1. Presentation of the award
1.1 Introduction to the “Close the tap” award
“Close the tap” is a free participation competition, launched by Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB and aimed at promoting awareness on the issue of Climate Change and action for an effective transition to a low-carbon society.
The scientific community, the social players and part of the political and economic world are asking us to close the gap between the need and urge of a drastic cut of the emissions and the actual efforts currently deployed in this respect.
The atmosphere is often represented as a bathtub in which the CO2 accumulated over time symbolizes the rising water level. For this reason, it is necessary to act with a view to Close the tap in order to avoid a dangerous spillage.
This competition is aimed at rewarding an engaging visual tool composed of two videos able to provide knowledge and a call for action to both professional and common citizens and raise awareness about Climate Change, its causes, consequences and urgency.
The videos can be developed in the following styles:
- a live action video (made through real shooting and images – maximum 3 minutes),
- an animated video (made with digital images and animations – maximum 2 minutes).
By submitting the videos to the competition, it is implicitly accepted that the award promoter is authorized to share them free of charge (citing the author) and for not-for-profit purposes, in various occasions both public and private, such as social networks, during meetings, technical workshops, training courses or meetings with citizens. For example, they could be presented at the opening of meetings with public and private representatives, or during conferences and technical training on these subjects.
1.2 Awards
The awards are proposed as follows:
| Amount | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1° prize | 1.500 € | |
| 2° prize | 600 € | |
| 3° prize | 400 € | |
At the sole discretion of the organization, an additional Special Prize worth 400 € may be established, which may be granted by virtue of particular merits, in the methods and conditions chosen by the Jury and/or by a wider involvement of voters.
1.3 Award promoter
Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB created, promotes and manages the award “Close the tap”.
A description of Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB is provided at the end of this document.
1.4 Goal and objectives
The goal of this contest is to motivate citizens, politics, economy and all stakeholders, professionals and public authorities to work together for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through the videos we want to stress that all stakeholder (civil society, users’ associations, associations, companies, economic operators in the fields of carbon management, etc.) can play a role in copying climate change alongside government institutions, by following mandatory legislative frameworks as well as standards.
It is a change of culture that the visual tool must promote to encourage awareness about it.
Thus, the visual tool has several objectives:
- increase and improve information on climate change;
- share the need for collective action in which everyone must have an active role;
- promote actions of change.
The visual tool should present these relatively complex concepts in an easily understandable form and/or demonstrate the usefulness of their implementation.
1.5 Targeted audience
The target audience for these videos can be extremely diverse, including:
- common citizens, not necessarily expert about climate change
- organizations willing to start a path towards sustainability
- national authorities (ministries, agencies) and other regional or local institutions (local authorities…)
- professional players (e.g. environmental associations, etc.)
- local or national stakeholders (e.g. academics, scientists, etc.)
- public authorities (transport, tourism, defence, etc.)
- decision-makers, managers, socio-economic actors, climate change professionals, civil society, scientists, etc.
- any other interested party to climate change.
When creating the video, the applicant must have in mind the chosen targeted audience, and this must be indicated when filling up the application form, so that the jury is made aware about it.
2. Rules of participation
It is possible to apply for both categories, as well as for only one of them; that is, it is possible to realize only one video as well as two videos (one per category).
The participation to this contest automatically implies the authorization to grant the diffusion of the videos to the award owner for a free, not-for-profit use on the web and in private or public activities without additional charges. Therefore, Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB acquires the right for a free use of all the videos received, by reporting anyway the name(s) of the creator(s) when diffusing them. The applicants must sign the authorization, already foreseen in the application form, for a free use of their videos without additional charges when filling up the application form.
2.1 Concept
The concept assigned for the 2024 edition is:
Energy: produce it better or consume less. Is this the dilemma?
The candidate can freely interpret this concept in terms of communication, while guaranteeing the scientific solidity of the contents.
2.2 The visual tool
Authentic ideas will be appreciated, but in terms of evaluation, narratives that avoid fear-based registers will be preferred, promoting instead the involvement of the public in order to increase their awareness, in a proactive way towards an action of change.
In fact, we are looking for videos that capture the attention and can impress the viewer by presenting the facts through lightweight tones and entertaining narratives, despite climate change being a terrifying problem.
2.2.1 Live action video
The live action videos can be produced using all kind of techniques and styles.
Duration
The duration of the live action video must be 3 minutes maximum.
