Ideas That Pay: Postcode Lottery Challenges Entrepreneurs to Develop Green Business Plans for Chance to Win $680,000 USD
- The eighth Postcode Lottery Green Challenge opens for entries, offering more than one million dollars in development incentives for the brightest environmentally innovative business plans
- American entrepreneurs have the chance to compete globally for $680,000 to develop a winning CO2-reducing business idea; additional finalists awarded up to $272,000
SAN FRANCISCO, April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge is open for entries, seeking CO2-reducing business ideas from start-up entrepreneurs. The winner of the international competition will receive euro 500.000 ($680,000 USD) to develop and bring to market his or her product or service. The organization will also award euro 200.000 (roughly $272,000 USD) to one or two runners-up.
Entrants can submit their business plans at www.greenchallenge.info through June 3, 2014. The jurors will choose the winner on September 11 at an event in Amsterdam. This is the eighth year that the Dutch Postcode Lottery has staged the competition. For a chance to win, submitted products or services must reduce greenhouse gas emissions and be capable of going to market within two years.
The United States has been well represented over the years with multiple winners and finalists. U.S. entrepreneur Ginger Dosier won the euro 500.000 grand prize in 2013 for her revolutionary brick production process. Her company, BioMason, offers a clean alternative to the existing process, which generates massive emissions worldwide. In 2008, Eben Bayer of New York won the euro 500.000 grand prize for developing a plastics alternative from agricultural waste and the roots of mushrooms. Using this material, his company, Ecovative, produces packaging and building materials for companies such as SteelCase and Dell. Additional U.S. and global finalists have submitted business plans ranging from renewable energy innovations to breakthroughs in sustainable materials.
Influential Support
"The fundamental problem is an entrepreneurial, disorganized, undercapitalized opportunity competing against a highly organized, overcapitalized, old-energy economy that still has many, many people in its grip," said President Clinton at the Postcode Lottery's 2006 World Meeting in a speech that helped inspire the organization's annual challenge.
Supporter Sir Richard Branson also noted the importance of developing a venture capital environment wherein entrepreneurs are better able to source funding to tackle one of the world's biggest challenges - climate change.
"People aren't going to stop consuming," said Branson. "Instead, we must offer the consumer a green alternative to bring climate change to a halt. The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge is about stimulating the development of these alternatives."
Selection Process
To enter, entrepreneurs can submit their detailed business plans via the website until June 3 at 5:59 a.m. ET (11:59 a.m. CEST). Entries are judged through an intensive deliberation process by a renowned group of global jurors.
"[We are] looking forward to judging new brilliant ideas this year," said United States jury member Marty Pickett. "Every year, the quality of entries improves and the decision gets more difficult. The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge gives products or services that can create real change every possible chance of success."
The jury will select five to seven finalists in August. On September 11 in Amsterdam, the finalists will present their plans before the jury, public and press.
Entrepreneurs are urged to enter today by visiting www.greenchallenge.info.
Additional Information Materials and Content:
For more information and photos:
- General: www.greenchallenge.info
- Press room: http://www.greenchallenge.info/index.php/press
- Follow the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge on Twitter and Facebook.
- To request an interview with one of the 2013 finalists, please email [email protected]
About the Dutch Postcode Lottery: Society always wins
The Dutch Postcode Lottery was founded in 1989 to support charitable causes. Today, 2.5 million people in the Netherlands play every year. Each month, they vie for hundreds of thousands of prizes. At the same time, they're supporting good causes: half the ticket price is distributed among 90 charitable organisations. Since its founding, the Dutch Postcode Lottery has given more than euro 4 billion to organisations working on behalf of human beings and the environment.
Organisations including UNICEF, WWF, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and Natuurmonumenten receive support each year. Since 2005, the Postcode Lottery has also been operating in the United Kingdom and Sweden, where the People's Postcode Lottery and Svenska PostkodLotteriet respectively raise money for charity. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Postcode Lottery works with the BankGiro Loterij and VriendenLoterij under the name Goede Doelen Loterijen. Novamedia/Postcode Loterijen is the second largest private charitable donor in the world. www.postcodeloterij.nl
Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7bLNlYOiso
CONTACT: Jessica McHugh, Ogilvy Public Relations (on behalf of Postcode Green Lottery), (303) 527-4610, [email protected]
SOURCE Postcode Lottery
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