ECO-UNESCO's YEA 2018 Finalist Booklet

ECO-UNESCO

EC O

Ireland’s Environmental Education and Youth Organisation

O’s C S E N -U

Young Environmentalist Awards

2018

Fin

a list Booklet

Environmental Protection Through Youth Action

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Message from Michael D. Higgins President of Ireland

Contents

I would like to send my best wishes to all those participating in the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Award Ceremony.

Welcome Message···············································································

2

Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time. It is a challenge that calls on each of us to consider how our own individual actions, achievements and initiatives can contribute to the preservation of our precious natural resources.

About ECO-UNESCO··············································································

4

Our Link to UNESCO···············································································

5

YEA 2018 Showcase and Awards Ceremony Schedule·····························

6

Floor Plan······························································································

7

Getting Your Youth Group or School Involved in ECO-UNESCO··················

8

It is greatly encouraging to know that we have, in this country, so many young citizens who strive to develop new visions for a shared future. As President of Ireland I am very proud of those citizens, and inspired by their generous will to contribute to the development of new versions of the future in which we might live ethically.

I congratulate all those taking part in the final Showcase and Award Ceremony, and I thank you for your commitment to the crafting of a shared world that is democratic, enriching and respectful of our fragile planet.

YEA Impact ·························································································· 10 What People Say about YEA ·································································· 11

Michael D. Higgins

Uachtarán na hÉireann President of Ireland Patron of ECO-UNESCO

Finalist Project Summaries Biodiversity··························································································· 12

Welcome to Ireland’s Largest Celebration of Youth ECO-Action

Climate Change··················································································· 16 ECO-Art & Design·················································································· 18 ECO-Community Development······························································ 20

We are delighted to welcome you to the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards Showcase and Ceremony 2018, Ireland’s largest celebration of young people taking environmental action.

ECO-Innovation···················································································· 22

This year we have had over 318 entries from thousands of young people all across Ireland, and today we are here to recognise the hard work and dedication from this year’s 80 finalists. Each of today’s finalists came to a regional ECO-Den, a Dragons’ Den style semi-finals where they pitched their projects to a panel of judges in order to secure their spot at this year’s Showcase and Awards Ceremony.

This year we’re celebrating 19 years of the Young Environmentalist Awards, and with it, our largest showcase to date. The programme has grown from its beginnings in 1999 and through the years, tens of thousands of young people from all across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have participated, helping to conserve and protect the environment and promote sustainable development, and encouraging others to do the same.

ECO-Health & Wellbeing········································································ 24 Energy·································································································· 25 Jamie Cudden Chairperson ECO-UNESCO

Water··································································································· 30 Super Junior·························································································· 32

We are immensely proud of all of the achievements of young people participating in this year’s Young Environmentalist Awards. You have shown magnificent enthusiasm, creativity and innovation in your approach to protecting the environment and promoting environmental awareness amongst your peers, schools, youth groups and wider community. We would like to commend the hard work, time and effort put into the projects by all the groups involved. We would also like to commend your leaders and teachers for supporting you in your work.

We would like to thank everybody who supported this year’s Young Environmentalist Awards, our sponsors, funders, and our judging panel. We greatly appreciate your time, interest and commitment and we look forward to working with you again in the future. We’d also like to extend a warm welcome to the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone, Head of ESD UNESCO, Alexender Leicht and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Micheal Mac Donncha.

Waste··································································································· 26

ECO-UNESCO’s Young Environmentalist Awards Funders & Sponsors ·········· 36 Acknowledgements·············································································· 37 Elaine Nevin National Director ECO-UNESCO

Mansion House Code of Conduct··························································· 38

We would encourage you to continue your great work and to encourage others to take environmental action and spread the spirit of the Young Environmentalist Awards.

3

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

About ECO-UNESCO

Link to UNESCO

Founded in 1986, ECO-UNESCO is Ireland’s environmental education and youth organisation. ECO-UNESCO has extensive experience in the development of environmental education programmes for young people in schools, youth groups and community groups. ECO-UNESCO is affiliated to the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations (WFUCA).

ECO-UNESCO is a Key Strategic Partner of UNESCO for the implementation of the UNESCO Global Action Programme for Sustainable Development.

