Saving the climate with worms and bikes:European summer school program on climate protection and climate innovation

20 September 2017, by Anna Priebe

Photo: UHH/CEN/Wolf

Elias De Keyser and his summer school team visited Hamburg from 30 July to 12 August.

In July and August more than 300 young scientists from all over Europe participated in The Journey Summer School Program. Eight teams developed business solutions addressing the challenges of climate change. They worked in different locations with experts from science and business, i.e., at the Cluster of Excellence „Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction“ (CliSAP) and the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN). The final presentation was held in September in Riga with all participants. Two students tell us about their experience.

Elias De Keyser (23) from Belgium is getting his master’s degree in the Energy for Smart Cities (InnoEnergy) Program at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona. His summer school team visited Hamburg from 30 July to 12 August.

You visited Hamburg for the summer school program. What was program like?

Hamburg was the first stop of our five-week journey. Before you can come up with business ideas to tackle climate change, it is important to understand the issue thoroughly. Through a series of lectures and breakout sessions, experts from CEN and CliSAP gave us a crash course in topics like urban heat islands, sustainable agriculture, circular economy, climate risks, etc. One of my favorite moments in Hamburg was the visit to Wilhelmsburg, where we saw how innovation, sustainability, and urban planning can go hand in hand. I was very impressed by the Energy Bunker, a former WW2 air-raid shelter that has become the heart of a sustainable neighborhood, providing clean district heating and renewable electricity. Last but not least, we met with entrepreneurs and received training in sustainable business models. The story behind Katé, a lemonade made from a waste stream of coffee production, gave me and my team inspiration for our own business proposal.

Where else did you and your group go apart from Hamburg and what kind of business solution did you create?

Next up was London, where we were hosted by Imperial College. The focus turned towards developing our business ideas. My team and I decided to use organic kitchen waste as the nutrient supply for a hydroponic indoor farm. Using worms to process the waste into compost (this is known as “vermicomposting”), you get a “worm tea”, a liquid rich in nutrients, which is subsequently fed into the water circulation of the hydroponic farm. This way, you can grow a lot of fresh leafy greens like spinach in a very small area. This method does not require pesticides or herbicides, most of the water is being reused, and crops can be grown year-round. Our team is strongly convinced that conventional agricultural practices cannot feed the planet’s growing population and with our solution we aim to bring agriculture to the 21st century.

Our final stop was Riga, where we finalized our business plan and presented our idea in front of a jury in the elevator pitch competition. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but I am still very proud of what my team and I have achieved in such a short period of time!

What did you get out of the summer school program?

Most importantly, I gained a group of friends from around Europe who I know will support me in my future projects. I also learned that it is very important to envision which particular climate change related issue you want to tackle. Start-ups are a business form which allow quick innovation, but only when the limited resources are used for a focused goal.

Maria Esther Caballero Espejo (25) is from Peru and is getting her master’s degree in Integrated Climate System Sciences at Universität Hamburg. She and her group visited Paris and Dublin for the summer school program.

Where did your group go for the summer school program and what kind of business solution did you create?

Our journey began in Paris. Two weeks later we went to Dublin and finally, in the last week, we had the pitch competition in Riga. During the five weeks we worked towards business solutions on the Climate KIC 4. The thematic areas were decision netrics and finance, sustainable land use, urban transition and sustainable productions systems. In our business plan my team addressed particularly the last two areas. We created Up-cycle, a bicycle with an environmental and social background that is to be produced in Peru. This product is made of recycled plastic from Peru and combines sustainable bike production with an emission reduction of 200kg CO2 per bike. This has positive social impact for the waste collector’s families and the transition to a more sustainable transportation system in Lima.

What do you get out of the summer school program?

I have a bachelor’s degree in meteorology and in the SICSS program I am combining the natural and social sciences. My goal is to gain better understanding of the climate system and to find adaptation and mitigation strategies to deal with the climate problem. Since the causes and consequences of climate change are social, we as climate scientists need to find solutions in that arena. For me all the training on international negotiations, climate justice, sustainability, circular economy, and business are crucial and it has an impact on master’s thesis where I am planning to take an integrated approach.

Are you planning to work in the field of climate innovation and if so, what would you like to do?

Yes, I am. The next thing is to build upon what I learned in summer school for my master’s thesis, for which I want to focus on sustainable land use. My idea is to combine climate information with decision making for rural communities in developing countries. I believe that all the training and knowledge I am acquiring thanks to the European Union and Universität Hamburg can be applied to achieve the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. The key is smart climate risk management. I will start working on my community, Pucará, a rural town in the central Andes of Peru, where I am going to apply Integrated Assessment on Climate-Smart Sustainable Land Use for the first time. It is time to put an end to business as usual and create new possibilities from simple but strong ideas.