Breakout Sessions
In the autumn of 2012, the Climate CoLab opened up 18 contests, each focused on a challenge the world is facing as we confront climate change. From nearly 400 submissions, 28 proposals were chosen by our expert teams of judges and by the Climate CoLab community as winners, and were invited to present -- either in person or virtually -- at the Crowds and Climate conference. After their presentation, a panel of experts provided advice on how these proposals can be successfully implemented.
The winners presented in Wednesday and Thursday breakout sessions, and conference delegates chose one breakout session to attend each day.
| Wednesday, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm | Thursday, 9:30 am - 11:00 am |
Scaling Renewables & Replacing Diesel
Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Room: 407, 4th floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
Justin Guay, Associate Director, International Climate Program, Sierra Club (Moderator)
Nicola Armocost, Managing Director and Co-founder, Arc Finance
Christina Becker-Birck, Senior Consultant, Meister Consultants Group
Scaling Renewables in Major Emerging Economies Winners
How can renewable technologies be rapidly deployed in the major emerging economies?
From the Crowd to the Base: Crowdfunding for Local Climate Action
Konrad Ritter, Diann Black-Layne
Crowdfunding channeled through Microfinance gives urban and rural poor access to renewable energy to transform lives.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Fish River River Hydro Scheme
Peter Jordaan, Magun Janietzche
A run-of-river hydroelectric system with a novel new approach that fundamentally differs from the standard hydro methodology.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Replacing Diesel Generation Winner
What actions and/or policies can encourage large-scale deployment of commercially viable renewable energy sources to replace stationary diesel generators?
Replacing the use of diesel pumps in agriculture
Amitabha Sadangi
Replacing diesel pump use for irrigation by promoting Treadle Pumps and preparing a toolkit for capacity building.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Building Efficiency & Waste Management
Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Room: 491, 4th floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
William Moomaw, Professor, Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Moderator)
John Breier, Associate Scientist, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Kent Portney, Professor, Tufts University Political Science
Stephen Hammer, Lead Urban Specialist, World Bank's Urban Development and Resilience Unit
John Fernandez, Associate Professor, MIT Architecture
Building Efficiency Winners
How can greenhouse gas emissions from buildings be reduced?
Smart LED Streetlamps system through the implementation of mesh networks
Hector Bracamontes
Streetlamps are part of the city's street furniture. Their Electricity consumption represents a high percentage of a small-size city budget.
Read the proposal
EE-based Formalization
UNDP Montenegro - Millie Begovic Radojevic and Sanni Tajudeen Olamilekan
Using energy efficiency as an incentive for formalization of illegal buildings in Montenegro.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Waste Management Winner
How can emissions from waste disposal be reduced?
Mission 2030 - Zero Construction Renovation Demolition Waste to Landfill by 2030
CRI Council - Renee Gratton
This call-to-action is a change management initiative, to change how the building industry views and deals with waste and other resources.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Reducing Consumption & Local Solutions
Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Room: Mezzanine, 3rd floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
James D. Nail, President, Interfaith Power & Light (Moderator)
Pasi Miettinen, President and CEO, Sagewell, Inc.
Valerie Karplus, Director, MIT-Tsinghua China Energy and Climate Project
Carlos Espinoza-Toro, Community Organizer, Institute for Policy Studies & Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition
Reducing Consumption Winners
How can we reduce consumption of greenhouse-emitting goods and services?
Whose Home is wasting more energy, yours or your neighbours?
Geoff Hay
FREE personalized HEAT Scores, HEAT Maps, Hot Spots, GHG estimates and waste-heat comparisons/competitions for homes, communities & cities.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Reimagine prosperity; reframe sustainability; reshape consumerism
Peggy Liu and Chenyu Zheng
Shape & activate a more attractive aspirational lifestyle that is innately sustainable for the emergent middle class in China.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Local Solutions Winner
What can be done at the local level to address climate change?
