Gigatonne Challenge 1

Priority Area: Climate Action

Dates: Aug. 2020 - Aug. 2020

Status: Completed

A team of 20 climate leaders from Halifax completed Complexity University's Gigatonne Challenge program in August 2020. Complexity Summer School was run by Complexity University and based on the Gigatonne Strategy, a global community focused on learning how to tackle the world’s most complex social, environmental and political challenges.

A team of 20 municipal staff and climate and innovation leaders from Halifax participated in an intense and rich month of learning which provided a good foundation on which to build the HalifACT stakeholder implementation model. The team moved objectives forward around “Prototypes”, concrete projects with clear emissions targets, designed to start small and be tested over time, to be adapted as needed, and scaled up if successful. 

During the training, each team was given the challenge to design a prototype to reduce 1 tonne of greenhouse gases in one month in the city they were working in.  A Halifax prototype from the Complexity University training was finalized to provide electric vehicles to local start-up delivery services, supporting the reduction of carbon emissions while delivering food and packages within Halifax. This resulted in the development of the Green Delivery Project led by the Halifax Innovation Outpost.