Fancy yourself as a green entrepreneur, a trail-blazer in climate change innovation?

One bright idea can make a massive difference- and entries for the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge ’09, an international creative competition, are now open!

The contest has been set up by the Dutch arm of the UK charity lottery, the People’s Postcode Lottery, who are urging budding inventors around the world to send in innovative ideas for products and services that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The ground-breaking invention will win €500,000 (£434,000) to make his or her plan reality, and two other brilliant ideas could win €100,000 (£86,800)
The creative and innovative product or service should contribute to an eco-friendly lifestyle, directly reduce emissions, and score highly on convenience, quality and design.

Global warming crusader Richard Branson launched this year’s competition, and said “We should all work on promoting sustainable businesses and to do that, we need to find the young, creative entrepreneurs. The Postcode Lottery Green Challenge does just this.”

The contest closes on 31st July 2009, after which finalists will be selected to present their ideas publicly at the ‘PICNIC’09’ innovation convention in September. Not only will the winning entrant receive prize money to bring his or her idea to market, they’ll also be introduced to potential clients and business partners. Additionally, runner ups will also receive a monetary prize.

Last year the jury awarded the €500,000 prize to Eben Bayer of the United States for his all-natural Styrofoam substitute GreensulateTM, and used part of the prize money to open a ‘factory’ for his product: “Winning allowed us to connect with potential customers and provided us with the capital to make the system to allow us to deliver to the customer”. American Capra J’neva won a €100,000 runner-up prize for her stylish Veranda Solar panels.

Instigate a global change – log onto www.greenchallenge.info for more information now!

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