3 Competitions:
14 Categories
The Great Environmental Challenges
1 - Fight and Adaptation to Climate Change
Tackling the impacts of climate change and the challenges of adaptation
Global warming, sea level rise, forest fires, desertification, and the permanent modification of the global climate due to natural phenomena resulting from human activities that require actions to reduce fossil fuel dependence, to improve energy efficiency, and to invest in renewable resources. Adapting to climate changes means taking individual and collective measures by corporations, organisations and public administrations, thus offering new opportunities for sustainable development and economic, social and environmental innovations.
2 - Preservation of the Biodiversity
Wildlife and flora conservation, preservation of natural environments and fresh waters
The protection of natural areas as well as fresh water resources are essential for human activities. The continued existence of diversity on Earth necessitates a coherent policy for the preservation of our ecosystem and will allow the flora and fauna to develop, survive and reproduce. This includes the protection of their natural grounds and stopping the degradation of natural beauty (beaches, glaciers, forests, marshes) from overexploitation. Furthermore, this category shows the way for the potential education in ecology and respect for the environment.
The Fields of Ecological Application
3 - The Energy Transition
Solar, wind, sea, geothermal energies, biofuels and biomass
What research, developments and actual undertakings may we find in the field of renewable energies and in efforts to save today's resources? Decisive individual and collective action for sustainable development can be taken to improve energy efficiency and to save natural resources.
4 - Sustainable Agriculture
Green jobs, sustainable agriculture and marine resources, sustainable forest management
Integrated farm management, sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry should work to feed the planet without exhausting the nature. New technologies in the agricultural field concern large segments of the economy : green chemical research, waste recycling, agro-fuels, new cosmetics, and job creation in each field. Sustainable agriculture favours the use of by-products, aims at preserving the soils, and reduces waste products, while the protection and sustainable management of sea resources and forests help reach environmental, social and economic goals.
5 - Housing and Urban Planning
Urban planning, landscapes, fight against sound and light pollution, energy efficiency of buildings
Sustainable building techniques, intelligent housing, green districts, all follow a line of thought that takes into account the valuation of natural resources, social innovation and cultural reality. New eco-technologies create new ways of building: housing of high environmental quality and of low energy consumption, integration of nature into urban areas, all create new types of jobs and are profitable to large segments of industry.
6 - Transport and Eco-mobility
City, rail, road, river, air and sea transportation, inter-modality, intelligent transports
Eco-mobility is the study and development of transports with a lower impact on landscapes and health, through modifications of behaviours: piggyback train services, collective driving, electric/hybrid cars, trams and buses, inland water transports, cycling and walking. Inter-modality combines several types of transportation means, and intelligent transports optimize the use of infrastructures.
7 - Eco-tourism and Responsible Travel
Sustainable Tourism on Land and Water, in Cities and the Countryside
The eco-tourist is a responsible traveller who consciously works to limit his or her impact on the environment: he travels in natural environments where resources and populations are respected. The lone traveller discovers landscapes and eco-systems, creates exchanges with the populations he meets, safeguards the sites. Eco-tourism on rivers or in forests, even rural or urban, is the opposite of mass-tourism.
8 - Sustainable Production and the Circular Economy
Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce our Ecological Footprint in Sustainable Development
Modern methods of production have lead to a growing exploitation of natural resources that affect both the climate and biological diversity. To build a new model of development implies discovering energy-saving production methods that could create potential new economic activity and jobs through the treatment of water and waste, reuse of raw materials, or recycling electronic waste.
9 - Responsible Consumption and Eco-labels
Eco-labelled products, Fair trade, Collective Consumption
To engage in responsible consumption as a consumer means being aware of geographic origin, buying regionally or locally, favouring a label respectful of the environment, promoting fair trade, reducing use of packaging, fighting against over-consumption, using selective waste-sorting, and giving preference to usage over ownership.
Societal Issues
10 - Quality of Life
Quality of life through the protection of the environment, the treatment and quality of water, air and soil, waste management
The impact of human activity on the health of both the public and the environment is an accepted reality. The stress of overpopulation, shortage and pollution of water sources, degradation of soils due to pesticides and intensive agriculture, deforestation, and air pollution due to industrial emissions all negatively affect the health of both humanity and our natural environment.
11 - Organisations and Social Responsibility
The responsibility of corporations and organisations as to their effect on society
The social and environmental commitment of a corporation (CSR) means that corporate leadership integrates social responsibilities in their activities and investments: well-being at work, in-house training, equal opportunities, occupational health, environmental care, respect for the public.
12 - Disability, Diversity, and Solidarity
Fight for Equality in food and energy Security, Respect for diversity, and Against Exclusion
Solidarity, Development, and Humanitarian aid projects all work to relieve human suffering for a wide range of stakeholders and target populations. Often led by NGOs and associations, this work not only helps victims of natural or man-made disasters; it also fights precariousness, illiteracy, poverty, and promotes cultural diversity and education, health-care, access to energy and food.
13 - Innovations and Technological Leaps
The 4th technological revolution for the 3rd millennium
The new technological revolution aims at a sustainable future with a diminished footprint on the environment: bio-sourced resins, eco-materials, biometric ergonomics, nanotechnologies ...These innovations give shape to a sustainable industrial future, and are the roots of a knowledge economy in an inter-connected world of big data.
14 - Demographic Transition
Population growth, Migration, knowledge transmission and Aging
The ageing of western populations on one hand and migratory influx on the other profoundly change every aspect of our societies: economic, environmental and social. For the elderly, this means housing and transportational adaptation, social protection funding for loss of autonomy, specific medical innovations. For refugees, economic and climatic migrants, rural exodus, they need to be welcomed, be given housing and job opportunities and social protection. The intergenerational transmission and preservation of cultural heritage and ancestral lifestyles are also key issues. Finally, the increase of the world population influences the environment; its degradation or its salvation depends on the chosen politics and the actions taken.
