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Wonky Harvest and Lloyds Banking Group were named winners in the emerging and established categories of the Sustainable Finance Hackathon 2026. Their proposals addressed food insecurity and local energy costs, respectively; Wonky Harvest said it hopes to pilot its model at the University of Manchester, while Lloyds described further work on retrofit and green lending.
Wonky Harvest and Lloyds Banking Group have won the emerging and established categories, respectively, at the Sustainable Finance Hackathon 2026, with proposals aimed at food insecurity and local energy costs. The event ran from September 1 to October 28 and challenged participants to develop practical approaches to community-led growth and regenerative finance.
Wonky Harvest, the emerging-category winner, was created by university students Cameron Sajedi, Caue Tomaz, Dhillon Shah, Navaneeth Vijayan and Nizaankan Thayaparan. Their proposal addressed food insecurity by connecting farms with unsold or irregularly shaped produce to university students and local kitchens. Students would receive starter meals and could earn vegetable boxes by volunteering, while ticketed cooking events could generate revenue shared with participating farms.
The team described a local exchange model in which farms, students and kitchens contribute produce, volunteer hours or meals. It said commitments would be pooled through Cosmo-Local Credit pools, with payments and claims open to checking. The proposal also uses Burin, described by the team as open-source software that verifies location, to check whether a farm is local and whether meals are directed to areas of need. Hackathon judges praised the proposal’s use of geospatial data and research, as well as its feasibility, scalability and community-building potential, according to the event report.
Lloyds Banking Group won the established category with “Financing Microgrids,” presented by Andrew Torr, Jonathan Steel, Mihail Beshkov, Gwennan Drouillet and Maria Christodoulidou Manitara. The proposal would replace separate household microgrid arrangements with a shared local transformer, allowing multiple buildings to trade electricity dynamically. The team said the model could support local energy markets, help communities address energy prices and make better use of renewable generation through retrofit planning.
Two Proposals Target Local Needs
The winning projects show how the hackathon framed sustainable finance around community-level problems, rather than treating it only as a way to fund large-scale environmental projects. One proposal links surplus farm produce, student volunteering and meals; the other explores shared local energy infrastructure and financing. Both connect financial arrangements with services and resources that affect everyday community life.
The projects remain proposals, not reported operating programmes. Their wider significance will depend on whether they can move from a pitch and demonstration to delivery, and whether the expected benefits can be measured. For Wonky Harvest, that includes the amount of food recovered and the income returned to farms. For Lloyds’ microgrid concept, the report does not provide projected savings, participating sites or evidence of deployment. The awards recognize the ideas presented at the event; they do not establish that either model has been implemented or produced results.
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How the Hackathon Set Its Challenges
The event focused on creating a coordination layer for community, place and stewardship, with the stated aim of helping communities act as agents of change. It brought together community leaders, NGOs, technology providers, fintech innovators, academics and specialists. Participants were divided into emerging and established groups and worked on one of four problem statements: enabling community collaboration, financing community organisations, using satellite and geospatial data to understand nature risk, or addressing food and energy insecurity.
Teams could draw on approaches including community banking, artificial intelligence, open planning systems, geospatial and Earth observation data, and sustainable finance. Each group had eight minutes to pitch and demonstrate its solution. Judges considered presentation, feasibility, scalability, technical implementation, use of data, business model and potential impact, according to the Finextra report. Both category winners chose the fourth challenge, which covered food and energy insecurity.
Richard Peers, host of the event and founder of ResponsibleRisk, said the purpose was to ask participants how ideas for thriving communities could be put into practice. He described the submissions as efforts to “roll up the sleeves” and contribute to a better society. His remarks set out the event’s practical ambition, though they do not constitute an assessment of whether the winning proposals will be delivered.
““We hope our solution can contribute to conversation around energy bills and the decarbonisation of buildings.””
— Andrew Torr, Lloyds Banking Group
Pilots and Delivery Remain Unconfirmed
The published report does not say whether either winning proposal has secured funding, entered a formal development phase or been tested in operation. Wonky Harvest’s University of Manchester pilot is described as a plan, with two local farms named as intended partners; the source does not confirm that the university or farms have agreed to participate. It also gives no pilot dates, budget or results.
For Lloyds’ microgrid proposal, the report does not identify a launch location, project partners, financing commitments or implementation timetable. It does not provide estimates of household savings, emissions reductions or the costs of retrofitting the system. The hackathon report also does not detail the judges’ individual scores or provide a full account of how the winners were selected beyond the stated judging criteria.
Proposed Tests and Follow-Up Work
Wonky Harvest said it wants to run a one-term pilot at the University of Manchester with two local farms. The team plans to measure the quantity of food rescued, the fibre students eat and the money returned to farmers, then explore expansion to other campuses. Those steps remain the team’s stated intentions; no confirmed start date or partner agreement was included in the report.
Andrew Torr said Lloyds would continue working on insights and green lending to support retrofit, using models and forecasts built during the hackathon. The source gives no timetable or specific next milestone for “Financing Microgrids.” Further details on whether either proposal advances to a funded pilot, and what evidence the teams collect, will determine how far the ideas move beyond the competition.
Key Questions
Who won the Sustainable Finance Hackathon 2026?
Wonky Harvest won the emerging category, while Lloyds Banking Group won the established category.
What did Wonky Harvest propose?
The team proposed using unsold farm produce for meals and vegetable boxes for university students, with volunteering and ticketed cooking events forming part of the local exchange model.
What was Lloyds Banking Group’s winning idea?
Its “Financing Microgrids” proposal described a shared local transformer through which multiple buildings could trade electricity dynamically, supported by community-focused financing.
Will Wonky Harvest’s pilot go ahead?
The team said it wants to run a one-term pilot at the University of Manchester with two local farms. The report does not confirm that the pilot has been approved or scheduled.
Have either of the winning solutions been put into operation?
The source reports the competition results and the teams’ proposals, but does not confirm that either solution has been implemented or that it has produced measured outcomes.
Source: finextra.com
