About Us
Earth Hacks was founded in 2019 by a group of friends in engineering school who saw a gap in the hackathon scene. They’d attended plenty of hackathons as participants and organizers, but found few spaces where environmental issues took center stage. Inspired by the open-source spirit that hackathons were built on, they decided to retrofit the hackathon format to tackle one of the defining challenges of our time: climate change. The first Earth Hacks event took place in 2018, tucked into the basement of the Science Museum of Virginia, where a small but passionate crowd of local students gathered to brainstorm, innovate, and learn about climate action.
From there, Earth Hacks began to grow organically. Students from across the country started reaching out through networks, text threads, and group chats, all eager to bring environmental themes into their own events and share ideas. What started as a one-time gathering quickly scaled up into a national, and eventually international, support network for environmental hackathons around the world.
As of 2024, Earth Hacks has co-hosted or supported over 60 hackathons worldwide and worked with over 5,500 students from every inhabited continent in the world. Our impacts include:
Career & Academic Shifts: We’ve had students shift their majors, change career paths, or pursue further studies in environmental fields after participating in our events.
Real-World Project Experience: Earth Hacks offers students exploratory, experiential learning opportunities where they can work on hands-on projects.
Broadening Horizons & Building Confidence: Students leave environmental hackathons with more confidence in their environmental skillsets and knowledge, and the ability to make informed decisions about their career and personal choices.
Community Building & Support: Earth Hacks fosters a welcoming, inclusive environment, with a particular emphasis on first-time hackers who may feel excluded in more traditional hackathon environments.
Long-term Mindset Shift: Participants learn to see climate action as central to their lives and careers, and as a huge opportunity to enable positive change in the world.