“From Trash to Treasure”
The Inaugural EV3NT
Coming this spring!
Help solve some of Seattle’s biggest waste problems in-person and virtually.
In partnership with
WHAT IS THE EV3NT?
The EV3NT empowers individuals to work with the community at large to create solutions to our world's greatest civic, social, and environmental problems. All individuals, of any background and skillset are invited to join and take action at one of our think tank events. Each 3-day EV3NT focuses on one region specific topic (for instance, the focus of our upcoming EV3NT Seattle is ‘Waste and Sustainability’), but any problem within the topic are up for solving. At an EV3NT, our number one goal is to support action-taking. Here’s how we do it:
• Day 1: Participants can look forward to being guided through the ideation process, workshops, and educational lessons from local leaders who are passionate about world-changing innovation.
• Day 2: EV3NT participants are placed in teams and shepherded through the collaborative, problem-solving process; as well as supplied with the tools and resources needed to develop, test, and prototype their solution.
• Day 3: The EV3NT wraps-up with participants presenting their solutions, getting more feedback, and working with EV3NT support to develop a plan to put their solutions into action.
The EV3NT asks participants to take action in 3 key ways:
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AGENCY
Participants do something to help solve the problem.
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EQUITY
Participants have ownership of their solution.
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COMMUNITY
Participants focus on what can be done together.
The EV3NT Seattle’s Focus
From Trash to Treasure: How can we ethically and economically innovate our waste problems?
Why focus on waste?
On January 1, 2018, China banned 24 kinds of waste from foreign countries. This ban flipped the economics of recycling so that it became a much larger expense for many organizations. In many situations it became cheaper to send waste to our landfills than to recycle it.
In the US, many companies are being asked to remove the recycling symbol from their packaging, 6 times more plastic is being burned than recycled, and it’s often cheaper to buy virgin plastic and extremely expensive to recycle plastic (according to a study by Columbia Climate School).
Our global Covid Crisis has quickly become a waste crisis: one estimate from the Solid Waste Association of North America placed the amount of residential waste up as much as 8% this spring compared to the previous spring (The Seattle Times).
Plastic is a well known contributor to Washington State’s waste problems, but organics, construction materials, and even paper packaging and products outweigh plastic in tons (Washington State Department of Ecology).
PARTICIPATE
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Be a Participant
Join us at a 3-day EV3NT, virtually or in-person, to help solve some of the world’s biggest problems. All individuals, of any background and skillset are encouraged to join us.
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Be a Sponsor
Become a sponsor of an EV3NT and help solve problems by empowering your community. Sponsorship opportunities are available to meet your corporate goals and budget. Opportunities are still available for our upcoming EV3NT Seattle.