2.2.2 Animated video
The animations can be produced using all kind of different techniques. 2D animations, 3D, stop motion, mixed media and traditional animations are more than welcomed as long as there is an understanding of the basic principles of animation. All styles will be considered equal in regard to the evaluation, even if styles that are more time-consuming will be granted a bonus.
Durata
The duration of the animated video must be 2 minutes maximum.
2.3 Language
The audio of the videos can be registered in both Italian and English.
Subtitles in videos are a welcome option, in order to facilitate the fruition of deaf people.
Speechless videos are accepted too (i.e. no talking, only music).
2.4 Deadline
The deadline for the submission of the videos is midnight on the 30th of April 2024 (CET).
2.5 Modality of submission
The definitive live action video and animated video should be sent through WeTransfer or equivalent platform in a .mp4 format (max 1,5GB) to info@closethetap.it, writing in the subject «Close the tap Award».
3. Evaluation system
3.1 The jury
The jury is composed of the following experts:
- Daniele Pernigotti, Expert on climate change:
CEO of Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB, he’s the Chair of CEN/TC 467 “Climate change”, Vice-president of UNI/CT “Ambiente” and Convenor of GL15 “Cambiamento climatico”. He is the Italian delegate at ISO/TC 207/SC7 “Climate change”, Convenor of ISO/TC 207/TG2 “Circular Economy”, member of ISO/TC 207 Strategic Leadership Group (SLG) and he has been the Convenor of ISO/TC 207/SC7/WG8 for the development of ISO 14067, on Carbon Footprint of product. Daniele is Technical Advisor of Accredia for climate change accreditation schemes and works in the same area for ANAB (USA), ONAC (Colombia) and RvA (the Netherlands). He is actually member of the International Technical Working Group on Avoided Emissions (NetZero Initiative), the Advisory Board of the “CLICKSON Project” (ABC) and the Advisory Board of the “Carbon neutrality empowered by handprint” (VTT). He published several books about climate change.
- Marco Toffanin, Expert on live action videos:
Marco Toffanin is in charge of the multimedia unit at the Digital learning and multimedia office at the University of Padova. Along the years, he has focused on multimedia production in the area of education, research and communication. He has been creating hundreds of multimedia contents and wrote several scientific articles on the matter. He teaches multimedia communication at the University of Padua.
- Chiara Cant, Expert on animated videos:
creative director and founder of Italy based animation studio The Magic Collective, whose aim is to create an impact through visual storytelling. She focuses on creative visual essays and commercials for big clients and small charity organizations. In between keyframes and animations, she tries to influence social and environmental change. Her videos have been screened at the most important International Environmental Film Festivals, the European Parliament and Venice Film Festival.
- Team of Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB:
the Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB team is composed of expert environmental consultants from diverse backgrounds, specialized in different branches of carbon management.
Marco Toffanin is the reference person for the live action video category, Chiara Cant for the animated video category, while Daniele Pernigotti for the technical and scientific accuracy of the contents.
The jury holds full and unquestionable responsibility for the final judgment with respect to the evaluation of the videos and the winners.
The overall analysis of the applications will not be shared with the applicants. The jury may inform candidates of their own judgment upon request.
The jury will inform all applicants about the final winners via e-mail by the 30th of June 2024, as well as through publication on the website of the competition (www.closethetap.it).
3.2 Criteria and evaluation system
Videos that do not comply with the characteristics expressed in the Regulations, such as adherence to the subject matter of the concept and maximum duration limit, or that do not provide all the required documentation, will be excluded from the competition without the possibility of appeal.
The evaluation of the candidate videos will be based on the following criteria:
- Creativity and originality of the video
- Quality of the execution
- Technical/scientific accuracy of the contents.
The Prizes will be awarded on the basis of the unquestionable and indisputable judgment expressed by the members of the Jury referred to in Article 3.1.
The Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB Team will express an overall opinion on the works received.
Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB presentation
Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB is an italian environmental consultancy and training firm, specialised in carbon management, operating at national and international level founded by Daniele Pernigotti in 2002.
The motto of Aequilibria S.r.l. – SB is “Sustainable perspectives in evolution”, because the driving force of its work is the belief that sustainability is a pathway to be undertaken while considering the varying context.
In the nowadays context, we can’t think about sustainability apart from coping Climate Change.
The purpose of the company indeed is to support the organizations in their pathway and strategy towards a low-carbon economy with a sustainable perspective, since the opportunity of applying carbon management tools today will be a vital necessity in a near future.
The Regulation can be consulted from here.
