Climate Journalism

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Climate Journalism: An online platform about climate change and cities for students and readers

Rio de Janeiro, BrazilBrazil
Year Founded:
2015
Organization type: 
for profit
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Budget: 
$1,000 - $10,000
Website:
http://www.climatejournalism.me
Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/climatejour
Facebook: 
http://facebook.com/climatejournalism
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Climate Journalism is a bilingual online platform for young journalism students. They’re invited to write about climate change and urban areas in their cities, to stimulate their expertise in environment issues, since they will be the future opinion makers. The articles will be open to all readers.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if journalism can finally be used as an excellent form of communication and engagement of society towards a low carbon economy?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

The biggest journalism companies in Brazil and in the world offers yet few spaces to environmental guidelines. In a year of COP in Paris, and in a century in which climate change and its consequences are the most important issues in the world, it is essential that the subject is communicated in the best possible way, so that the message become rooted in all sectors of society.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

As there are no borders for global warming, Climate Journalism will gather students (first in Brazil and then in the world) to write articles alone or in teams (preferably) on urgent issues related to climate change from the urban environmental perspective, such as water, energy sources, waste, transport and food security.The online platform is bilingual (Port and Eng) and it‘ll have four main areas: connection between young journalists; a booklet about the cities challenges towards a low carbon economy; unique space in which young journalists will have the contacts of sources around the world on each topic, to contact and interview; and the space for the articles to be published.

Awards

The project is supported by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network - We were one of the winners of Climate Educators Fund.
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

The project has just been released, there is just one day, in its beta version, so we don't have yet real examples to indicate. But there is hypothetical. More than 3.5 billion people now live in cities, and they occupy only 1.2% to 1.4% of the territory of the planet. 70% of global GHG emissions come from cities, and the cities carries major opportunities for change because it's where people, universities, public policies and financial resources are. Journalists will have access to information and sources to write articles about the relation between climate change and the urban space, and readers will have an extensive network of good stories to share and generate changes in their daily behavior.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

As mentioned in the previous answer, we do not have an impact yet, but we have great expectations. The author(s) of the 2 most voted material + jury ranking will receive R$ 2.000,00 in prize. In this pilot, we want to speak with hundreds of journalists, receive more than 50 stories, create more than 100 interactions among journalism students on the website and have representatives in all five regions of Brazil. In the future, we want to expand to the five continents, and create a global network of journalism students with good experiences on climate change and cities, as well as offering the opportunities they need to grow in their careers and become very positive opinion leaders. We also want to be a reference of good stories on climate changes, able to generate reflection and behavioral changes around the world, to show that this is a fight of all, and there are no boundaries.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

In 5-10 years, we want be recognized as a global strategy to training journalism students on climate change and cities, going beyond what universities can offer. In addition, we intend to change the way how climate change is communicated to society, generating, in fact, social transformation. It is also our interest to have physical labs to receive students with a structure like a XXI’s journalism vehicle has, with everything they need to develop their work and start a career.
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

For now, we received US 10k from Internews' Earth Journalism Network, an NGO, to build our pilot website and initiative. But for the future we'll present the results of the start-up project to companies, clients, foundations and regional government. Furthermore, we'll try to sell media space on our platform, and branded content as well. We'll also talk to our current partners, who has a large network, to help us on that.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

There are projects like Global Press Institute, from changemakers.com, but it is focused on women in the developing world. Here in Brazil, there are sites like www.oeco.com.br and envolverde.com.br, but they are just conventional websites focused on environment. But what we do on Climate Journalism is really different. We want to create a network of students, so they can share stories, work as a team, contact good sources, read ans study about climate change and cities, with a space do public their reports. It's a new way of thinking climate change communication.
Team

