[Deadline Extended] The Liveability Challenge 2021 Submissions

Deadline Extended: 22 April 2021, 11:59pm (GMT +8, Singapore Time)

The Liveability Challenge is a global initiative that hunts for and accelerates the adoption of innovative solutions to urban challenges of the 21st century in cities in the tropics.

With more than 50 billion tonnes of carbon emissions released into the atmosphere annually, we need revolutionary ideas that will enable humanity to drastically reduce the production of greenhouse gas emissions and its removal at scale. 

At the same time, our disposable culture has exacerbated resource scarcity, and created a pollution crisis that threatens the natural ecosystems which we need to thrive. We need a circular economy to replace the existing linear model that is hugely wasteful and pollutive. How can we find solutions which are restorative and regenerative in design?  

From 15 January to 22 April 2021, The Liveability Challenge is accepting proposals with the most disruptive, game-changing ideas that will help cities accelerate decarbonisation and address its resource challenges. Finalists of The Liveability Challenge will pitch their ideas at the Grand Finale in June 2021, where they will compete for the grand prize of up to S$1 million in grant funding for project development, among other exclusive prizes! 

Decarbonisation

With the global race for net zero cities underway, we are looking for the most innovative ideas that will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere. Key sectors with huge potential for decarbonisation solutions include energy generation, urban infrastructure, and transport and logistics systems. 

We are also seeking revolutionary carbon capture, utilisation and storage solutions to remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere at scale. 

Submitted solutions should:

• Significantly reduce the carbon emissions produced by industries; or effectively capture, and convert carbon emissions into useful products such as food protein, building materials, reclamation sand or synthetic fuels
• Be either technology-based solutions (e.g. physical, chemical) or nature-based solutions (e.g. biological capture and sequestration)
• Integrate into existing infrastructures or systems
• Be carbon negative in the overall lifecycle and have zero/minimal externalities
• Be commercially viable and scalable

Circular Economy (Resources)

With rising constraints on land, energy and water, urban centres need to find pathways to achieve a circular economy where waste is eliminated and business models are regenerative by design. We are looking for breakthrough technologies or materials that will reinvent waste streams into valuable resources or replace or reduce packaging in key sectors such as food and e-commerce.

These solutions should significantly reduce the input of resources required in the production process and help achieve responsible consumption and production at scale.

Submitted solutions should:

• Replace or reduce plastic, or virgin/hard-to-recycle paper packaging; utilise or convert food waste, plastic waste, or e-waste into valuable products and materials
• Drastically reduce land, water, energy and major resources required for the production of goods and services, such as food and materials
• Keep reclaimed products in circulation at their highest value possible
• Exceed the performance of conventional materials and be cost-competitive
• Be closed-loop, commercially viable and scaleable