Between March 22-23, 2017 the hackathon "Reverse waste" took place, the first hackathon in Israel to deal with food loss and waste through creative solutions. The hackathon was a joint collaboration between The Natural Step Israel, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Manna Center for Food Security together with StarTAU - Tel Aviv University's entrepreneurship center. More than 150 entrepreneurs and mentors from a variety of fields participated in the hackathon with the aim of producing solutions to challenges in two different tracks: a focus on agricultural, and a focus on consumer behavior.​

The hackathon is an integral part of our Innovation and Sustainability Lab to reduce food waste in Israel, particularly in the testing and prioritizing of solutions towards implementation. The ideas selected in the hackathon will be tested for further development and/or as pilots in the lab process.

These specialized accelerator meetings serve as an introduction to the world of sustainability for boards of directors in public, governmental, private and municipal entities.

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Their purpose is to help participants internalize the importance, relevance and urgency of integrating sustainability into management practices in their respective organizations. To this end, they understand that sustainability is an entire discipline which cannot be learned in a two (or three) hour session, and that it is critical to keep learning.

These specialized accelerator meetings focused on introducing the world of sustainability to the high-tech community in Israel.

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Here they learned to view sustainability practices not as a burden but as a powerful tool and opportunity for startups to drive innovation and build resilience. The meetings approached sustainability as a broad and professional discipline which encourages the development of solutions to current challenges.