KARACHI – ClimateLaunchpad Pakistan competition enters into its second phase with a 2-day training boot camp starting today to apprise clean-tech innovators with an entrepreneurship curriculum that will enable them to convert their clean-tech ideas into solid green business plans. Frans Nauta, Founder of ClimateLaunchpad, will be leading the training with 25 teams participating from across Pakistan. Participants at the boot camp include teams from Karachi, Islamabad, Peshawar, Multan, Sahiwal, Mardan, Swabi and Gilgit. ClimateLaunchpad is a global competition green business ideas competition initiated in 2014 and is taking place for the first time in Pakistan through strategic partner Stimulus.
Stimulus has signed of on an understanding with the Ministry of Climate Change Pakistan to engage students of different varsities across the country to partake in ClimateLaunchpad Pakistan 2019 under the Prime Minister’s Clean Green Pakistan initiative. ClimateLaunchpad Pakistan also enjoys the support of dedicated partners including Lucky Cement, Shell Tameer, City FM 89, Dalda, Impact Network Pakistan, Women Engineers Pakistan, Funverks Global, Madvertising and Eco-Guards Impactory who have enabled Stimulus in taking this mission forward.
The competition received 100 applications for from across Pakistan addressing solutions to challenges in agriculture, healthcare, energy efficiency, water and waste management. The top 25 applications from 100 will be going through a 2-day training, followed by 6 coaching sessions and then compete locally. The top 2 teams will represent Pakistan internationally at the Global Competition in November and compete against 49 other countries.
ClimateLaunchpad Pakistan Awareness and Networking event organized by Stimulus in Islamabad last week, was attended by Ms Zartaj Gul, Federal Minister of State for Climate Change; Ms Ardi Stoios-Braken, Ambassador of The Kingdom of The Netherlands to Pakistan; Ms Shandana Gulzar Khan, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Commerce; Mr Haroon Kanth, CEO Teradata; Mr Zain ul Abideen, Head of Brands & Communication, Lucky Cement and other stakeholders from corporate, development and government organizations.
Endorsing the initiative, Ms Gul said that: “Addressing the negative impacts of climate change and supporting sustainable industrial development through innovation and invention is the need of the hour. A green and clean future demands thousands of innovations challenging current business models; and investing in ideas and entrepreneurs is the way to go about it.”
Ms Braken also shared her views: “Research and development are stimulated and business opportunities and new jobs are created as we search for innovative, clean and smart solutions to deliver the goods and services that people need – these could be in the sphere of climate smart agriculture, water management, waste water treatment, renewable energy, logistics and mobility, but also in areas like sustainable city development and food security.” She congratulated Stimulus for bringing Climate Launchpad to Pakistan; and urged all stakeholders to support climate innovation in Pakistan in their professional capacity.
Stimulus is a Pakistani consulting firm, focused on supporting emerging economies towards renewable energy access and sustainable economic & social development (www.stimulusorg.com). Bringing this competition to Pakistan is aligned with their mandate to develop innovative products and services, start new companies, and train a new generation of entrepreneurs.
