Climathon in Lund 2023 was organized 7-8 November by Lund University. This yearly event have been growing steadily for the last years, both when it comes to number of participants and to the general quallity of the event. Compared to the previous Climathons in Lund the 2023 edition was more of everything! At the event there were:

• 80+ Participants hacking solutions
• 30+ Experts, helpers, coaches and others
• 30+ Nationalities were represented by the participants
• 18 solutions were presented by as many teams

There were five challenge partners contributing with a very diverse set of challenges:

• Northvolt - How can we build and operate a new giga factory with the lowest possible environmental impact?
• Tetra Pak - What is the concept of a home bioreactor?
• Sparbanken Skåne - How can companies offset their carbon footprint at a local level
• Kraftringen - How can it become a business opportunity for an energy company to help energy consumers to use less energy and to use energy smarter?
• Alfa Laval - How can customers be motivated to choose more climate friendly products even though they are more expensive?

For this year there was a new format for the Climathon. In order to be able to involve employees from the partner companies in the teams the event needed to be help during office hours. Therefor a two day concept was created. In the end 14 of the 80+ participants were employees. 

The vent was held at Baxter who provided a great and very roomy venue. 

The winning teams were:

Heat Share
Winner of Northvolt challenge
Heat Share plans to convert manufacturing waste heat from Northvolts gigafactory into a valuable resource for the second most populous city in Canada. Making use of the heat for distric heating will reduce costs and risks and drive the transition to sustainable energy sources.  
 

The Heat Share team together with Lorena Sánchez Moreno from Northvolt

Alla Circular
Alfa Laval challenge
Alla Circular proposes a circular business model to tackle sustainability challenges, offering reduced prices to customers in exchange for product return at the end of a leasing period, ensuring loyalty, minimizing environmental impact through steel reuse, and providing ongoing product oversight and maintenance.

The Alla Circular team

EcoLight
Kraftringen challenge
EcoLight simplifies energy conservation by signaling users, particularly retirees, with a red light during high-demand times and a green light during low-demand times, encouraging appropriate appliance usage to save on electricity costs.

Presenting the Eco Light solution

Biomassive Brains
Tetra Pak challenge
Biomassive Brains proposes a community-based biomass fermentation station with a subscription model, allowing users like college students to collectively produce cost-effective meat alternatives using shared equipment.

Presenting the solution of Biomassive Brains

Biosolution
Sparbanken Skåne challenge
Biosolution wants to strategically restore, manage, and expand existing wetlands and forests, unlocking their carbon capture potential to offset emissions for local businesses. Beyond environmental gains, this approach offers community benefits, including flood prevention, new recreational spaces, and minimized soil erosion.

The Biosolution team with Jonathan Wessman from Sparbanken Skåne

Local CO2
Sparbanken Skåne challenge
Local CO2 wants to utilize biocoal as a regional CO2 offset method to address Scope 3 environmental aspects of lending money, investing in local biocoal production to secure CO2 offsets while engaging residential customers in visible and tangible urban biocoal initiatives, allowing the bank to communicate its commitment to sustainability.

Presenting the Local CO2 solution (together with Biosolution to the right on stage)