ECO-UNESCO’s aims are to:

ECO-UNESCO is affiliated with the World Federation of UNESCO Clubs, Centres and Associations (WFUCA). The UNESCO Clubs movement started in Japan in 1947 with the aim of providing a means for individuals to become involved in promoting the goals of UNESCO, namely cooperation and collaboration for peace. Founded in 1981, WFUCA is responsible for informing, coordinating and mobilising its members with UNESCO’s support and cooperation. ECO-UNESCO is the WFUCA affiliate in Ireland and supports and coordinates an all-island network of ECO-UNESCO environmental youth clubs.

•

Raise awareness, understanding and knowledge of our environment among young people;

•

Promote the protection and conservation of our environment among young people;

•

Promote the personal development of young people through practical environmental projects and activities;

ECO-UNESCO as a Key Partner UNESCO’s GAP

•

Promote the ideals of UNESCO

ECO-UNESCO is a Key Partner of UNESCO in its Global Action Programme. UNESCO launched the Global Action Programme (GAP) to generate momentum for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This follows commitments made by the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development that called for changes about how we think and act, in order to achieve sustainable development. The goal of GAP is to generate and scale up action in all levels and areas of education and learning to accelerate progress towards sustainable development. In 2015 ECO-UNESCO was recognised by UNESCO for its work in ESD and was selected by UNESCO as a Key Partner for the implementation of its GAP in ESD under their Key Priority Action 4 – Mobilising and Empowering Young People.

This recognition came from ECO-UNESCO’s work in ESD in particular through the Young Environmentalist Awards programme and Youth for Sustainable Development programme.

ECO-UNESCO’s Work Environmental Youth Programme ECO-UNESCO develops and runs programmes for young people on a broad range of environmental issues through schools, youth organisations, community groups or local authorities. The programmes include environmental events and activities, environmental workshops, ECO-UNESCO Clubs, ECO-Youth Choices and Youth for Sustainable Development.

ECO-UNESCO also produces environmental education resources including publications and posters suitable for young people, youth leaders, primary and secondary school teachers, youth groups, community groups and individuals.

Training Programmes ECO-UNESCO develops and runs training programmes for young people and trainers within non-formal and formal education, providing a specialist approach to working with young people. The programmes include one-day training courses, and a range of QQI Accredited Courses including Introduction to Sustainable Development (L5), ECOCommunity Development (L3), Peer Education (L5), Outdoor Vegetable Crop Production (L3), Growing Vegetables (L4) and Ecology and the Environment (L6).

Awards ECO-UNESCO recognises and rewards the work of young people in environmental protection and conservation through a range of Awards programmes including our Young Environmentalist Awards.

Special Guest from UNESCO We are delighted to welcome Alexander Leicht to Dublin and indeed to this year’s Young Environmentalist Awards Showcase and Awards Ceremony. Mr. Leicht is the Chief of the Section of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education at the UNESCO office in Paris, France. Mr. Leicht will deliver am opening address and will also present the Awards.

5

Showcase Schedule

Welcome to the YEA 2018 Showcase

by ECO-UNESCO Youth Programme Participants

09:45 - 09:50

Official Launch of the YEA 2018 Showcase

by Lord Mayor of Dublin Mícheál Mac Donncha

09:50 - 12:20

Visit to Projects by the Expert Judging Panel

12:20

Showcase Ends 70

13:35 - 13:55

Round Room Re-Opens

13:55 - 14:05

Opening of the YEA 2018 Ceremony & Intro Video

by MCs, RTÉ Presenters, Ande Gray & Clara Murray

14:05 - 14:10

Welcome Address

by ECO-UNESCO National Director, Elaine Nevin

14:10 - 14:20

Opening Address

14:20 - 14:55

Award Presentations

14:55 - 15:05

Youth Performance

15:05 - 15:15

Keynote Address

15:15 - 15:50

Award Presentations

15:50 - 15:55

Youth Performance

15:55 - 16:00

Announcement of Overall Winners

16:00

Ceremony Closes

13

Awards Ceremony Schedule

71 72 3 7 75 74 76 77 79 80

W at er

Sta tio n

by Chief of the Section of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education at UNESCO, Alexander Leicht

