The Climate Reality Project and Global Shapers Community Partnership

As winners of the 2020 Climate Project Grant Challenge, the Bucharest Hub received a $10,00 grant distributed by the Global Shapers Community and mentorship and implementation support from Climate Reality for their project, "IntreVecini" (Between Neighbours).

The hub installed solar panels on a block of flats that will cover energy costs for 60 apartments. They also hosted six sustainability-related activities in the community to encourage engagement and local buy-in of the project and designed and released a first-of-its-kind guide accessible to Romanians on “How to Become a Prosumer in a Block of Flats.” The hub received additional funding from another source to expand their impact to 10 new communities.

As winners of the 2022 Climate Project Grant Challenge, the Rio de Janeiro Hub received a $10,000 grant distributed by the Global Shapers Community and mentorship and implementation support from Climate Reality for their project, “Agroecology and Climate Change in the Favelas.” In partnership with community members, the hub established five keyhole gardens across four territories in Rio de Janeiro and mobilized the reactivation and maintenance of several additional community gardens and mobile greenhouses.

Three thousand food seedlings were planted through their activities, strengthening the nutritional diversity of the participating communities’ diets. The hub designed community engagement activities in three favelas, a quilombo, a residents’ association and a public school to mobilize over 150 youth and adults to learn about keyhole garden maintenance. To encourage replication of their project, the hub trained eight other Brazil and Colombia hubs on their methodology and two were selected to receive grants to replicate the keyhole gardens in their territories.

As winners of the 2022 Climate Project Grant Challenge, the Cotonou Hub received a $10,000 grant distributed by the Global Shapers Community and mentorship and implementation support from Climate Reality for their project, “Green Fashion Hackathon and Incubation.” The project encouraged innovation, creation, and production of clothing from recycled or used materials and alternative eco-responsible methods.

The hub received 70 applications to the program, 35 projects were shortlisted, and 11 teams selected to participate in the hackathon in May 2023. During the final incubation, seven teams were shortlisted and provided comprehensive individual coaching and live lectures with professionals from the industry. Three finalists received awards of between $400-$1,000 to prototype and launch their eco-responsible and ethical fashion accessories on the market. The hub’s project was such an influential initiative that The National State Agency for Innovation Development has launched a similar call for an incubation for innovators in the textile industry to take place in 2024.

As participants in the 2021 Climate Reality Project Incubator and winners of the 2022 Climate Project Challenge on UpLink, the Bhutan Hub received a total of $13,000 in grants distributed by the Global Shapers Community and mentorship and implementation support from Climate Reality to pilot and scale their project, “Bhutan Climate Futures Lab.”

They trained 182 participants from 7 educational institutions on developing civic engagement skills, storytelling, design thinking, and negotiation for climate action. During the second phase of the project, they ran an incubation lab over 2 weekends, on storytelling, eco-innovation, and dialogue and knowledge creation on climate change and climate action. 21 project teams applied to the incubation lab and 12 were selected to attend the program. 6 grants totalling about $4,100 were awarded for the project teams to implement their climate action projects.