Youth innovation challenge launched

North American leaders are calling on youth to champion bold ideas for green growth to address complex sustainability challenges.

Youth can visit http://cec. ideascale.com/ to submit their science, technology and business innovations and get the chance to pitch their ideas to North America’s top environmental officials, receive $5,000 in project seed funding, and meet with experts at the Commission for Environmental Co-operation.

“Not only are youth creative, optimistic and entrepreneurial, they are also going to be most affected by the environmental decisions we make today. We need to harness their bright ideas for feasible, scalable solutions to shared North American environmental problems,” said Catherine McKenna, Canadian minister of Environment and Climate Change and host of the upcoming 2017 Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) Council Session, taking place in Charlottetown June 28. The Council plans to engage with the challenge winners in person at their annual CEC Council Session.

The crowdsourcing challenge is open to residents of Canada, Mexico and the United States, aged 18-26. Participants are encouraged to look beyond incremental solutions and propose ideas to leapfrog to alternatives and solutions that address the sustainability challenges facing North America. Ideas will be evaluated based on four criteria: innovation, feasibility, scalability/replicability, and impact. Students and young entrepreneurs are encouraged to share ideas on a broad range of green growth topics, particularly those that can be addressed at the regional level.

Ideas can be submitted in English, French or Spanish. For more information and guidelines, visit http://cec.ideascale.com/.