78

SD

09:40 - 09:45

G1 Co nsu Resp 2 on mp si tio n & ble Pro du cti on

Showcase & Interactive Zones Open to All

B on Z Life

SD

09:40

G W SD elow e

Life G 1 5 On L Zon and e

Registration and Project Set-up in Round Room

ut ill O ChZone

8:30 - 9:30

EC O Zo -Tale ne nt

14 ater

SDG Action ate Clim one Z

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Young Environmentalist Awards 2018 Showcase and Awards Ceremony Schedule

1 G 1 ities SD able C s Zone

itie tain Sus mun m o &C

First Aid

by Minister for Children & Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone

Cloak Room oom kR Oa

Registration Zone

Smaller in size

Photo Zone

7

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Young Environmentalist Awards Programme (YEA) The Young Environmentalist Awards (YEA) is an all-Ireland environmental awards programme for young people aged 10-18. Since 1999, ECO-UNESCO has run this programme to honour the work of young people to protect, conserve and enhance the environment through local environmental projects, making a difference to their lives and the lives of others, both locally and globally.

After groups submit their environmental action project report, a number of groups from across Ireland and Northern Ireland are invited to pitch their projects in the Dragons’ Den Style regional semi-final judging rounds; the ECO-Dens. The finalists then showcase their project at the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards Gala Showcase and Awards Ceremony in Dublin.

Youth for Sustainable Development (YSD); Global Youth Leader for Change Programme

The programme is a fun and exciting way to empower young people to become better citizens, to build awareness of environmental issues in the community and to promote simple actions and lifestyle changes to help improve the environment.

Are you aware of the links between your own life and those of other people around the world and how this links to sustainable development? ECO-UNESCO’s Youth for Sustainable Development Programme involves a variety of initiatives to engage, empower and support young people aged 16 to 18 who are interested in sustainability and environmental issues. The YSD programme inspires, motivates and empowers young people to act locally in favour of sustainable development! If you are a young person who is interested in sustainability issues and wants to get involved with our Youth for Sustainable Development programme please e-mail us at: ysd@ecounesco.ie.

YEA Local to Global SDG Award – Linking with the Sustainable Development Goals The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal plan of action to be achieved by the year 2030. These 17 goals aim to end poverty, combat climate change and ensure that we leave peaceful, just and equal societies for future generations. The YEA encourages young people to contribute towards the achievement of the SDGs. Every SDG is closely linked with the YEA ten main award categories (Biodiversity, Climate Change, ECO-Art & Design, ECO-Community Development, ECO-Innovation, ECO-Health & Wellbeing, Energy, Transport, Waste, and Water). The Local to Global SDG Award is an additional award which projects are eligible for if they can find and highlight a link between their action project and the SDGs.

Learning2Change Our World Programme Learning2Change Our World is an ECO-UNESCO programme aimed at promoting a Whole Schools approach to Education for Sustainable Development in post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. The programme works with students, teachers and school staff across a number of selected schools. As part of the programme teachers and students receive training; they set up an ECO-UNESCO Club for young people; they explore issues regarding sustainability and development and how these areas affect our local and global communities; they carry out a Young Environmentalist Awards action project and work together in organising a week of action and awareness related to a local/global issue regarding sustainability. If you would like more information or have any questions on ECO-UNESCO’s Learning2Change Our World Programme please contact us at: youth@ecounesco.ie.

Source: www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/news/communications-material

YEA Further Growth Award If you participated in the YEA in recent years and are interested in continuing your existing project and developing it further, apply for the Further Growth Award. Your existing project can also be passed on to another group (e.g. next year’s TY group or new YEA project group from the same school/youth organisation).

YEA Programme Manual This manual is designed to empower young people by providing guidelines, activities and tools to think critically about various environmental and sustainable development issues, and to develop and carry out their own environmental action projects. It will guide both young people and their YEA Project Mentors through their YEA journey in a step-by-step manner. The manual is available for download at www.ecounesco.ie.

