5 Years of
INTRODUCTION As we reflect on the past five years, Earth Hacks has completely transformed from what it was when we began as a bunch of friends hoping to harness hackathons as climate action. we are so grateful to have consistently grown, not just in size but in impact, touching lives and nurturing ideas that hold the potential to reshape our world for the better. In these years, Earth Hacks events have become synonymous with inclusive environmental problem-solving, hosting and supporting an array of hackathons that span the globe. Our themes have been ranged from fast fashion to environmental data visualization, always with a focus on transformative environmental education or community-driven projects.
Our journey has been marked by several milestones, including collaborations with incredible partners, new geographic focuses, and the creation of new programs. The heart of Earth Hacks lies in its community - a vibrant, dedicated group of hackers, mentors, and volunteers. Their relentless passion and creativity have been the driving force behind our success. As we navigated the challenges of the past half-decade, their resilience and commitment to environmental innovation have been incredibly inspirational to the whole team. Looking ahead, we are at an exciting crossroads. Earth Hacks is planning to expand its horizons, with plans to introduce new initiatives and scale our impact. As we embark on this new chapter, we reflect on all we’ve accomplished so far with gratitude and joy. Let’s hack the climate crisis together! The Earth Hacks Team
Photos through the years
Earth Hacks milestones
Summer 2017: Sanjana, Earth Hacks’ executive director, has the first conversation about Earth Hacks while an intern at conservation x labs Fall 2017: starts working with earth hacks cofounders bhargav sathish and jade holweger, as well as some more friends and earth hacks board member dr stephen fong to start planning the first earth hacks March 17-18, 2018: first earth hacks takes place at the science museum of virginia April-May 2018: students from around the country reach out to earth hacks organizers, making them realize that there is a huge opportunity to harness hackathons as climate action December 19, 2018: Earth Hacks is incorporated as a nonprofit organization
Earth Hacks milestones January 18-20 2019: Earth Hacks supports its first external hackathon at UC Santa Cruz January 26-27 2019: The second earth hacks event takes place at virginia commonwealth university September 14-15 2019: earth hacks supports its first high school hackathon, h2hacks May 1-3 2020: Earth Hacks supports its first fully virtual hackathon due to the covid-19 pandemic, Cal Earth Hacks at UC Berkeley June 5-7 2020: Earth Hacks coorganizes its first organizational hackathon, the GEO Indigenous Hack4COVID. This is also Earth Hacks first international hackathon!
Earth Hacks milestones
March 26-28 2022: Earth Hacks supports its first hackathon in India, HackN-Code 5.0. India is now one of our fastest-growing countries we partner with hackathons in! Summer 2022: Earth Hacks launches the Environmental Justice in Tech Initiative November 17-18 2022 : AmazoniaHack, Earth hacks’ first bilingual hackathon focused on combating deforestation in the amazon rainforest, launches april 2023 - an environmental justice workshop, policy for the people co-hosted with WE ACT for Environmental justice in New york city September 2023 - earth hacks goes to climate weekand times square!
Hackathon spotlights: Vaquita Hacks (2020)
Earth Hacks teamed up with The Conservation Project International (TCPI) and The Countering Wildlife Trafficking Institute (CWTI) to host Vaquita Hacks, the first hackathon in the world dedicated to Vaquita conservation. The organizers worked closely with Earth League International to identify gaps in the solution space and create challenges to solve them, spanning 3 tracks: 1. Wildlife Crime Law Review 2. Science and Geographic Analytics 3. Public Engagement and Civic Action The event hosted over 100 participants and featured a pre-hackathon screening of the sea of shadows documentary!
Hackathon spotlights: urban heat island hack (2020) Earth Hacks, urban canopy, and scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s ecostress team hosted a hackathon to use Ecostress data to map urban heat islands across the world.
Hackathon attendees were asked to search through ECOSTRESS surface temperature data to find high quality images of cities during heat waves, treat the images in a geographic information systems (GIS) program called QGIS, then to put the data on a map product using Mapbox.
