Code4Green: The European environmental data hackathon

As we recover from the pandemic, Europe is facing far-reaching decisions: How do we work towards a green recovery that is resilient, inclusive, and sustainable? How do we combine the ecological and the digital transformation? How can we use digitalisation and open data to tackle the pressuring environmental challenges of our time?
Code4Green behind the scenes

Organised by SpaceTec Partners for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the Code4Green hackathon brought together the bright minds of Europe to find impactful solutions to real-life challenges. Utilising open environmental data from sources such as the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), the European Environment Agency (EEA) or the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), more than 70 participants from all around Europe took on three major challenge areas:  biodiversity, circular economy and climate change – all online and virtual.

From an AI-powered data bank that fights invasive plants, through to using SAR and Earth observation technology for determining soil contamination, the Code4Green hackathon showcased how new digital technologies and open data can be used to solve existing problems sustainably. The four winners of Code4Green 2020 were:

  • WellBeeing: Fostering citizen science to protect and monitor bee populations to enhance biodiversity.
  • RosAthene: Using earth observation data to tackle the oceans’ plastic pollution from space, taking on marine littering and circular economy.
  • Greenspect Project: Bringing transparency to sustainability claims, to tackle corporate greenwashing and enhancing the fight against climate change.
  • Wisely: Using prediction algorithms to help households to make better use of green energy, winning the public vote.

Visit www.bmu.de/en/code4green for more information.

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