PRO GRA MA MME NUA L You ng Env iron me nta list

Aw ard s

for Youn En H g Pe vironm ow to Ca ople ent rry O & Th al Ac ut a tion eir Pr n Pr oje ct M oject ent ors

E CO

Irela

nd’s

-U N

Envir

onm

E SC

enta

l Ed

ucat

Do you want to meet like-minded people with an interest in the environment and in learning more about UNESCO’s work? If so, why not set up an ECO-UNESCO Club in your school or youth group? ECO-UNESCO Clubs are a great way to give focus to a group of young people who are interested in environmental issues! We have a dedicated Clubs Officer to help you establish and support your Club. Contact: clubs@ecounesco.ie.

O

ion

and

ECO-UNESCO Clubs

Yout

hO

rgan

isatio

n

9

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

YEA Impact

What Young People Say about YEA

45,000+

young people involved since 1999

“IT WAS AMAZING! Even if we don’t get any further in the competition I’m still a young environmentalist!”

- Eamonn Whelan from Carnaross National School

“This project is one of the best highlights of the year for me I loved doing it so much” -Luke James & Joseph Murray from Drimnagh Castle Secondary School

318

650+

projects registered for the YEA 2018 10% increase from 2017

4,000+

young people engaged in the YEA 2018

80

finalist groups invited the Gala Showcase & Awards Ceremony

young people received the six Steps to Success training workshops

YEA 2018 Key Highlights

“It was great to enter the Young Environmentalist Awards. Carrying out our project was really enjoyable, and I will definitely enter again next year!”

-Mia van Rens from Westport Tidy Towns / Leave No Trace Ireland

“I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this project. I have learned so much and have learned skills that I can use in the future. I am also very proud of the work that we have done and the changes we are making in our school to help the environment. It just shows that a lot of hard work can make a really big difference.”

6

regional semi-final ECO-Dens held

-Mia Knowles from Newpark Comprehensive School

“I really enjoyed the journey this project took me on and I am glad I took part in the YEA as I have found a new love for the environment.”

-Mairead Bennett from St. Brigid’s Secondary School Killarney

“I just want to say thank you to the organisers of the YEA for facilitating students with this platform to do good for the environment. We definitely never would have come so far without the guidance of the YEA Six Steps to Success and the inspiration from past students who made a difference through this award.

I also would never have learned as much about the environment as I did through researching for the project. So to conclude, our school is eternally grateful to the YEA because for us, this was the first step in our bid towards creating a green, clean school.”

-Jenny Salmon from Loreto Secondary School Bray

11

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Finalist Project Summaries Biodiversity - Senior A Look on Nature

Biodiversity Nature Trail

The local forest Doory Wood (which is adjacent to Clara Bog) is a rich and diverse habitat and our group wanted to preserve its beauty by bringing public attention to it. Our project goal was to make a short film on the wildlife that call the woods home and to survey the native plants. Once these two tasks were complete, we visited schools around the area to show them what we had discovered, and hopefully this will encourage them to have greater consideration for the natural beauty of their locale.

Our task was to create a biodiversity nature trail on our school grounds that would encourage students to explore and learn more about local nature. Each group member had a similar interest in promoting plant awareness, so we formed a group and designed the trail. Our aim was to spread awareness on local plant life and to give young people greater access to nature - and we think we succeeded in doing so!

John Scottus School, Dublin

Clara Youthreach, Offaly

Jack Doolan; Caleb Brennan; David Dunne; Leo Geoghegan; Kayleigh Brereton

Faolán Blade; James Woods; Christian Madden; Daman Singh Oberi

-

Be Loyal Don’t Use Palm Oil

Presentation Secondary School Tralee, Kerry

Bee a Hero

St. Annes Secondary School, Tipperary We are working to create awareness of the importance of bees, the differences between bees and wasps, and how we can save the bees from extinction. We did this by hosting a ‘Planting Day’ in our town. To organise the event, we contacted bee experts and the local heritage officer, and we also promoted it on social media. Furthermore, we held a successful awareness event in our school, we visited local primary schools and we planted over 70 bee friendly plants and flowers in our local area in the hope that we might attract more bees!

Palm oil is found in a great deal of everyday products on our shelves, but the general public don’t seem to be aware of its consequences. For our project, our aim was to highlight the environmental destruction that palm oil has been causing to the regions in which it’s produced. So far, we’ve carried out research, given informative seminars, created posters, and produced a petition. We hope that our work will go some way towards helping the animals and humans that have had their lives devatsted by palm oil production.

