Review of the first Oberursel Climate Marathon
It'sthe year 2020 - the very first Climate Marathon begins in Oberursel im Taunus (near Frankfurt am Main). The city has about 46,000 inhabitants, all of whom are called upon to participate in order to protect the climate together.
Let's go back to the starting point, to the perspective of that time:
At the first idea-finding evening of the local Oberursel climate initiative at the end of 2019, the chairwoman of the "Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz" (BUND), Claudia von Eisenhart Rothe, presented the idea of a CO2 calculator for Oberursel. She was subsequently able to win Christoph Kunz, founder of the climate start-up worldwatchers GmbH, as a competent partner for the implementation of the idea in the digital field.
Worldwatchers has developed the "worldwatchers klimakompass", an app that allows users to determine their own carbon footprint and to calculate the carbon footprint of more than 1.2 million consumer products. The app also provides easy-to-implement tips on how to reduce one's personal footprint.
The concept behind the free app is based on cooperation with the renowned Wuppertal Institute for Environment, Climate, Energy. The online sustainability magazine Utopia recently called the Climate Compass "possibly the most important app of the year.
Worldwatchers founder Christoph Kunz comments:
We are pleased about the many positive voices on the first version of the Climate Compass. Together with our users, we will continue to work on the vision for our app: The daily availability of the current CO2 budget for everyone, so that the topic of climate protection and climate awareness gets the place it deserves in everyday life. The feedback from the first Oberursel Climate Marathon will provide us with important insights in this regard.
The 1st Oberursel Climate Marathon is supported by Stadtwerke Oberursel (Taunus) GmbH and is intended to motivate the citizens of the Taunus municipality to take an intensive and fun look at their own carbon footprint. Jürgen Funke, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Oberursel, commented:
For many years, we have been committed to environmental and climate protection in a variety of ways, such as with our project 'Lebenswertes Oberursel' (Oberursel worth living in), in the context of which we implement very specific nature projects in Oberursel every year. That is why we are very happy to support the first Oberursel Climate Marathon and hope that this commitment will sensitize many Oberursel residents to their carbon footprint.
The cooperation partners BUND, LOK, Worldwatchers and Stadtwerke Oberursel are planning this first nationwide pilot project in terms of reducing the personal CO2 footprint as follows: Based on the classic marathon distance, this competition developed by worldwatchers will last exactly 42.195 days: app-based challenges (= 42 days) will take place for six weeks, concluding with a live challenge on the following Saturday morning for 4:41 hours (= 0.195 days).
At the beginning, each participant determines his/her own CO2 footprint using the "Climate Compass" app, which can be downloaded free of charge from the Google Play and Apple Store. After this location analysis, the six-week Climateathon begins, during which various suggestions - so-called challenges - for reducing one's own carbon footprint are proposed in the app each week. Each week focuses on one of the six private areas of life: living, nutrition, mobility, vacation/leisure, shopping or digital life. The app then refers to suitable information on climate protection already offered by the Oberursel municipal utility or the city of Oberursel (Taunus). The first Challenge results will be announced in the course of the campaign with the "mid-term review." At the end of the Climate Marathon, the worldwatchers team will virtually calculate how much CO2 the participating Oberursel residents have saved in total and how much they can save per year in the future if they integrate the behaviors associated with the completed challenges into their daily lives.
Participation in the 1st Oberursel Climate Marathon is simple: After the free download of the worldwatchers Climate Compass app, the user simply goes to the menu item "Challenges" and enters the code for the Oberursel Climate Marathon at the top screen. After a brief welcome, a total of 32 challenges from different areas of life will appear.
BUND, LOK and Stadtwerke Oberursel share the view that every individual can make a contribution to reducing the greenhouse gas CO2 through easily implementable changes in consumer behavior.
They hope that as many smartphone-savvy users as possible will take part in the 1st Oberursel Climate Marathon and that Climate Marathon fever will spread to other communities.
It is also important to mention that no personal data within the meaning of the GDPR is collected from users of the worldwatchers app.
