On 21 and 22 October, the A2A offices in Via Lamarmora, Milan, hosted the “Network Heat” hackathon in collaboration with Tondo, an organization that acts as a bridge between research centres, institutions, start-ups, other businesses and individuals active in circular economy projects. The aim of the initiative was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of district heating in Brescia and to illustrate the benefits of this system, which guarantees greater energy efficiency and allows an improvement in environmental sustainability thanks to the reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide.
Taking part were 42 youngsters from secondary schools in Brescia, divided into nine teams which had to identify innovative solutions in response to three challenges related to district heating.
The challenges focused on three elements: the integration of heat sources into district heating networks; new forms of energy efficiency; communication and raising of awareness about district heating opportunities.
A2A personnel took part as mentors, providing the participants with valuable technical suggestions, and as the jury, selecting the winning groups, one for each challenge. Support was also provided by Tondo, which carried out a tutoring activity to help the teams organize their ideas as well as possible, including the introduction of Design Thinking.
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The winners of the three challenges were, respectively, Stem in the water, which presented a system of backbone district heating, The Green must go on, which proposed the installation of insulation to avoid heat dispersion and photovoltaic glass to store electricity, and Radio Speakers, which developed a communication plan involving local radio with the purpose of informing communities.
The hackathon allowed us to show the students the environmental challenges faced by communities and to gather innovative, creative and sustainable ideas.
Open Innovation means this too: creating an open ecosystem of engagement and dialogue, starting from the new generations to continue to improve people’s lives.
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