Danielle Ryan; Leah Cremins; Amy Kuss; Sarah Vaughan; Klaudia Sokol; Amy Lowry; Kate Fogarty; Caoimhe Carey

Cruelty-Free Cosmetics The Big Bite

Coláiste Chiaráin Athlone, Roscommon

-

John Scottus School, Dublin

It’s our group’s mission to inform the public as to why we need to stand up to animal testing in the cosmetics industry. Our main goal was to make people more aware of which day-to-day products are tested on animals, and we hoped that we could encourage our school peers and teachers to look for alternative, cruelty free brands. To achieve our goal, we held assemblies, carried out a school-wide survey and made posters and an Instagram account which promoted cruelty free brands. Whilst we may not have made a worldwide impact, we think we’ve changed some minds in our school community, and we all firmly believe in the phrase ‘think globally, act locally’.

Our project focused on shark endangerment and the effects that sharks can have on our environment. The main goal of our project was to raise awareness of the danger that the modern shark population are in and to show how critical they are to our fragile environment. We hosted a movie day for First Year students to raise money for the Shark Trust Foundation, and we’re very happy with what we’ve achieved so far.

Caoimhe Courtney; Eve Dufffy; Sara Abnoun; Sara Daly; Katelyn Bunworth; Edel Campion; Leah Canty; Grace Fitzmaurice; Bronagh Foley; Sarah Cleary; Rebecca Fitzgerald; Emma Carmody; Klaudia Drzymala; Sheanna Allman Moriarty; Laura Barrett; Clodagh Begley

Molly Hirst; Nina Howden; Tove Murphy; Gigi Watt; Kaiya Reddy; Aleksandra Dozorova

Kate Nally; Laura Johnson; Kelly Ennis; Cara Kinsella; Katie McGrath; Alex McDonnell

Wild Flower & Native Trees

Drimnagh Castle Secondary School, Dublin

Our project is all about raising young people’s awareness of wild flowers and native trees, and overall our aim is to make more young people aware of the importance of nature. When our group was coming up with the idea, we realised that we all had a similar interest in nature - so we decided to stick with that theme. We felt that our locality was looking a bit bland, and proceeded to plant bulbs and native trees such as hawthorne and beech. We hope that our work will help young people to appreciate their local natural environment that bit more.

Luke Murray; Jack Wynne; Demi Dayoalade; Anthony Magadan; Adam Gallgian Thomas Davis; Darragh Moore; Danial Che Ali

13

Bug Hotel

Ireland’s Burning Problem

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Drimnagh Castle Secondary School, Dublin

Moate Community School, Westmeath The aim of our project was to study the ecological impact that the fires of May 2017 had had Iocal peatland habitats. The project involved surveying three bogs that had experienced a fire in May 2017, surverying both the burnt and unburnt areas of each bog. We then assessed this data and created a very useful product for peatland restoration.

Our school is awash with wonderful green areas, and our group wanted to promote biodiversity in these spots. To do this, we thought that constructing a ‘Bug Hotel’ would be a simple and effective idea. A bug hotel is a manmade structure where insects are able to reside and thrive, as it contains everything that various insects need in order to create a suitable home.

The structure soon became a symbol of biodiversity in our school, and we feel that as a group we managed to raise awareness on the topic both in our school and in our local community.

Emma Kelly; Brian Conlon Jaime Ceazar Rivas; Sean Dunne; Liam Kavanagh; Cian McCarthy; Daragh McAuley; Saul Keane; Alex Calin

The Castle Pond

Biodiversity - Junior

Drimnagh Castle Secondary School, Dublin

The Eco Garden

When everyone left our school for the Summer holidays, foxes ripped up the lining of our school pond and the water seeped out, leaving it stagnant. Our YEA project goal was to mend the pond and encourage biodviversity by introducing new wildlife into the habitat. To achieve this, we replaced the raggedy tarp with a new tub and planted many different types of wildflowers. As the flowers bloom, we hope that more and more wildlife will be attracted to the habitat that we’ve created.

