The Future of Energy Challenge

For the fifth year in a row, Shell is partnering with Net Impact to host the Future of Energy Challenge.

Net Impact is a non-profit organization that serves innovators and entrepreneurs at both the university level and in the professional world. Net Impact has a passion for empowering and equipping the next generation for success in reaching their goals and changing the world.

In the Future of Energy Challenge, Net Impact chapter members collaborate to design and innovate solutions to challenges related to mobility, energy and more.

The finalist teams are paired with Shell mentors to develop their ideas into strong proposals. The teams are then brought together to participate in an accelerator to further develop their proposals and help them get to “market-ready” status. Shell hosts this challenge to encourage and inspire the leaders of tomorrow by giving them a platform for expression, ingenuity and creativity when it comes to solving the latest challenges in energy and mobility.

In this year’s competition, students are challenged to find innovative solutions to reduce scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard – an international guideline designed to help companies and other organizations identify, calculate and report GHG emissions – clarifies each emissions category as:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions produced by company-owned facilities and operations
• Scope 2: Value chain emissions outside scope 1 operations. They are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, sourced from outside facilities.
• Scope 3: Value chain emissions outside scope 1 and 2, including emissions from suppliers, employees, and product users. e.g., in the case of energy companies, scope 3 emissions include, but are not limited to, those that come from customer use of refinery and natural gas products (individual and commercial).

The Future of Energy Challenge has produced innovative and viable business solutions that have changed the landscape of the mobility and energy space.

For example, the winners of the 2019 competition, ElecTrip, developed their idea through the Future of Energy Challenge and are now a fully operational business. ElecTrip is an electric-vehicle transportation company that uses Teslas to transport customers to and from cities like Houston, Austin and San Antonio. ElecTrip has completed over 1,000 rides and serves companies like McKinsey & Company, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, and Apple.