Hackathon guide for the Environment

This guide is intended for companies, agencies or anyone interested in creating a hackathon for the environment. The guide is prepared by the team of Circular Economy at The Environment Agency of Iceland which has hosted three hackathons.

In this context, a hackathon is an idea workshop where everyone in society is invited for a two day event focusing on finding and developing solutions to certain environmental problems.

The guidelines are divided into two chapters; on site hackathon and online hackathon. They are based on the experience of hosting Plastaþon focusing on plastics in 2019, Spjaraþon focusing on textiles in 2020 and Tækjaþon focusing on electronics in 2023. Plastaþon and Tækjaþon were held on site but Spjaraþon online due to the pandemic.

One of the main purposes of hosting a hackathon like this is to bring different stakeholders to the table and start a conversation towards a better future. Networking is an important part of that journey and in all the hackathons the participants got the opportunity to meet a diverse group of people with the aim to create innovative solutions under the guidance of experts. 

We hope this guide will be of use for anyone looking to solve big problems by bringing together people from all over society. It is highly recommended to try out hosting a hackathon for the environment, it is a very productive way of working, forms new relationships and is overall a lot of fun.