Rathdown Senior School, Dublin

Adam Wang; Rejoy George; Anandhu Sali; Robert Collins; Eyad Abd Elmoety; Eric McCabe; Dylan Byrne

Bee Good

Carndonagh Community School, Donegal

We created a garden in our school to spread awareness on the effect that mankind has on the environment and the diversity of flora and fauna. To support the garden project, we hung up posters that highlight the various collective nouns that describe groups of animals, as well as posters that raise awareness on the extinction of bees. The idea behind the ‘collective noun’ posters was to showcase that if these animals become extinct, plurals will no longer serve a purpose.

Anais Doherty-Vaucheret; Isla Murphy-Dewar; Charlotte Mitchell; Emily McAleese; Angela Gonzalez Bordas;

Bee Alert or Birds Get Hurt!

To encourage biodiversity on our school grounds, our group decided to start keeping bees. Our science teacher had some knowledge of beekeeping and taught us everything we needed to know about the process.

Once we had learnt the basics, we installed a bee hive which we have been nurturing and looking after ever since.

Loreto College Swords, Dublin

Paul Shiels ; Fionn Bowyer ; Joe Farren

Is the Air Quality in Our Area Poor and How Can We Tell?

St. Brigid’s Secondary School Killarney, Kerry

Air pollution is one of the biggest threats to our generation, and our YEA project helped to raise awareness on this topic. To inform school students, we held presentations about lichen and air quality during their science classes. In addition to this, we also held a poster competition for the First Years which allowed them to utilise their creative skills whilst learning something new. Finally, we held a nature walk for First Year students from which we collected data and results. We hope that raising awareness in our school community will have a positive effect on the wider environment.

Our YEA goal was to help sustain wild bird and bee survival. We had noticed birds swooping down into our school yard and feeding on discarded food wrappings such as tinfoil and plastic. From our research, we had discovered that 90% of dead birds are found to have plastic inside them – so we wanted to do something about this. After some consideration, we decided to organise a ‘Plastic Patrol Team’ to tidy up our outdoor area after lunch time. Our group also researched other forms of pollution that affect wildlife, and wanted to plant a pesticide-free wildflower garden in the school. We held a very successful cake sale to raise money to buy new wildflower seeds, bee-friendly flowers and hedging. We also linked up with Swords Tidy Towns to plant another wildflower garden in the town centre.

Caterina Antonica; Rachel Appleyard; Evita Argustaite; Aoibheann Brady; Salma Brimah; Aoibheann Byrne; Dana Cimahovica; SarahJane Crowley; Aoife Cullen; Veronica Dambe; Austeja Grigaravicuite; Katelyn Grogan; Hannah Joyce; Patrycia Kukielka; Tuie Lewis; Holly Lloyd Peate; Emma Lundy; Lily Mc Gloin; Sophie Mc Ternan; Rebecca Hughes Murphy; Amy O’Loughlin; Rachel Odunuga; Aisling Pedreschi Mc Mahon; Liliana Pinheiro; Eliza Sibi Mathew; Mila Smart; Amy Swift; Ieva Tenenyte; Lauren Walker; Abbie Walsh

Ava Moynihan; Mairead Bennett

15

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Climate Change - Senior Bin There, Done That!

Meat: The Only Option?

Loreto Secondary School Bray, Wicklow

Ballinteer Community School, Dublin

Our project is about trying to combat climate change by reducing our carbon footprint. We were truly taken aback by the fact that our school didn’t have any recycling facilities and we wanted to make a change.

We had three main goals: obtain recycling bins for our school, spread awareness about this issue to all members of our school community and reduce our carbon footprint. Collectively, we took a number of actions - from sorting through rubbish in our school, to handing out surveys and holding a poster competition for first years. As a result of our project, we’ll now be able to obtain recycling bins for our school due to funding from the Board of Management.

Emily McQuillan; Hannah Leonard; Jenny Salmon; Ciara Slattery

The Other Oil Spill

ECO-UNESCO Youth for Sustainable Development Programme, Dublin

Palm oil production is largely responsible for the destruction of what remains of our rain forests, so for our project, we thought it would be useful to raise awareness of this problem in our school community. We achieved this by holding a lunch time presentation where we showed students alternative products that don’t contain palm oil, and we believe that this will encourage them to re-consider purchasing products that utilise palm oil.

