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Specialized Bicycles and Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco Bay Area have teamed up with Google to create the Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Contest.
This contest challenges participants to create a pedal-powered solution for offsetting climate change. The same amount of energy that it would take a person to walk at 3 mph, would allow them to travel at 10–15 mph by bicycle.
“We believe in the power of the bicycle,” said Specialized’s founder and president Mike Sinyard.
“We believe that the bicycle can be a self-powered solution for reversing global warming, improving the environment and making the world a better place for future generations.”
In order to do his part in the fight against global warming, Sinyard, along with Specialized employees and select dealers, will be riding the 600-plus miles from Specialized’s HQ in Morgan Hill, California, to Interbike in Las Vegas, Nevada, in five days.
The Innovate or Die Pedal-Powered Machine Contest invites folks to to post videos on YouTube that document and detail their pedal powered solutions. Winning entries will be selected by a panel of judges. Prizes include $5000 cash and Specialized Globe bicycles to the top entries. The contest closes on December 15th, with winners announced on January 15, 2008.
"As a student in art school, I was always inspired by design competitions that had an open call for entries,” said Rich Silverstein, founding partner of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.
“Now it is our turn to inspire the next generation of designers and engineers. Thanks to the combined strength of our three companies, we can challenge these young adults to help save our planet with imagination and ingenuity."
Dan Reicher, director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives for Google, said:
"We need new ideas and a new generation thinking about the issues surrounding climate change and possible solutions. This contest will encourage young people to think about their impact on the environment and to take a different approach. I look forward to seeing how people from around the world put their pedals to work.”
This isn’t the first time Google has promoted the use of bicycles. In March, Google gifted its 9000 staff in Europe with vouchers to buy bicycles.