Transition Lab: Scalable Resilience Education and Models for New Local Economies
Transition Lab - Russell Evans and Jake Hanson
A replicable grassroots education teaching the skills and mindset for local resilience, powered by new and viable economic models.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Enabling Adaptation & Adaptation by Civil Society
Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Room: 20 Chimneys, 3rd floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
Henry Jacoby, Professor of Applied Economics, MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (Moderator)
Eric Gordon, Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College
Sergej Mahnovski, Director, NYC Mayor's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability
Lucia Grenna, Program Manager, World Bank's Connect4Climate
Enabling Adaptation Winners
How can businesses, governments, and individuals coordinate to ensure the implementation of effective domestic and international strategies to prepare for the effects of climate change?
Building consensus, enabling adaptation: facilitating collective risk management
Danya Rumore, Lawrence Susskind, Patrick Field, and Carri Hulet
Here's a collaborative approach that at-risk communities can use to move forward with adaptation. Help us implement it!
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Photovoice for Vulnerability: Disaster Adaptation in Central Philippines
Yanjun Cai
Empower the disadvantaged community through participatory photography to reveal unheard vulnerability and form adaptation capacity.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Adaptation by Civil Society Winners
What role will civil society actors play in climate adaptation?
George Hops Farmers Association Climate Adaptation & Resilience Programme
Nicci Diederichs
Hops production is threatened by climate change. Farmers must adapt to secure the benefits of their enterprise.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Steps to an Ecology of Mind -- Climate Change Impact/Adaptation Strategy in Africa
Monika dos Santos
Africa contributes the least of any continent to global warming. People living on the continent are in line to be the hardest hit.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Transportation Efficiency
Wednesday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Room: Private Dining Room 1&2, Third Floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
Chris Caplice, Executive Director, MIT Center for Transport & Logistics (Moderator)
Nancy Pfund, Founder and Managing Partner, DBL Investors
Carol Lee Rawn, Director, Transportation Programs at Ceres, Inc.
Paolo Santi, Visiting Researcher, MIT SENSEable City Lab; Senior researcher at the National Research Council Institute of Informatics and Telematics
Transportation Efficiency Winners
How can CO2 emissions from the world's transportation be reduced?
Smart Mobility for the 21st Century
Galen Wilkerson
A bottom-up mobility-centered approach, to simply get individuals from A to B by intelligently using available data and mobile devices.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Open CarPool - Open Source for Efficient Commute
Clemens Rath
A simple open source framework for carpools within companies reduces traffic in daily commute and fosters ridesharing acceptance.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Electric Power Sector
Thursday, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Room: Main Dining Room, Religious Activities Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
David W. Cash, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (Moderator)
Robert Armstrong, Director, MIT Energy Initiative
Jacopo Buongiorno, Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT
Jay Kesner, Senior Scientist, MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Electric Power Sector Winners
What can be done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the electric power sector?
Spontaneous Conversion of Power Plant CO2 to Dissolved Calcium Bicarbonate
Greg Rau, Ken Caldeira and Phil Renforth
As in SO2 mitigation, spontaneously remove CO2 from power plant flue gas using wet limestone scrubbing.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Integral Fast Reactors Can Power The Planet
Tom Blees
Mass-producible integral fast reactor modules can power every country on earth for nearly a millennium with waste products already at hand.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
It's the 21st Century. Where's My Fusion Reactor?
Dennis Peterson
Cheap, practical fusion may be closer than you think.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Urban Adaptation: Climate Resilient Cities
Thursday, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Room: 20 Chimneys, 3rd floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
Michael Steinhoff, Senior Program Officer, ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) US (Moderator)
Bina Venkataraman, Senior Advisor on Climate Change Innovation, Executive Office of the President of the United States
Julia Knisel, Coastal Shoreline and Floodplain Manager, Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management
Christina Becker-Birck, Senior Consultant, Meister Consultants Group
Urban Adaptation: Climate Resilient Cities Winners
How can cities become more resilient to the challenges brought on by climate change?
