few days later the material is solid, then dried to stop growth, and can be used as all sorts of material.

It isn’t until it’s exposed to the right conditions, that it will naturally decompose again.

Eben Bayer Source: Eben Bayer profile sir tv

PHYSEE

Last year, Willem Kesteloo from the Netherlands won with PHYSEE They created the PowerWindow: fully transparent energy-generating windows: with a coating on the outside windowpane that collects light that would normally be reflected, and solar cell strips in the window frame convert it into electricity. PHYSEE was praised by the jury because its technology adds value to a component every building needs.

They’re now working on their first pilot project at the Rabobank office in Eindhoven. PHYSEE is going to shake up the glass, energy, and real estate industry with its amazing design.

Willem Kesteloo Source: Facebook Willem Kasteloo

Interested to see what other great, green solutions the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge has brought forth? Find out on their website.

And if you have the green solutions the world needs, don’t hesitate and sign up today!