Hackathon spotlights: envision 2050 (2021)
Earth Hacks hosted our very first ideathon, Envision 2050, on behalf of Arizona State University's College of Global Futures, and the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. Envision 2050 focused on the state of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the year 2050, and asked participants to propose projects building upon the SDGs. Over 100 students from 22 countries took part in the event, which hosted speakers from The NAACP, Overachiever Magazine, The Global Tapestry of Alternatives, and more.
Hackathon spotlights: AmazoniaHack (2022 + 2023)
AmazoniaHack Is a bilingual open Innovation hackathon for the Amazon Rainforest, taking place each year in english and BRAZILIAN portuguese. The first AmazoniaHack in 2022 focused on hardware challenges to combat deforestation in collaboration with Brazilian organizations libelula and greenbug. The second edition in 2023 focused on geospatial and communications challenges, and worked with 4 organizations doing on-the-ground deforestation work in brazil!
Participant stories “Every winner was once a beginner. Participating in hackathons will improve your coding efficiency, regardless of whether you win or lose.” -Harshal Dave, HackerStellar
“It was wonderful working with Earthhacks and all the young people that came out to support the movement for a toxic free world. The Climate Justice movement is intergenerational, and it was great working with young people, all united in the fight for environmental justice.” - Elizabeth Reyes, Policy for the People
“Everyone at the hackathon was once someone who had never attended a hackathon before so don’t be nervous to try because of a lack of experience! There’s something for everyone so embrace a weekend where you’ll learn a lot while meeting like-minded individuals!” - Prajna Soni, Urban Heat Island Hackathon
Participant stories “Hackathons are for everybody! Your skill sets are just as valuable as that of a programmer. In fact, our climate crisis requires solutions with different perspectives because it affects everyone, not just programmers.” - Alyssa Beth Luna, TGP Agile Capstone Environmental Justice Hackathon “Environmental hackathons are great opportunities for those who are interested in solving environmental problems. Many researchers or students with skills such as programming have some ideas to use their expertise in solving real-life problems, but they don’t know how to start. Participating in hackathons is a good start for them to get to know other people in their field, and present and grow their ideas by forming a group with other people with different expertise.” - Ali Katal and Mohammad Mortezazadeh, Envision 2050 Hackathon “At first, I found it uncomfortable to focus more on developing the concept rather than building the project. But going out of my comfort zone challenged me to consider numerous factors while solving a problem.” - Bereket Nigussie, Haverford Ideathon
impact and achievements 4693 hackers participated in Earth Hacks’ environmental hackathons 550 projects created at Earth Hacks events 54 hackathons supported or co-hosted
global reach
Earth Hacks has hosted hackers from the following countries:
Argentina
England
Namibia
Scotland
Australia
France
Nepal
South Africa
Brazil
Germany
New Zealand
Spain
Burkina Faso
Ghana
Nigeria
Sri Lanka
Cameroon
Guatemala
Paraguay
Tanzania
Canada
India
Peru
Uganda
China
Indonesia
Philippines
United States
Costa Rica
Kenya
Puerto Rico
Czech Republic
Mexico
Russia
beyond hackathons Outside of hackathons, Earth hAcks has also had the chance to deliver workshops and talks in a variety of settings, ranging from conferences to community gatherings! workshops, webinars, guest lectures include: ESWCon 2023 Panel & Workshop Climate Week NYC 2023 Environmental Justice in Tech Teach-in Power Shift Network Convergence 2023 Workshop (w/ FracTracker and I See Change)
acknowledgements We’d like to thank everyone who has been a part of Earth Hacks’ journey - from the hackers who stayed up all weekend to develop dashboards for wildlife conservation, to the mentors who generously gave their time to help students learn, to the funders and sponsors who enabled us to create a global community of environmental hackers, to our partners for their trust and collaboration. We are so grateful every day for the opportunity to create a space for curious, motivated students to harness hackathons as a form of climate action and can’t wait to keep growing our impact together! The earth hacks team
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