24/02/2021
The winners in the "Digital Innovation and App" category of the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards 2021 are:
an app that helps everyone to fight against climate change, an interactive app to explore the Cuneo Alps, a tool that allows hikers to bring augmented reality with them: These are the winning projects in the Digital Innovations & Apps category of the award devised by the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti exhibition centre located at 2,732 metres above sea level between Cortina and Val Badia.
The second edition of the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards focused on talent, innovation and green tourism in connection with the mountains and now puts those who have promoted the mountains as a laboratory for responsible and sustainable technologies, lifestyles and consumption in the spotlight.
The first place was won by Mugo, an app that estimates the climate impact of each individual’s lifestyle by answering a short online questionnaire and then supports the understanding, reduction and minimization of everyone's environmental impact, followed by Cuneotrekking and Peakvisor. The award ceremony and the exhibition of the winning projects at the Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti cultural centre will take place as soon as it will be possible to hold in-person attendance events again.
Cortina d’Ampezzo, 24th February 2021_The winner in the Digital Innovations & Apps category of the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards 2021 is an effective antidote for widespread distress, especially in times of pandemic: the defencelessness of those who have been overwhelmed by the events and do not know how to react. MUGO invites everyone to personally join the greatest challenge, the fight against climate change.This Italian start-up won the second edition of the award, an original curatorial project by Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti.
On the winners’ podium got also two more apps, Cuneotrekking and Peakvisor: both are oriented towards nature and mountains, sources of well-being and recovery. The winners have been determined by a jury made up of the students of the Unimont, the University Centre of Excellence “Mountain University” of the University of Milan, under the supervision of the lecturer Prof. Anna Giorgi.
Some of the participating projects were selected by highly qualified experts: Emiliano Audisio (Wired Next Fest, Frame, planner of cultural, scientific and technological events), Fabio Bogo (director of Green&Blue, media conglomerate Gedi), Jacopo Pertile (founder of AzzurroDigitale and licensee of TEDxCortina).
The three winners are united by a common concept that reflects the importance of the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards 2021: Technology and innovation can be great allies of the environment and the planet. And the mountains, an "extreme" laboratory for the coexistence of man and nature, are the most appropriate sphere for the development of sustainability-oriented ideas and projects.
These projects will be officially presented together with the winners of the other three competing categories, namely Mountain clothing and equipment, Mountain gastronomy industry. As soon as the epidemic situation makes it possible, the public will have the opportunity to admire them at the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti, next to the top station of the Lagazuoi cable car, between Cortina and the Val Badia, amid the stunning scenery that embraces a gallery and one of Europe’s highest cultural centres.
MUGO_The project was set up with the aim of creating the first generation without climate impact and supports everyone who wants to use technology to make a difference in the fight against climate change. A team of young entrepreneurs has developed an online platform to help people regain what sociologists call agency - the capacity to react to reality by making changes. Users answer a few questions about lifestyle and consumption habits and then receive a customized report on the tons of greenhouse gases they produce annually. After having acquired this awareness, they can receive practical advice on how to reduce emissions and, with small amounts, fund certified projects aimed at reducing the world's carbon dioxide levels. For example, you can contribute to the reforestation of the areas in the heart of the Dolomites destroyed by the Vaia storm. The app’s name, MUGO, was taken from the local mountain pine that absorbs a large amount of carbon dioxide. In short: "Be the change you want to see in the world".
CUNEOTREKKING_Simple and self-evident: mountains lovers love the mountains and as they love them, they protect them. Cuneotrekking is a free app developed with the aim of making it easier for day-trippers and hikers to explore the Cuneo Alps. Since after the lockdown the need for freedom increased the desire for hiking in nature, it must now be avoided that people concentrate on few all-known hiking trails. This very detailed project proposes more than 500 routes in the Cuneo Alps. The result of the Cuneo trekking team’s work, funded by the Association for Outdoor Tourism in the Cuneo Province, is a reference portal for mountain enthusiasts. Cuneotrekking is a case history that can be easily replicated throughout the country. A function of the app can record the user's preferences and then suggest routes with the preferred characteristics such as typology, duration, level of difficulty, etc.
PEAKVISOR_Augmented reality up to the top. Using the camera of your smartphone, you can get all the information you want: name and height of the peaks, paths, shelters, castles, the mapping of ski slopes, lift facilities and hiking trails. The company Routes Software S.r.l. succeeded in making excursions and activities in the mountains even more interesting: once you've discovered what the surrounding area offers, you want to explore it as soon as possible on foot, by bike or on skis. This app can also record the covered routes and import other routes in GPX format and displayed them on 3D maps.
This app does not require an internet connection: Even in the most remote areas or on the highest peaks, these features can be accessed offline. In addition, Peakvisor includes a 3D compass and an altimeter with which you can measure every visible peak. Another function, "The travel diary" tracks the performance of the user, the peaks he climbed and the kilometres he covered. The icing on the cake is the possibility of taking camera images with augmented reality, overlaying them with the names and heights of the peaks and share the joy of discovery with friends via social media.
Development and coordination of special projects Lagazuoi Expo Dolomiti and DOC-COM Press Office
