Green is the new black at this year’s Innovation Festival, as Northumbrian Water confirms that solving environmental and carbon issues will be high on the agenda at “The Brilliant Get-Together.”
From the rivers of the North East, to the global climate emergency – nothing is off limits for innovators working at the fifth iteration of the festival, which is taking place next month (OCT).
During the four-day event, innovators from all over the world will be working hard to find solutions to an array of different problems that are threatening our environment.
Under the blanket topics of “Enviro-Warriors” and “Carbon Champions”, the aim of the sprints, hacks and dashes will be to help protect our environment and accelerate our ambitious journey to becoming net zero. This comes after Northumbrian Water were welcomed into the world’s largest alliance on climate change after being approved by the United Nations to become part of its Race To Zero campaign.
Ways the innovators will be doing this, will be by looking at a variety of solutions - such as using sewage analysis to boost community health or seeing how we can reduce plastic pollution in our seas.
One of the sprints will focus specifically on how young people can play their part in tackling climate change, and another will look at eliminating flooding from customers homes.
And leading the way for these sprints are industry-leading experts from massive organisations such as Durham University, The Environment Agency, IBM and Wipro, as well as many others.
Angela MacOscar, Head of Innovation at Northumbrian Water, said: “Environmental and carbon reduction are at the top of everyone’s agenda right now, and every company is working hard to see how they can improve to become more sustainable and reach net zero carbon as soon as they can.
“By using the sprint methodology, we can have loads of different voices, views and ideas in a room together, and you never know what kind of solutions can be discovered. Also, with such giant partners on board, we will come across some of the most forward-thinking innovative minds from across the globe.
“Rest assured the best minds are on it!
“I can’t wait to get stuck into the festival, and I am looking forward to seeing how all of the environmental and carbon sprints develop through the festival and beyond.”
During last year’s festival, sponsors engineering and consulting Wood held a design sprint which looked at creating a real time carbon footprinting digital twin. The output is going through a pilot study at three different treatment works, and will eventually help businesses predict their future footprint.
The Innovation Festival is taking place on October 18-21, and registration is now open. To register, go to - www.innovationfestival.org/the-festival/
Innovation Festival info:
- Innovation Festival 21 is the fifth iteration of the water company’s event.
- The festival will see experts, engineers, academics, scientists and innovation leaders from across the world join the event as it takes place in a hybrid nature for the very first time.
- In total, over 9,000 people have been involved in the previous four Innovation Festivals so far. The 2020 event saw almost 3,000 people come together saw participants from 37 different countries join us.
- Taking place on October 18-21, the festival is expected to see thousands of people get involved in sprints focusing on issues such as net zero, water poverty, customer experience, employee wellness and technology.