Verizon Climate Resilience Prize winners receive $500k to scale climate solutions

What you need to know:

• Verizon Climate Resilience Prize winners awarded a total of $500,000 to help scale solutions innovating to reduce climate change impacts on communities

• Hyfi, Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, and Coral Vita took first place in each prize category: next-gen tech, frontline community-led, and nature-based solutions

• The announcement took place live at the GreenBiz22 Conference in Scottsdale, AZ in partnership with the Arsht-Rockefeller Climate Resilience Center

BASKING RIDGE, N.J - Today, Verizon announced the three winners of its inaugural Climate Resilience Prize at the GreenBiz22 conference, awarding a prize pool of $500,000 to help scale proven, in-market solutions that are focused on mitigating the disproportionate impacts of climate change in vulnerable communities.

In partnership with GreenBiz and the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Climate Resilience Center, Verizon’s Climate Resilience Prize recognizes next-gen solutions that have already demonstrated results in real-world application and are ready to scale. The Prize was announced at GreenBiz’s VERGE 21 Conference in October, and applications were evaluated by a panel of industry and subject matter experts. This initiative is part of Citizen Verizon, the company’s responsible business plan for economic, environmental, and social advancement.

“At Verizon, we feel it is our responsibility to not only address the impacts of climate change but to use our resources and technology to develop and implement innovative solutions that help advance society,” shared Carrie Hughes, Director of Social Innovation for Verizon. “Our Climate Resilience Prize winners have proven they are ready to bring positive change to vulnerable communities immediately, and we’re proud to support and help scale these game-changing innovations for the betterment of our planet and for those who live in it.”

The Verizon Climate Resilience Prize was awarded to the three winners in each prize category: next-gen tech solutions, frontline community-led solutions, and nature-based solutions. An overview of each winner can be found below:

• Leading-Edge Tech Solution: Hyfi. Hyfi provides high-resolution water level data to help stormwater managers, first responders, and the public respond to floods in real-time.

• Frontline Community-Led Solution: Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP). As the risk of wildfires continues to spread within California and beyond, FFRP recruits and employs formerly incarcerated individuals in forestry work that prevents wildfires and in the fighting of fires when they do arise.

• Nature-Based Solution: Coral Vita. Coral Vita protects threatened ecosystems by growing diverse and resilient corals on land up to 50x faster, and through a mission-based commercial model, and planting them in degraded underwater reefs.

In addition to working to help communities deal with climate change, Verizon’s own sustainability goals are to source or generate renewable energy equivalent to 50 percent of its annual electricity consumption by 2025 and achieve net zero emissions in its operations by 2035. Last month, Verizon said that since December 2019 it has signed 20 agreements for a total of approximately 2.6 gigawatts of projected renewable energy capacity.

To learn more about Verizon's ongoing efforts to support communities in need, visit CitizenVerizon.com.