NZ tech start up wins innovation award

The chief product officer for New Zealand tech start up CarbonClick has been named as the International Michael Page Innovator of the Year for 2019.

CarbonClick CPO Jan Ivar Czaplicki beat out five other Australian finalists at the awards, which took place on 6 December.

Applications were judged upon their concept, value fit, delivery, impact and scalability, and CarbonClick was recognised as innovators in all five areas through its use of smart technology to fight climate change.

"Jan Ivars project really stood out taking action in the fight against climate change and carbon offsetting," says Jamie Blackwell, technology, digital - marketing mnager at Michael Page.

"We received an overwhelming amount of submissions with many inspiring ideas across Australia and New Zealand," Blackwell says.

Czaplicki has won a trip to the United States, including a behind-the-scenes tour of Boeing and Microsoft headquarters in Seattle.

"I'm so honoured and humbled to receive such a prestigious recognition. I must say that I couldn't have done it without my team and am incredibly grateful for all the support Ive received from colleagues, friends and family," he says.

"We've worked incredibly hard and getting this kind of recognition gives us the determination to keep pushing for innovation and better ways to fight climate change for the sake of future generations."

With a single click, CarbonClick helps tackle climate change for a sustainable and healthy planet. CarbonClick uses a portfolio of New Zealand and international offset projects for its carbon offsetting needs.

The company says previous carbon offsetting schemes have been challenging and expensive to implement for businesses and provided little transparency or certainty of efficacy to the user. "CarbonClick is easily implemented as a plugin or widget and provides instant social feedback to the user," it explains.

"One of the benefits of our system is that when people click the green button, they can see the good they do right away. It's one of the reasons we believe that our offsetting technology will see greater uptake rates than previous systems," says Czaplicki.

CarbonClick co-founders Jan Czaplicki and Paul Brady met while working on Air New Zealands carbon offsetting programme. They soon brought Dave Rouse on board as their CEO, tapping into his passion for the environment and entrepreneurial nous.