2zero Klimathon (Mannheim, Glienicke, Hufeisen-Region, Schleswig-Holstein)
6-week 'Klimathon' run by Berlin-based 2zero (formerly Klimakompass). Each week features 4-6 challenges across themes (mobility, food, energy, consumption, digital, leisure). Mannheim ran as a CoLAB pilot under the EU '100 climate-neutral cities by 2030' Mission starting Jan 2025.
Each participating municipality runs its own Klimathon community hub (Glienicke, Hufeisen-Region, Mannheim, Schleswig-Holstein all have separate community pages), creating de facto municipality-vs-municipality reputational comparison. Within each community, teams of 3+ appear on a public leaderboard ranked by climate points (using averaged scores so big teams don't dominate).
Citizens form open teams of 3+ within their municipality and collectively accumulate CO2-savings points. Weekly partner-company rewards (food vouchers, sustainable detergent) shared among team members. The municipality acts as the cohort, and community managers organize meetups and workshops.
EU Mission Cities link gives institutional credibility. The team-averaging mechanic prevents the 'one whale carries the team' problem that plagues many leaderboards. Multi-theme sprints (mobility one week, food the next) avoid burnout.
Others in the same family
Klima-Taler
City-branded climate app powered by motiontag that auto-detects walking/cycling/public-transport trips and converts CO2 saved into 'Klima-Taler' coins redeemable at local pools, museums, shops. Each participating city gets its own white-label instance; users join open teams.
Tidy Towns (Ireland)
Department of Rural & Community Development annual competition, organised since 1958, where ~900 towns/villages compete on environment, biodiversity, tidiness, and community participation. Studied by Interreg Europe as a 'good practice' for community-led regeneration; 30,000+ volunteers logging 1M+ hours annually.
Climathon (EIT Climate-KIC)
24-48 hour citizen hackathon run by EIT Climate-KIC. Each participating city sets its own local climate challenge; teams of citizens, students, and entrepreneurs develop solutions. Best team in each city receives Climate-KIC coaching post-event. Over 30,000 participants since 2015.
BetterPoints
Council-funded mobile app that auto-detects walking, cycling, bus, train, car-share trips and converts to BetterPoints redeemable at local retailers. Councils customize challenges per borough.
Klima-Taler
App by Berlin greentech Blacksquared. Every 5 kg of CO2 saved (via cycling, transit, energy-saving) earns one digital Klima-Taler redeemable at participating local retailers. In 2024 the city of Leer in East Frisia saved 291.3 tons of CO2 and topped the national ranking, with 54 partner shops and 10,000+ redeemed Talers.
STADTRADELN (CITY CYCLING)
Run by Climate Alliance, a 21-day campaign where municipalities sign up to compete on per-capita and absolute cycling kilometers. Mandatory team affiliation; tracked via the CITY CYCLING app GPS or paper log.