1000 solutions that protect the environment in a profitable way - the countdown has begun!

Following the success of the first solar flight around the world, we are back in mission mode, and as promised we are taking our first for energy further!

We today held the Constituent Assembly for the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions. A major milestone for the team, which has been working hard to make this event - the first stop-over of our new pioneering journey - a success! We now have  exactly one year to demonstrate that clean and efficient technologies work, not only in the air, but also on the ground. That they are profitable for people, the planet and the industry. And that they would make sense, even without climate change.

“We need to embrace efficient solutions, because they are much more than ‘ecological’, they are ‘logical’. They create jobs and generate profit, while also reducing CO2 emissions and protecting the environment. Clean growth is much better than the dirty status quo we have today,” emphasized Bertrand Piccard.

To achieve this, Bertrand launched the challenge of selecting #1000solutions that we can guarantee are both clean and profitable. While we used to have an airplane: Solar Impulse 2, to put clean technologies to the test, we now have a World Alliance. And just as the airplane belonged to everyone, the World Alliance is not ours - it belongs to its Members! Start-ups, companies, investors, governments, institutions and more, all working together creating synergies that can fast-track the implementation of Efficient Solutions.

“Today, thousands of solutions exist that can boost economic growth while preserving nature, but they remain unknown to decision makers and are not implemented at industry level,” added Bertrand Piccard. “Our goal is to bring them to governments and corporations to demonstrate that they must urgently stop compromising for minimal targets.”

So, how does it work? Well in a nutshell - members that have joined submit solutions that are then be appraised by independent scientific and financial experts following a structured methodology to assess their deployability, sustainability and viability. This will then inform the selection of the #1000 Efficient Solutions by the World Alliance team. And all this is offered entirely free of charge, thanks to the support of the Solar Impulse Foundation and its partners.

At present, the World Alliance already counts 474 members that together combine more than 500 potential solutions, ranging from deep water offshore turbines, solar desalination plants, containers to transform organic waste into energy, air filters that capture C02 emissions and turn them into renewable fuels, hydrogen-based devices that can be added on cars to increase fuel efficiency, to free electric car chargers.

But back to our event…. Our first ever General Assembly! It included two panel discussions: a high level institutional panel on the theme of “Taking it further” focusing on the steps taken to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement, and a Members panel on “Building a global network” discussing the synergy potential of federating diverse stakeholders towards a common goal.

It was attended by Patricia Espinosa, Executive secretary of UNFCCC; Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission; as well as Ministers and other representatives of high level institutions and many Members the World Alliance who officially adopted its statutes, and concluded with the launch of the 1000 solutions challenge, with H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, starting the countdown on stage.

Before the curtain was pulled down, Bertrand Piccard concluded: “History is not what is behind us when we look back. History is what is in front of us when we look forward and we write the world together! We can improve the quality of life on Earth.”

Through this new initiative - the launch of the World Alliance and the quest of #1000 Efficient Solutions - a new innovative and pioneering adventure has begun.