Finalists for the Klever Birne 2024 have been announced

For the second time, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW) and the city of Kleve have called for entries for the “Klever Birne” sustainability award. A total of 23 applications from a wide range of senders arrived in the post. The preliminary round jury, consisting of representatives from HSRW and the city of Kleve, selected the ten best ideas for the final round of the competition. The criteria were a high practical benefit, ingenuity and compliance with at least one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Student ideas

As in the previous year, students were specifically invited to take part in 2024, as a student impact prize is also awarded in addition to the three prizes and the audience prize. Two proposals from HSRW students made it to the final round. Keyword sustainable consumption: the team Abdul Rahman El Sibai and Danial Shargi would like to develop an app for marketing local products and services. Arash Sagi centres on inclusion and participation. His idea is to use an algorithm to convert images that people with normal vision can perceive visually into tactile images for blind and visually impaired people.

Green classroom and practical experience in Kleve schools

This year, the two secondary schools in Kleve have submitted their own ideas. The Gesamtschule am Forstgarten would like to water the greenhouse in the school garden automatically using collected rainwater. There is a lot of technology behind it. A practical application for pupils in the technology courses and the gardening club. The Joseph Beuys Gesamtschule is hoping for green classrooms: plant pockets on the walls are to be used as vertical gardens in the classrooms to create a better ambience and learning environment.

Turning old into new

Under the “Upcycling” motto, two more applicants have qualified for the final round. For three years, the Kleve Berufs-Bildungs-Zentrum (BBZ) has been processing wood, which is actually a waste product from the Kässbohrer company in Goch, into nesting boxes, seating and other in various projects. The plan now is to make 17 raised beds from the wood and design them in line with the 17 sustainability goals. The Kleve concept store Très Chig Studio would also like to delve deeper into the topic of upcycling and offer workshops on upcycling, sustainable fashion and DIY. To this end, the workshop space needs to be expanded and the technical equipment improved.

Sharing instead of owning

Philip Weykamp envisions a neighbourhood car pool to achieve more frequent use of vehicles and reduce the number of vehicles in Kleve and the surrounding area in the long term. Living for the benefit of the community is the idea behind the EcoParkKleve initiative. The plans of the group of around 30 people, who want to realise sustainable living in a small space in the community, are already very precise.

That leaves the Museum Arenacum Kleve and the question posed by Tim Werken. With its SOUND TREE project, the Museum Arenacum, which is based in Rindern, wants people to perceive their everyday surroundings in Kleve in a new way. To this end, stone pyramids are to be erected near trees. When the QR tags embedded there are scanned by a smartphone app, the respective environmental parameters are transformed into a musical soundscape. Tim Werken, on the other hand, wonders: “What happens to the waste heat from biogas plants?” A good question, because what many people probably don’t realise is that biogas plants not only produce electricity, but also waste heat. This is often not utilised due to the high financial costs involved. This should change. To this end, Tim Werken is now seeking contact with biogas plant operators in order to visualise unused potential and find efficient solutions.

Poster presentations and award ceremony on 12 September

Now it’s up to the ten teams of contestants to create posters and presentations in order to shine and impress at the public presentation on the HSRW’s Kleve campus on 12 September. HSRW and the city of Kleve are already inviting all interested parties to take part in the event. The votes of the visitors are the essential factor for the audience award. The award ceremony will take place directly after the performance.