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Wonky Harvest and Lloyds Banking Group were named winners in the emerging and established categories of the 2026 Sustainable Finance Hackathon. Their proposals addressed food insecurity and community energy costs; the source reports hackathon concepts, not completed pilots or measured outcomes.
Wonky Harvest and Lloyds Banking Group won the emerging and established categories, respectively, at the 2026 Sustainable Finance Hackathon, with proposals focused on food insecurity and community energy. The event ran from September 1 to October 28 and asked participants to develop ways to coordinate investment and action for community-led change; the reported winning concepts are proposals, not evidence of projects already operating.
Wonky Harvest, listed as Team 8, won the emerging category. Its five members—Cameron Sajedi, Caue Tomaz, Dhillon Shah, Navaneeth Vijayan and Nizaankan Thayaparan—were university students working on the challenge of food insecurity. Their proposal would redirect unsold or irregularly shaped vegetables from nearby farms into meals and produce boxes for students, linking access to food with volunteering and community cooking events.
The team described a local exchange in which farms, students and kitchens commit produce, volunteer hours or meals. Those contributions would be pooled and exchanged through what the team called Cosmo-Local Credit pools, with an open record of payments and claims. The concept also uses geospatial software called Burin to verify that farms are local. According to the report, judges cited the proposal’s use of geospatial data and research, along with its feasibility, scalability to universities and community-building potential.
Lloyds Banking Group, Team 9, won the established category with a proposal called “Financing Microgrids.” The team—Andrew Torr, Jonathan Steel, Mihail Beshkov, Gwennan Drouillet and Maria Christodoulidou Manitara—outlined a local energy arrangement in which multiple buildings could share electricity through a local transformer, rather than each home relying on a separate microgrid. The proposal paired that model with community banking and sustainable finance, aiming to support local energy trading and the use of renewable power.
Two Routes to Community Investment
The winning concepts show how the event applied sustainable finance to specific local needs, rather than treating it only as a question of funding large-scale projects. Wonky Harvest links food recovery with student access and farm income; Lloyds’ team links shared energy infrastructure with financing for lower-carbon buildings. Both proposals depend on coordination among local organisations and residents as well as a way to fund or exchange resources.
The proposals could be relevant to universities, farms, community groups and building owners if developed beyond the hackathon. But the report does not establish that either model has been implemented, nor does it provide results on food rescued, energy bills reduced, emissions avoided or investment secured. Their selection signals recognition by the hackathon’s judges, not proof of effectiveness at scale.
That distinction matters to readers considering whether these concepts can address food and energy pressures. The initiatives’ potential will depend on practical arrangements: who supplies capital, who operates the systems, how participants are recruited, and whether benefits are distributed as intended. Those questions are not answered by the announcement of the winners.
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How the Hackathon Set Its Challenges
The 2026 event focused on building a coordination layer for communities, places and stewardship, with the stated aim of helping communities direct investment and act on their own priorities. It brought together community leaders, NGOs, technology providers, fintech innovators, academics and specialists, according to the source report.
Participants were divided into emerging and established groups and assigned one of four problem statements: enabling community collaboration; financing community organisations; using satellite and geospatial data to understand nature risk; and resolving food and energy insecurity. Teams explored approaches including community banking, artificial intelligence, open planning systems and earth-observation data.
Each team had eight minutes to pitch and demonstrate its proposed solution. Judges assessed presentations, feasibility, scalability, technical implementation, data use, business models and potential impact. Both winning teams addressed the fourth challenge, though with different approaches: one centred on food access and farm surplus, the other on local electricity sharing and finance.
““We’re so happy to have won. It was a huge team effort, and it’s great to see the judges back an idea that tackles food waste, farm incomes, and student food insecurity together.””
— Wonky Harvest team
Pilots and Outcomes Remain Unconfirmed
The report does not say whether either winning concept has secured funding, partners or approval for implementation. Wonky Harvest said it wants to test its model for one term at the University of Manchester with two local farms, but no launch date, budget or confirmed university participation is provided. Its suggested measures include food rescued, food eaten by students and money returned to farmers; no results are available.
For Lloyds Banking Group’s proposal, details such as the locations, participating buildings, ownership of the transformer, financing structure and regulatory arrangements are not stated. The report also gives no projected or measured changes to energy prices, renewable-energy use or emissions. The selection criteria included impact potential, but the source does not publish scores, a judge-by-judge assessment or comparative results for the other teams.
Proposed Pilots and Further Development
Wonky Harvest says it plans to pursue a one-term pilot at the University of Manchester involving two local farms, with measurement of food recovered, student participation and payments to farmers. The source does not confirm when that work would begin or whether the university and farms have agreed to take part.
Torr said the Lloyds team would continue developing insights and green lending to support retrofit, using models and forecasts built during the hackathon. The report does not identify a timetable or a specific demonstration project. Further information about partners, funding and implementation would be needed to judge whether either proposal moves from a pitch to an operating scheme.
Key Questions
Who won the 2026 Sustainable Finance Hackathon?
Wonky Harvest won the emerging category, while Lloyds Banking Group won the established category. The event ran from September 1 to October 28, 2026.
What was Wonky Harvest’s proposal?
Wonky Harvest proposed using unsold produce from nearby farms to provide meals and produce boxes for university students, with volunteering and cooking events forming part of the exchange. The team described a local commitment-pooling system and geospatial checks; the report does not say the scheme is already operating.
What did Lloyds Banking Group propose?
The team’s “Financing Microgrids” concept would let multiple local buildings share electricity through a local transformer and trade energy dynamically. It paired shared infrastructure with community banking and sustainable finance, but no operating site or measured savings were reported.
Will Wonky Harvest run a pilot?
The team said it wants to run a one-term pilot at the University of Manchester with two local farms. The source does not confirm that the university or farms have committed, or provide a start date or funding details.
Have the winning proposals shown measurable results?
No. The report describes hackathon proposals and judges’ assessments, but gives no implementation results, such as food recovered, income returned to farms, energy-bill changes or emissions reductions.
Source: finextra.com