Newpark Comprehensive School, Dublin

There’s a strong relationship between climate change and meat consumption, and we wanted to highlight this with our YEA project. We did our research and organised a ‘Green Day’ where students tried vegetarian food, learned about the positive impacts the diet can have on the environment and planted vegetables in the school garden. The day was publicised in the Dundrum Gazette, and our canteen is now considering a Vegetarian Day every week.

Education’s Lacking Let’s Get Cracking

Abbey Community College, Waterford

New Park School - Plastic Outta the Park

Keela Doyle; Cian Conway; James Murtagh; Donal Howard

Nuno Camelo; Killian Wilson; Hana Mohamed; James Potter; Nele Groteclaes; Jaime Camacho; Gemma Canals Soteras; Nele Groteclaes; Lua Pallares Alonso; Laura Sanchez Del Rio; Filip Waszkiewicz; Segundo Gonzalez; Rubén Morueco Pena; Alba Saez de Jauregui; Doyle Conor; Ana Castillo-Serrano; Angela Ruiz-Alvarez; Alvaro Serrano-Torralbo

We want to introduce learning about sustainable development and climate change to the Irish learning system on a permanent basis. Our group felt rather strongly about the lack of education that is available to most Irish students on this topic. If we don’t introduce a common programme of learning now - how will any of us learn to look after our planet properly? We raised awareness of our campaign by holding a demonstration, conducting a survey, speaking with the general public about our ideas and creating a social media campaign.

Eimear Panoho; Aisling McEvoy; Aisling Young; Ruairi Moore; Lily Ní Dhrisceoil; Eve Mc Sweeney

Here at Newpark, we’ve always tried to have promote a progressive school community and for us, the next natural step in that journey was raising awareness of the blight of single-use plastic on our school grounds.

We did this by holding a very successful awareness event where students performed and resuable water bottles were sold. We also made a video of the event, which will serve to raise further awareness on the matter going forward.

Climate Change - Junior Trees for Life on Earth

Loreto College Swords, Dublin Cian Mac Aonghusa; Nathan Moore; Rowan Wall; Caia Murdock; Edoardo Nestor; Cillian Kerskens,Sydney Levene; Mia Knowles; Oscar Meagher; Liza Kurevleva; Constantine Lordanov; Maya Baum; Oisin O’Kelly

Fridge Free Freshness

Moate Community School, Westmeath Modern society sends far too much food waste to landfill, so our group wanted to do something that might counteract this issue. The aim of our project was to design a food storage container that would slow down the process of ripening in fruit and vegetables, without the requirement for electricity. Our task then, was to create an anti-microbial environment that ensure a longer life for fruit and vegetables. We tested out various methods of food storage in order to identify the ideal conditions for inhibiting food spoilage, and we feel that this research will be particularly beneficial in developing countries.

Trees provide us with oxygen, help us breathe clean air, and tact as ‘carbon sinks’. With these facts in mind, we decided to get more trees planted in our own school and local area. To raise funds, we held a fundraiser concert and cake sale. This year is the thirtieth anniversary of our school, and in honour of the occasion we planted thirty new rowan trees. We bought sixty-five seeds in total and the other thirty-five trees will be planted in our community. Additionally, we also created a dramatic performance about deforestation and hosted an exhibition on the importance of trees in the fight against global warming.

Mia Alwell; Elise Ashby; Ella Barron; Lucia Brown; Hannah Caine; Abbey Colgan; Hannah Dolan; Lauren Dunne; Chloe Elliott; Lucy Fagan; Emily-Jane Fallon; Abi Hickey; Ericka Higgins; Holly Irwin; Aoife Kavanagh; Olivia Kelly; Ava Kerin; Aoife Masterson; Lily Mc Carthy; HannahMc Sweeney; Amy Meates; Jessica Mongey; Clodagh Murray; Katie O”Brien; Orla O’Mara; Christine Olapido; Katie Preston; Layla Ren; Maeve Rudisteanu; Emily Ryan

Jack O’Donovan; Thérèse Hamm

17

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

ECO-Art & Design - Senior

Notes

Creative Engagement Art Project

Drimnagh Castle Secondary School, Dublin Our YEA project involved designing and creating a papier-mâché tree, lamps and various sculptures to add to our brand new school library. Our goal was to focus on the theme of biodiversity and to spread awareness of the topic throughout the school using our eco-friendly paper mache sculptures. We brought an art specialist into the school to help conceptualise our idea, and we tied our English literature studies into the theme of the sculptures - exploring poetry that related back to biodiversity.

