Greentech Festival Kicks Off Inaugural Asian Event in Singapore, Brings In Stars Like Nico Rosberg and JJ Lin

What does former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg have in common with local singer-songwriter JJ Lin? As it turns out, they both share a desire to tackle environmental challenges, and want to promote sustainable practices via green technologies.

This was the case at last week's Greentech Festival (GTF), which held its inaugural Singapore event – and its first in Asia – at the picturesque Gardens by the Bay. The Berlin-based platform was here to attract exhibitors and investors from all facets of life and allowing them to present their visions of a greener future, with GTF co-founder and former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg officially kicking things off on Thursday.

German automaker Audi, the platform's founding partner, provided 10 electric cars to ferry high-level attendees to and from the event space, including the RS e-tron GT and e-tron S Sportback. 

Together with GTF co-founder Marco Voigt, Singapore Tourism Board (STB) Executive Director Poh Chi Chuan, and Audi Singapore's Managing Director Markus Schuster, Nico Rosberg outlined the goals of the festival and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). 

This MoU effectively means that the 2023 and 2024 GTF events held in Singapore will be enabled and supported by STB.

Mr Schuster also elaborated on Audi's current sustainability efforts (dubbed Mission:Zero), which involves the company's commitment to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050. He shared that certain production facilities have already met that target, and that the automaker's also on track in halving its water consumption by 2035.

The company had also flown in their larger-than-life Urbansphere concept car to the event, providing attendees a sneak peek into Audi's vision of green mobility. Packed with lounge-like seats, an expansive front dash, and suicide-style doors, it was a crowd-puller, to say the least.

The electric vehicle, which features Level 4 automation (the car is essentially self-driving but the driver can still request to take control) was first unveiled to the world last April in an online presentation.

Also present at the two-day event was JJ Lin, a popular Singaporean artiste who has made strides in promoting sustainability to the masses. His latest coffee venture, Miracle Coffee, utilises single-origin beans, which is an arguably more sustainable growing practice.

In an Instagram post on his official account page, the singer said that the festival was an opportunity for everyone to not only spread awareness regarding such green movements, but to also contribute meaningfully and effect change for good.

Apart from big-brand exhibitors being present such as Lufthansa and the World Wildlife Foundation, the event was packed with bootcamps and what GTF called a "sustainable startup slam", where three outstanding startups are given a minute each to deliver a keynote. They would then be asked a question by Nico Rosberg and a member of the audience, adding to the stakes.

Greentech Festival wrapped up their world tour for the year on Friday evening, and stated the following: "Together we can change the world, each other and ourselves. That was the aim of our conference today and we are extremely impressed with the outcome."

Photo Credit: Muhammad Mu'tasim (@mutasimdrives)

Read More: Audi Refreshes The e-tron for 2023, Changing Its Name to The Q8 e-tron and SQ8 e-tron

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