Looking for innovative ideas on comfortable living and energy efficiency

The National Top Runner Initiative (NTRI) relies on Open Innovation. In an innovation competition, NTRI is looking for future-oriented solutions that merge comfortable living and energy efficiency. Join in!

How can comfortable living and energy efficiency be combined in everyday life? What options are there for making heating, air conditioning, and lighting more energy-efficient in Germany? In order to find solutions to such questions, NTRI and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) have announced an innovation competition. Through the use of two innovation platforms, different challenges on the topic of energy efficiency in everyday life can be dealt with. The developers of the ten best solutions are invited to present their ideas at a large NTRI conference in Berlin to representatives from politics and business as well as environmental and consumer organisations (travel costs will be reimbursed).

Do you fancy a challenge? Or do you have (product) ideas yourself on how to combine comfortable living and energy efficiency in everyday life? You can now find your personal challenge at www.innonatives.com or www.phantominds.com. The innovation platforms are simultaneously crowd sourcing, crowd funding, and marketing platforms: Anyone can set up a sustainability problem within the "challenge" framework to find a solution through the crowd, submit their own proposals, vote on creative ideas, or finance them.

The NTRI educates consumers when purchasing energy-efficient household appliances and raises awareness on the energy-saving use of the appliances. The initiative is carried out on behalf of the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) by a consortium of Edelman.ergo, Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, Wuppertal Institute, and the Austrian Energy Agency, under the direction of adelphi.