This weekend Sydney’s best entrepreneurs, design thinkers, engineers and creatives came together over 48 hours to tackle the big issues of food sustainability and how best to harness the renewables revolution at WWF-Australia’s first ‘Designathon’.

In a marathon of thinking and design, the 65 participants in 13 teams, were asked to consider; How do we feed nine billion people on a planet that is using up 1.5 planets worth of resources? And how do we make sure the renewables revolution is accessible to everyone – not just the rich?

Teams were supported by 20 industry mentors and pitched their prototypes, designs and models to a panel of 6 industry leading judges including: Kate Smither (Saatchi & Saatchi), Piers Grove (Energy Lab), and Climate Change Lawyer, Joanna Zhou.

Winners included ‘Xpeerience’ – offering an innovative microfinance scheme offering $1000 low interest loans for energy efficiency for vulnerable communities, ‘Sprout’ – an online platform where individuals can invest in rooftop urban farms, ‘Green Basket’ – simplifying and incentivising the process of choosing sustainable food at the supermarket, and ‘Supper Hero’ – aiming to reduce food waste in the home and reward sustainable practice.

WWF-Australia CEO, Dermot O’Gorman, said, “There’s no doubt that we face some tough challenges with climate change and food security, so we threw this challenge out to the entrepreneur and design-thinking community, and I must say we’re very impressed with the results.”

“We’re excited to see how these prototypes develop. And we’ll be working with the newly formed startups to explore market viability.”

“Working together is the answer. Ultimately, we’ll achieve more by partnering, sharing, empowering communities and building a movement for the environment.”

The event was hosted by WWF-Australia in the lead up to the Sustainable Development Goals conference, due to take place at the University of Sydney Business school on the 29th & 30th November.

Photo: © WWF-Aus/Candice Marshall