ChangeNow 2020: SIF starts the #DecadeOfAction

The Solar Impulse Foundation was at Change NOW to present technologies from the #1000solutions portfolio but also to scout for new innovations.

The Solar Impulse Foundation kicked off 2020 in high gear at Change NOW, the premier event for innovations that seek to protect the environment and improve quality of life on earth. Held at the stunning Grand Palais in Paris, this third edition showcased solutions to 20’000 attendees from over 100 countries.

25 Solar Impulse Efficient Solutions from 9 countries were on display or pitching their clean technologies during the Summit - a small but diverse sample that highlighted their tremendous ecological and economic potential.

Bertrand Piccard opened the event with a call for innovation to serve as the driving force against climate change. He then handed off to Boyan Slat, founder of The Ocean Cleanup and inventor of the Interceptor - a newly labelled Solar Impulse Efficient solution that will inhabit some of the planet’s major rivers, capturing plastic waste before it ever reaches the ocean, where it becomes far more difficult to deal with. Entirely scalable and easily deployed, this solution matches perfectly with the objectives of the solutions that make up the portfolio of Solar Impulse efficient solutions.

Thanks to the support of its partners - Air Liquide, BNP Paribas and ENGIE - the Solar Impulse Foundation hosted 3 events as part of Change NOW:

• An Expert Challenge gathering 70 experts from across the Solar Impulse community. These events aim to have experts assess as many solutions as possible, with some 60 assessed in this 7th edition.
• For the first time, we ran a Solutions Coaching session where we accompanied innovators as they set out to apply for the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label. We managed to support 49 new innovators to complete their application and submit their solution for assessment.
• Finally the Foundation and the aforementioned partners celebrated their participation to this “World Expo” of Innovations for the Planet by hosting an exclusive cocktail that brought together the Solar Impulse network present at Change Now. A friendly, informal moment where innovators and experts had the occasion to engage with the Solar Impulse team members as well as corporate and political representatives.

On the back of this success, the Solar Impulse Foundation aims to engage in many other major cleantech events around the world throughout the year.

Make sure to submit your solution as soon as possible if you want to participate as representative of the #1000solutions portfolio.