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The Innovate or Die contest challenged participants to create a pedal-powered solution for offsetting climate change. There were 100+ qualified entries submitted via YouTube.
One of the comp judges Rich Silverstein, founding partner at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, said: “It’s up to the next generation to solve the mess we find ourselves in today. The success of the Innovate or Die competition gives me confidence that they have the imagination and creativity to succeed.”
Aquaduct was the brainchild of five California-based design students who wanted to address the 1.1 billion people in the world who don’t have access to clean drinking water. The pedal-powered machine transports and filters water without burning fossil fuels or wood, both of which contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions.
All of the comp winners receive Specialized Globe bicycles. Specialized and Google have already partnered to equip Google’s main Mountain View campus with 350 Globes.
Specialized founder and president Mike Sinyard said: “We will continue partnering with businesses, non-profits and city governments to implement bike-share programs with the like-minded goal of decreasing CO2 emissions. Let’s all get out of our cars and onto bikes.”
Dan Reicher, director of Climate and Energy Initiatives for Google.org and former US Assistant Secretary of Energy, and a competition judge, said:
"The diversity, creativity and potential impact of the proposals was impressive. I was interested to see if bicycle powered technologies could help address global problems like climate change and water pollution. These proposals convinced me that human brainpower can harness muscle power to help solve some of our biggest environmental challenges."