Founding Story

My name is Felipe and I'm a 30-year-old Brazilian journalist. I've been working with environment since I graduated, in 2006. During those years, I've always had a crush on climate change and the urban space, and I've always been concerned about how we communicate this issues to the society, so they can make a real change in their daily lives. So I was thinking: how can we do that, and how can we collaborate to give the right tools and skills to young students, the future opinion leaders, to learn about that climate change and be able to communicate properly about that? A new way to learn, write and read stories. And them the Climate Journalism was born

Team

Felipe Lobo Founder, Director and Editor Strong experience in communication, sustainability and project management. Worked as editor and reporter for the website O Eco, reference of environmental guidelines in Brazil. Coordinated the launch of projects Climate Savers and Earth Hour for WWF-Brazil, in Brasilia, and scripted / directed institutional films for Wix. As a marketing and content manager of Brasil/CT was responsible for team coordination at SuperBônus, loyalty program of Banco Santander. Creator and partner of Na Boca do Lobo, worked with clients such as WWF, European Union, Instituto Escolhas, Odebrecht Ambiental, Aquapolo, Foz Águas 5, Trip Magazine, Channel OFF, Wix, among others. Main skills: entrepreneurship, results-oriented and passion for challenges. www.nabocadoloboproducoes.com Marcus Paulista Co-Partner, Designer and Developer Designer focusing on animation and mounting web, television and film, Marcus Paulista (Marcus Cunha) carries out work for various artists and productions for film and television since 2000. Is an expert on development and partner of Animatico. www.animatico.com.br Tiza Lobo Editor Tiza Lobo is a writer and a producer of cinema, tv and theatre. She has published four books and is a former writer for Rede Globo. Juliana Penna Finance Juliana has an MBA in Business Management from FGV, one of the most important business schools in Brazil. It has been working for over 10 years in the financial and administrative area. João Otávio Monteiro Intern João is a advertising student at PUC-Rio. Ruth Zagury Translator She's responsible for all the translation for portuguese to english in Climate Journalism Escritório Alberto Garcia The company Escritório Alberto Garcia is under contract with Na Boca do Lobo Producões Artísticas LTDA (creator of Climate Journalism) for accounting services. For more than 42 years in the market, it is specialized in legalization of companies, legislation and comprehensive advice to companies, income tax returns for self-employed, professionals and individuals. -- As the project grow, we'll bring to our team a new developer, a responsible for social media and ads, a contact focal point with universities, a new editor, a contact focal point with our partners and another intern to help us with the contacts and social media.
Background
Please confirm how you heard about the Unilever Awards:

I heard about the Unilever Awards from Marina Yamaoka, Brazil Desk Editor – The Tree, one of our partners.

Please confirm your role in the initiative (eg Founder/co-Founder) and your organisational title:

Founder

Which of the 8 UN Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals) pre-selected for this competition does your solution relate most closely to? [select all that apply]

No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action.

Leadership and the Unilever Awards
Please provide examples of any previous entrepreneurial initiatives you have pioneered.

I'm a co-partner and co-creator of Na Boca do Lobo, a content agency and film produing company in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Since march 2013, we worked with a lot of hugh clients, such as Instituto Escolhas, WWF, ITPA, Wix, Trip Magazine, Channel OFF, Odebrecht Ambiental, Neoenergia, Aquapolo, Odebrecht S.A., and others. We created projects in areas such as film producing, social media, online content, websites, events, etc. We've just won two competitions: one with WWF-Brazil and European Union, and another one with Internews' Earth Journalism Network, which gave us the opportunity to develop Climate Journalism.

Beyond your existing team, who else are you working with to achieve your objectives, eg partners, advisors, mentors?

We're working with ICLEI - Locals Governments for Sustainability, WWF-Brazil, Internews' Earth Journalism Network and A Árvore (The Tree) - our partners. We also work with a lot of partners in universities and sources on climate change in Brazil, from C40, Greenpeace, TA, Instituto Escolhas, GIP, and others.

File attachments: 
PDF icon confirmation_partnership_iclei.pdf
PDF icon confirmation_partnership_wwf-brazil.pdf