A National Participant Call for the acceleration programme ICLEI Innovation It was released this Tuesday (21/07).

The call for entries aims to select innovative teams, startups, products, services and processes in the urban forestry or green spaces sector, which strengthen city management and sustainability, promote green spaces, adopt nature-based solutions and generate measurable results, also with the objective of promoting health and well-being in cities and adaptation to climate change, considering the current pandemic context due to Covid-19.

Click here to access the National Call for Participants. Inscrições devem ser feitas via this link and are open until 23:59 on August 16th.

The Acceleration Programme will help entrepreneurs to scale up and aims to foster the generation of technology applied to the demands and challenges of cities, focusing on sustainable urban development, as well as offering solutions for the 80 local governments associated with ICLEI South America. The solutions that demonstrate a commitment to meeting one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals OpenDocument Spreadsheet Agenda 2030 yes United Nations (UNOs) will have preference in selection.

After the proposals have been selected, the acceleration phase will take placeprogramme, which will be approximately 12 weeks long and includes knowledge, mentorship, assisted strategic operation and support.

Following this stage, a final presentation will be made by each of the 10 selected participants, for the selection of up to five projects, so that ICLEI South America may consider the possibility of including the developed technologies in its 2021 solutions package.

Launch Webinar

To launch the National Call for Participants, a webinar was held that brought together representatives from ICLEI South America and the Public, as well as various members of partner and sponsoring organisations of ICLEI Innovation.

“ICLEI Innovation is born as a point of convergence between the innovation strategies of cities and their sustainable development strategies to integrate them increasingly,” stated the executive secretary of ICLEI South America, Rodrigo Perpétuo, at the opening of the webinar. Emanuel de Oliveira, from Publicae, highlighted the importance of the initiative and the co-creation process for overcoming the obstacles of sustainable urban development.

“The participation of local governments in projects like this certifies the work of startups and generates potential for replication,” observed Bernardo Egas., Rio de Janeiro Municipal Secretary of the Environment and national coordinator of CB27 Forum.

A Municipal Secretary for Economic Development and Labour of São Paulo, Aline Cardoso commented that the city has already made space for urban solutions that combine technology and innovation, but not always linked to environmental themes. For her, “initiatives that use biodiversity as a guiding principle make sense for the future of the city, work, and the economy.”

The representative of Happy Agreement, Luiz Carlos Pinto reinforced the intelligence of the Porto Alegre city council's investment in innovation. “We must open the doors to new models that allow us to create better cities to live in.”

“Urban development functions through a network of collaboration. Technology fosters dialogue and promotes engagement. Cities need to incorporate technological aspects and involve other stakeholders in this construction,” said Ana Romanelli, manager of the Sustainable Cities agenda at Avina Foundation.

Mariana Noronha, manager of Alliance for Innovation and Sustainability, which brings together Brava Foundation, Humanize Institute e Arapyaú Institute, [The speaker] believes that “innovation in local governments can help improve public management and service delivery to achieve comprehensive sustainable urban development.”.

The CEO and co-founder of Shedding, Ana Calçado praised ICLEI Innovation's proposal to access the world of innovation and technology by connecting startups with public spheres where solutions can be implemented. The representative of Climate Ventures, Lucas Nieto recalled that the future is collective. “The networks formed here will strengthen the ecosystem as a whole with robust information flows and a diversity of actors and roles.”

Chief Executive Officer of Sea Legacy, Gabriela Ferolla stated that her organisation is focusing on innovative co-creations to develop solutions for the complex, multidimensional challenges presented by local governments.

“Green areas converge actions for adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Good initiatives will emerge from ICLEI Innovation and collaborate with drainage in cities, with containment and biological diversity,” pointed out Rodrigo Wanderley, manager of the Climate Friend programme, from WayCarbon.

The event was streamed on ICLEI South America's YouTube and can be watched in full here. 

About organisations

O ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability It is a global network of over 1,750 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in more than 100 countries, the organisation influences sustainability policies and drives local action for low-carbon, nature-based, equitable, resilient and circular development. ICLEI South America connects its more than 80 member governments across eight countries to this global movement.

A Public is a a joint venture established between FCJ Venture Builder e Houer Concessions, specialists in startup acceleration and innovation markets.

Partners

ICLEI Innovation has institutional and technical partners, as well as sponsors, who are benchmarks in innovation and sustainability in cities and will help to give visibility and reach to the project.

The Municipal Secretariat of the Environment of Rio de Janeiro and the development agency Promote Rio are partners and sponsors of ICLEI Innovation.

The project also has the support of São Paulo City Hall, through the Municipal Secretariat for the Environment and Green Spaces and the development agencies Green Sampa e Ade Sampa, and from the Porto Alegre City Council, through the Pacto Alegre development agency.

Among ICLEI Innovation's technical and institutional partners are: Aliança pela Inovação (Fundação Brava, Instituto Humanize, and Instituto Arapyaú); Climate Ventures; Fórum CB27; Fundação Avina; Sea Legacy; WayCarbon; and Wylinka.

For more information on ICLEI Innovation, visit the project website.