Matosinhos City Council was part of the national competition jury
The Beat the Butt, E-Gravity and WindCredible projects are the big winners of the ClimateLaunchpad national final, a competition that included the Matosinhos City Council on the jury.
The three projects will represent Portugal in the European final, which will take place in September in an online format.
It is the world's largest competition for business ideas that aim to reduce environmental impact.
In Portugal, ClimateLaunchpad is organized by UPTEC, LIPOR, Portuguese Pact for Plastics and Smart Waste Portugal. In the five previous editions, the initiative has already supported 64 teams/ideas.
The three national projects will have access to free incubation at UPTEC for four months, present the business idea to Faber's ocean/climate investment fund; access Grosvenor training in the areas of impact, sustainability or investment opportunities; access special conditions offered by the Municipality of Matosinhos; obtain training at the Order of Engineers – North Region, each worth 1000 euros; receive support from Patentree in defining the intellectual property strategy; and one of the projects will also benefit from consulting from Innovayt to define the company's financing strategy.
In the European grand final, more than 40 projects from all over Europe will be present, which will compete for access to the Global Grand Final, as well as regional awards in categories such as Urban Solutions, Clean Energy, Circular Economies, among others.
The Beat the Butt project promises to end cigarette butts in the environment. For this purpose, he created a small box that will keep, in a clean and odorless way, the end of each cigarette. The kiosks and filling stations will then have specific locations so that each person can empty their small box when buying a new pack.
E-Gravity, on the other hand, created a way to store large amounts of energy, through batteries with a capacity of more than one megawatt hour (1MWh). These giant batteries are charged by their upward movement, transforming it into electrical energy. E-Gravity batteries, which can be created with construction waste – as they are heavy – are an alternative to chemical batteries and, therefore, more sustainable.
Finally, WindCredible — which also won the Climate Heroes Award — is creating small-scale wind turbines, made from recycled materials from electric vehicles, that can be placed in a variety of locations, including in an urban environment. This product will generate more renewable energy and thus also lower the cost of energy.