Seasonal Migration Routes Identification System and Workshops: A New Strategy
Michaël Houle
Prepare Vietnamese cities' housing infrastructures for potential seasonal migrants influx from Cà Mau and Kiên Giang provinces, Vietnam.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Integral GIS - A conceptual framework for participatory adaptation planning
Lynn Rosentrater
A planning approach that uses common tools in innovative ways to communicate about climate change and facilitate adaptation decision-making.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Agriculture and Forestry & Reducing Consumption
Thursday, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Room: Private Dining Room 1&2, 3rd floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
Peter Frumhoff, Director of Science and Policy, Union of Concerned Scientists (Moderator)
Jock Herron, Smart Cities and Wellness Project, Harvard University
Christina Ingersoll, Committee on Sustainability Assessment
Agriculture & Forestry Winners
Which activities can best reduce climate impacts and enhance resilient adaptation to climate change in agriculture and forestry?
Woody Agriculture: Breeding & Implementing Hazelnut & Chestnut as Staple Crops
Badgersett Research - Brandon Rutter-Daywater, Jonah Adels, and Sabina Peters-Daywater
Woody Agriculture converts annual cropland to staple-food-producing woody plants, capturing 3 times the carbon. It's time to scale it up.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Nicaragua: Carbon Sink, Economic Driver & Medicinal Plant Preservation
Cecalli - Pia Jensen and Alejandro Floripe
Poverty stricken & war torn, Nicaragua's people strive for healthy environs & Cecalli has ambitious plans to improve life via reforestation.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Reducing Consumption Winner
How can we reduce consumption of greenhouse-emitting goods and services?
Cool Food - empowering climate friendly food choices on a daily basis
Cool Food - Viv Baker, Gerard Bisshop, Diana Donlon, and Francesca Allievi
A "Cool Food" rating system indicating climate and other impacts would empower consumers to choose climate-friendly foods.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
Geoengineering & Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking)
Thursday, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Room: Coffeehouse Lounge, 3rd floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
Andrew Rosenberg, Director of the Center for Science and Democracy, Union of Concerned Scientists (Moderator)
Donald R. Lessard, Professor of International Management, Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management
John Quigley, Former Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Andrew Revkin, Pace University Senior Fellow, NY Times Dot Earth Blogger
Geoengineering Winner
What climate-engineering initiatives might be feasible, especially to avoid methane feedbacks caused by global warming?
Saving the Planet, v2.0
Greg Rau, Ken Caldeira, and Max Platzer
Interested in air CO2 removal, carbon-negative fuel, saving the ocean, and redrawing the global energy map? Come to this session.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking) Winner
What can be done to measure, monitor and reduce the climate impacts of increased oil and gas production spurred by hydraulic fracturing (fracking)?
Methane-sniffing drones with distributed mobile sensors!
Ocean Foresters - Mark Capron and Clifford Goudey
States require drillers to "buy" wasted fuels from gas utilities. The utilities deploy methane-sniffing drones and mobile sensors.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
(John Dowse, author of the Judges' Choice Winner for this contest, is unable to join us for the conference. We encourage you to read his proposal, Dual purpose fracking: increased fracking will create sites for CO2 sequestration. The gas/oil piping will be suitable for CO2 once the well is largely exhausted.)
Shifting Public Perceptions on Climate Change
Thursday, 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Room: Mezzanine, 3rd floor, Stratton Student Center
Watch the session recording on YouTube!
Panelists:
Geoff Feinberg, Director, Yale Project on Climate Change Communications (Moderator)
Cynthina McHale, Director Insurance Program, CERES
Jeff Orkin, Co-founder, Giant Otter Technologies
Lucia Grenna, Program Manager, World Bank's Connect4Climate
Shifting Public Perceptions on Climate Change Winners
What can be done to shift cultural attitudes on climate change to inspire action?
Sunk Investment Map: Show the Personal Property Impacts of Climate Change
Keith Brower Brown
Let's make climate change personal--with a map to show Americans how floods, storms and wildfire could impact their homes and businesses.
Read the proposal | Watch their video | See their story
CliO - A Virtual Green Pet that Responds With Low-Carbon Lifestyle Choices
Yale FES - Rebeka Ryvola, Bo Uuganbayar, Rocio Sanz, Angel Hsu, and Vrinda Manglik
Meet CliO! A virtual green pet who responds with your low-carbon lifestyle choices.
Read the proposal | Watch their video
