The attendees were presented with a problem statement that challenged them to lay out a vision for sustainable and circular economy opportunities in Balbriggan.
With over 40 people split into 6 teams, they got straight to work brainstorming ideas and developing them throughout the day. The Balbriggan team identified a strong and diverse mentor panel for the day that gave their time and advice to the teams to help form and evolve their ideas and keep them on track.
Following on from the working groups, the teams were given 4 minutes each to pitch their ideas to the team of judges and the audience.
The teams came up with very creative ideas and team names in the process!
Team Circulate – Installation of environmental monitoring censors in industrial zones to collect data and create a baseline. Simplify the data and present to the local authority. Hold businesses accountable with data and produce actionable insights to ensure sustainability and a healthy environment.
Team Community Hub – Creating accessible spaces for physical activity, training, and community engagement.
Team BART – Balbriggan Area Rapid Transport
Team Balbriggan Youth Council – Empowering Youth Through the Circular Economy.
Team Fiji – Filter In Jobs In, A dashboard run by data analysts using selected variables to benchmark companies applying to do business in the Stephenstown Industrial Zone in Balbriggan, which will be an Eco industrial park.
Team Circ_it! – Enabling businesses to connect to the circular economy.
After some very impressive pitches, the judges were given the difficult task of a selecting a winner. After much deliberation, they chose to award first prize to team Circ_it! for their idea of creating a web platform that enables businesses to connect and sell waste by-products as raw materials.
How will this work?
- Businesses subscribe and establish their business profile.
- The business then receives a circularity gap-analysis.
- Circ_it! Then matches one businesses waste products as a resource for another business.
Team Balbriggan will take all these ideas on board and explore opportunities for implementation working together with the teams.