Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, launched on 15 November the fifth edition of Go Green in the City, a global business case challenge focusing on innovative energy solutions for smart cities.

From 15 November 2014 to 1 February 2015, business and engineering bachelor, master or MBA students from all over the world are welcome to join the challenge. In teams of two, with at least one woman, they will have to submit a case study illustrating their ideas for innovative energy management solutions for one of the five basic urban sectors: residential, university, business, water and hospitals. In the 2014 edition, the team from Hong Kong University won the challenge for its idea EnerBy, a mobile application that helps users to analyse and manage domestic energy consumption.

In addition to completing the case challenge, participants can expand their Go Green in the City experience by engaging in gamified elements and discovering resources that provide useful insight into developing winning business case solutions. Keeping in tradition with last years’ process, participants can also compete with quiz scores and social media votes for the Go Green Champs Award and Social Media Award respectively and win the opportunity to interact with Schneider Electric employees and previous year winners.

Over the last four years, the topic of energy management in smart cities has received increasing attention from students around the world. Attracting more than 12,000 registered participants from 159 countries during last year’s edition, Go Green in the City aims to educate young generations and build awareness about the need for smart energy management for sustainable cities. 1,800+ pre-registered
participants from over 80 countries have already shown their interest to participate in 2015’s challenge.

“This increasing participation in the challenge confirmed the strong involvement and interest of young students to find global solutions and face the current energy challenge,” said Olivier Blum, Chief Human Resources Officer, Schneider Electric. “We are proud with Go Green in the City to enable the young workforce to generate new ideas and solutions that will make our cities more sustainable.”

The top 100 teams will be announced on February 1st 2015 and will have a month to work with a mentor from Schneider Electric, in order to create a synopsis and a video presentation of their idea. The 12 best teams will then be flown to Paris (France) from June 22nd to 25th, 2014 to compete in the final.

The winning team will travel the world, VIP-style, with Schneider Electric, visiting facilities, networking with employees and high-level management. They will also be offered jobs with Schneider Electric in their home countries.