How do we engage the young people in the green transition? One way could be a hackathon like the one arranged at the Desire demonstration site BTC City Ljubljana in Slovenia. As a part of the Desire project, the younger generation is asked to develop ideas for shaping the green future of BTC City Ljubljana, one of Europe’s largest shopping, business, and leisure centres. Back in February, the Slovenia Desire partners, BTC and CER - Sustainable Business Network arranged a hackathon with Generation Z. Have a look at the Desire film, created by Benjamin Hesselholdt.
Published on 28 May 2024
How do we engage the young people in the green transition? One way could be a hackathon like the one arranged at the Desire demonstration site BTC City Ljubljana in Slovenia. Have a look at the Desire film.
As a part of the Desire project, the younger generation is asked to develop ideas for shaping the green future of BTC City Ljubljana, one of Europe’s largest shopping, business, and leisure centres.
Back in February, the Slovenia Desire partners, BTC and CER - Sustainable Business Network arranged a hackathon with Generation Z (the generation born from the mid-1990s to approximately 2012).
For 30 hours the 30 participants from age 16 to age 35 worked on finding a new story for BTC City.
In the end, the six groups came up with such great ideas, that the jury had chosen two winners with completely different ideas.
The ideas and solutions from the winning teams will be presented to BTC City Management, and then potentially integrated into BTC’s sustainable and green transformation strategy.
“We hope that the green transformation activities, as well as works and efforts from the other seven Desire demonstration sites, will serve as an encouragement to others to join our movement, to make a more desirable future,” says Andrej Janko, Head of Sustainability, Development Department, BTC.
The hackathon was a successful way to reach young people according to one of the young participants Anamarija Cûden:
“I really liked the creative challenges that they gave us, and also the fact that they are listening to young people, what they want out of the future, out of shared spaces. So that was an incredible journey for me.”
Meet her, Andrej and others including Ana Struna Bregar, CEO of CER - Sustainable Business Network in the film. The filmmaker is Benjamin Hesselholdt. Footage from the hackathon is made by Anej Ferko.