Here are the five finalists of “Pitch your project 2022”

Under the motto “Your Alps! Your Future! Your project!” young people from all Alpine regions were invited to submit innovative project ideas for a sustainable development of the Alpine region. This year again we could count on the creativity and motivation of the young people to propose projects for the future of the Alpine region. Here are more details on the 5 projects that will pitch their ideas at the EUSALP annual forum on November 24, 2022 in Trento.

Four projects from France and one project from Italy made it into the top 5 of “Pitch Your Project 2022”:

The first project is called Circular Sawdust insulation. This project aims at tackling the main source of energy consumption in EUSALP : HEAT. To do so, they want to develop the solution of Sawdust Insulation. The use of sawdust supports a better use of local resources and increases energy self-sufficiency while reducing impacts on climate and the environment. Sawdust is a residue produced through the cuttingprocess of the wood. We will be able to offer a local, sustainable and cheap insulator. The goal is to develop a network of modest size sawmills all across the EUSALP region to collect the sawdust. Then to form installers locally to spread the use of our insulator.

ELDA offers a decision-support platform to identify and anticipate avalanche risk areas in order to provide greater safety, precision and productivity to those involved in the alpine environment.

Its solution combines different kinds of data, aerial data with drones to measure snow depth, satellite imagery, meteorological and snow data. Thanks to artificial intelligence, it will combine historical data to provide a complete 3D and 2D map, in real time, of avalanche risk areas. Its platform has a dual function. In addition to identifying the risks of avalanche, the platform provides access to snow depth on all ski resort slopes. That will help the ski resort to manage snowmaking prediction, reduce snow groomers usage and electricity bills. Our service thus makes it possible to optimize snow cover monitoring throughout the season.

The ELDA project is part of the mountain economy and helps the Alpine region to preserve and develop water and energy resources and to manage the natural risks that are still too present in our mountains. It also provides innovation and experimentation for the protection of resources and the anticipation of climate change. More specifically, this service will make it possible to evaluate the energy performance of each ski resort in terms of snow production, and protect natural ecosystems and the surrounding biodiversity, in order to reduce the ski resort energy and environmental impact.

The next project is called “L’Escarpade”. It is a sporting and educational challenge event. As a revisited winter triathlon, l’Escarpade combines the disciplines of cycling, trail running and ski touring. The participants start from the valley to the summit, equipped with their skis, trail shoes and bike. Throughout the three days, educational workshops will be offered in order to better understand the various challenges of mountain territories. The event will take place in France, in the french Alps near Grenoble, during the first week-end of April 2023. L’Escarpade will gather participants, men and women equally, from all over France.

Our fourth finalist is Live love Alps. This project creates committed communities to promote the beauty of the Alps and the Alpine way of life. These communities focus on environmental, cultural and social issues. Our goal is to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Live Love Alps has ambassadors in all 7 countries to create connections between the different countries. Live Love Agora will allow the creation of”citizens’ assemblies” between the different countries and to debate on the different public policies and issues of the region with world experts. Then a Live Love Festival will celebrate a specific area of the Alps with concerts, conferences and workshops for the general public. Live Love Education is a training programme with different modules to raise awareness of the region’s issues among young people, based on the principle of storytelling -storydoing. Live Live Recycle is a programme that organises awareness raising on recycling and wastemanagement. This is done through events (waste collection, waste treatment) but also through workshops and conferences with high level mountain guides or sportsmen. Live Love Volunteer is a platform that will bring together all the volunteering activities available in the 7 countries to get involved on a daily basis and have a positive impact. A reward system is set up to encourage involvement and reward participation. In addition, digital channels are created to share information and news about the organisation, through surveys, reports and testimonials. This communication allows us to have a strong positive impact and toidentify our audience more easily.

The last finalist of this edition is the project called “mountain survival kit”. Nowadays, tourism in mountain areas is thriving, bringing great economic benefit to the Alpine region. As the tourism industry in the Alpine mountains continues to expand, there becomes a growing need to protect nature from its impacts. People come to the Alpine region to enjoy and appreciate its magnificent natural landscapes and in order to allow people to continue doing this, such an environment needs to be taken care of and treated with respect. Many people carry plastic and glass waste down from the mountains, with other types of waste that is not the case. There is the perception that toilet paper, sanitary products, and organic waste, such as foodwaste, can be left in nature after they have been used. However, this is not the case, and it can lead to many unwanted consequences, both for humans and for nature. Combatting such behaviours requires an educational and practical approach which can be provided by the ‘mountain survival kit’ approach. Here, a kit consisting of an recycled airtight odourless bag and toilet paperwill be provided and distributed across the whole Alpine region in order to raise awareness and encouragepeople to bring their hygiene waste and food waste down from the mountains.

The “Pitch Your Project” competition is organized for the fifth time in 2022 by the European Commission and the Tyrol with the support of the Italian EUSALP presidency. “Pitch your project” was launched in the course of the Tyrolean EUSALP Presidency 2018 and is part of the initiative “youth.shaping.EUSALP” to involve youth in the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region. In addition to Pitch your project, the project includes an EUSALP Youth Council, summer activities, and various online communication tools.