FOAK Climate Hackathon
What does it take to get a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) climate infrastructure project off the ground?
From capital stacking to site selection, startups face daunting hurdles in scaling physical solutions. This hackathon brings those real-world challenges to life through two case studies from Earthics and Turnover Labs—early-stage companies building transformative climate infrastructure.
Join us in Manhattan for a two-day, multidisciplinary event where your unique skills and ideas can affect these critical processes. Hackers will have 24 hours to create solutions to to startups challenges and have an opportunity to win $1,000 in cash prizes!
To attend only the demo portion of the event, please select the "demo only" option when registering, and please plan to attend from 1:00pm to 3:00pm on Sunday, Aug 24.
Food and beverages will be provided.
Agenda
Day 1 (Saturday, Aug 23)
11:00am: Gather and meet
12:00pm: Small teams are formed, problem context from startups & industry experts
1:00pm: Hackers work on solutions
7:00pm: Event space closes
Day 2 (Sunday, Aug 24)
12:00pm: Event space opens
1:00pm: Hackers present their final demos
2:00pm: Judging, winners announced
3:00pm: Network
4:00pm: Event space closes
What to bring: your climate-interested and solutions-focused attitude, your laptop or pen+paper, and your unique skillset.
Challenge Statements: Hackers will have a choice between two FOAK case studies that surface the most urgent bottlenecks in scaling climate infrastructure:
Earthics: Create an investable capital stack and monetization model for their captured CO₂-to-synthetic graphite, serving critical industries: batteries, steel, nuclear, and defense.
Turnover Labs: Identify the optimal location for its first industrial waste to carbon-neutral chemicals facility by weighing permitting feasibility, logistics, and community buy-in, and more.
Deliverables: Your team will present a demo of your solution and business case. More detail on how to format and submit the deliverables will be announced leading up to the event.
Teams: You can create your team of 3-5 at the event, or come with a team already formed.
Prizes: Earthics winner: $500, Turnover Labs winner: $500.
Why FOAK? First-of-a-kind (FOAK) projects—like the first direct air capture plant, the first grid-tied thermal battery installation, or the first low-carbon cement facility—are critical to reaching climate targets. But they often stall before they start. These projects face a tangle of challenges: complex permitting, uncertain revenue models, hesitant investors, and a lack of shared playbooks. Getting one off the ground requires coordination across finance, policy, engineering, community engagement, and more—yet these players rarely sit at the same table. That’s why this hackathon matters. It brings together diverse minds to break down silos and tackle real FOAK bottlenecks, helping startups move from promising concept to climate-critical infrastructure.
And how is this related to Climate Change? Scaling climate tech means building real infrastructure and FOAK projects are the first step. If we can’t get them off the ground, the solutions stay on the shelf.
Event partners:
Earthics https://earthics.net/
Turnover Labs https://www.turnoverlabs.com/
Interested in sponsoring this hackathon, have an idea for the Challenge Statements, or want to help in some other way? Reach out to gabriellamcornejo@gmail.com