University of Sussex rewards student climate leaders and sustainable entrepreneurs with cash prizes

Six competitors went head-to-head in a Dragons’ Den style challenge at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts this morning, pitching their sustainable innovation ideas in a bid to win a share of £20,000 funding and a place on the Sussex Accelerator scheme to help turn their ideas into reality.

The enterprising entrants were tasked with finding solutions to some of the world’s most difficult problems including reducing energy consumption; carbon capture and/or compensation; reducing water consumption; sustainable education and/or community engagement; protecting or enhancing biodiversity; sustainable food and/or agriculture; or sustainable travel.

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Three other students received COP Climate Leader Prizes worth £3,000 each in recognition of their outstanding climate leadership in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow in November.

Professor Rachel Mills, Provost at the University of Sussex, said: "I was really impressed by the passion, ambition and innovation in the pitches that were presented today and the quality of candidates for our Climate Leader scholarships. It is inspiring to see how committed our students are to delivering real change around our sustainability goals.

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"The University's vision to be one of the most sustainable in the world is powered by our staff and students and I am delighted that we can support the next generation of sustainability champions with these Climate Leader scholarships.

"It will be very exciting to see the Pitch for the Planet projects develop and deliver things that are hugely beneficial for our campus community and beyond."

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The winners of the second Pitch for the Planet competition are:

Kimia Goudarzi (£8,000) to create a rental and repair business for pre-loved clothes

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Timothy Merritt and Daniela Valenzuela (£5,000) to create a social initiative supporting fruit and nut tree planting along Sussex riverbanks

Samuel Gandy and Victoria Yates (£4,000) to develop AI technology that identifies and counts species and wildlife living in an ecosystem

Jack Zeniewski (£3,000) to grow and harvest microgreens for food

The winning pitches were selected by a judging panel including University of Sussex Provost Professor Rachel Mills, Brighton and Hove City Council leader Cllr Phélim Mac Cafferty, Impact Entrepreneur and Mentor Sara Osterholzer and University of Sussex Council member Richard Zaltzman.

At the inaugural Pitch for the Planet competition, held in January last year, the University awarded funding to projects to projects developing bio char fertiliser, hydroponic fishtank food production, sustainable fashion and the gamification of sustainable behaviour change.

Pitch for the Planet winner Jack Zeniewski said: "I think this is a great opportunity to turn a vision into a reality. It would be fantastic to see these power plants appear in all kinds of places, the idea is as big as we can make it.

"Pitch for the planet is a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs like me to meet with others and feed off of one another’s ideas. It’s a great way to get feedback and test what works."

Pitch for the Planet winner Samuel Gandy said: "It is an incredible feeling to have won, I’m speechless. It is very exciting to think that we could help and hopefully solve the critical issue of preserving biodiversity in Sussex and the UK.

"This funding is massive for us. It will allow us to get the servers we need to process all the data. It’s just great that we presented the idea to four people we never met before and they liked the idea too."

The three winners of the COP Climate Leader Prizes worth £3,000 each are:

Temilade Salami – Founder of EcoChampions, a group of 200 young environmentalists across Nigeria, leading climate education, tree planting and climate change advocacy.