Alamat UP, a university-wide team of students, was named champion last Thursday in Shell's Eco-Marathon"Pitch the Future" challenge, marking the first time a Philippine team won in the contest's 35-year history.
Its winning entry is an idea for a smartphone app that helps instill eco-driving habits, and therefore lower carbon footprint, by incentivizing users in the form of fuel savings, discounts, and coupons. The students call their brainchild 'Cero', or Carbon dioxide Emissions Reduction Operation. "Our idea serves as a short to medium-term solution since the Philippines cannot effectively ban gasoline or diesel vehicles and transition to electric vehicles in a short time," Althea Laza of Alamat UP told CNN Philippines.
They estimate that their app can help bring down carbon dioxide emissions by 15% per vehicle. They also project monthly fuel costs to drop by ₱1,750 to ₱7,250.