Omar Khan; Adam Jeffers; John Maqueto, Jake McCabe; Gavin Molloy; Boris Nikolow; Sean Finn; Jason Byrne

Passion for Fair Fashion

Stoneybatter Youth Service, Dublin

Our project is all about sustainable fashion. We all love fashion, but our group knew little about the fashion industry. So, we decided to learn how to design clothes with the aim of repurposing old items in order to make new ones. We hoped our idea would stop materials from being wasted. Through this, we gained really useful dress-making skills and discovered that not only does making new clothes use a lot of water, chemicals and energy, but that a lot of workers in the fashion industry are being exploited. Our next step is to show off our clothes at a ‘Passion for Fair Fashion’ exhibition in our local community.

Natasha Nyathi; Tatiana Saoura; Tagwa Adam; Denisa Fechet; Maria Senekane; Anab Ade

ECO-Art & Design - Junior Christmas Re-Bottles

St. John Bosco Community College, Clare The local bottle bank seemed to be under a lot of pressure, so we wanted to find a way to show people how they can reuse their glass waste in a fun way. We decided to make decorations for different occasions with old bottles, and began by selling some of our designs at a Christmas craft fair. To spread the word, we also held workshops to show how easy it is to make bottles look great. None of our group attend art class in school, so we’re proof of how everyone can upcycle bottles with just a little know-how.

Eco Fairy Friendly Forest

Teach Na nDaoine, Monaghan

Caoimhe O Conner; Katie Moloney; Alania Murphy; Annie Hassett

For our project, we utilised old, unwanted aluminium signs and upcycled them into fairy cut-outs in order to beautify our local greenway, turning it into a ‘fairy forest’. Our goals were to promote upcycling and to encourage people to use the walkway, rather than using transport which consumes fossil fuels. We did this by sending out environmental messages via the fairies, who had messages such as ‘don’t litter’ written on them. We hoped that the messages would have an impact on everyone who saw them, including children who might not be able to read yet.

Cain Baker; Courtney Coughlan; Joshua Stephenson; Katie Mulhall; Leah Cawley; Molly Cawley

19

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

ECO-Community Development - Senior Fix Our Flood

Developing a Sustainable Economy for Our Community

Bailieborough Community School, Cavan

Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Clare

We have a flooding problem in the area around our school and our group wanted to tackle it with our project. Our main goal was to put a flooding plan in place and ultimately to have local people take responsibility. The biggest action we took was gathering local politicians and councillors together for a discussion, with the hope of getting a tanker to unblock the drains. As a result of our action, there is now a plan in place to help resolve the flooding problem, with people now taking responsibility for their land and committing to getting the job done.

The goal of our project was to help locals visualise a sustainable economy in Lisdoonvarna. To get inspiration and learn more about the sustainable development goals, we visited the Eco Village at Coughjordan, Co Tipperary.

Based on what we saw and what we thought would be appropriate in Lisdoonvarna, we created four model shop fronts - a bakery, an ecotourism office, a food co-op and a community bank. The models, which we titled the ‘Place of Possibilities’, were then displayed in the town hall. At our launch event, special guests gave their feedback and advised us on how they can support our goal for a sustainable local economy.

James Martin; Cian Larkin; Oisin Larkin; Craig Harding; Dylan Finnegan Murphy

No If’s or Butt’s

Bee Friendly - an Eco Holistic Approach

Youth Work Ireland Cavan Monaghan Clones, Monaghan Our lovely town is littered with cigarette butts, so we decided that we needed to do something to remedy the issue. To make this happen, we approached local interest groups and came up with a plan. The groups took on the task of approaching business owners and asking them to commit to cleaning the areas in front of their facilities after each working day. To do our bit, our group hosted an information evening for the younger members of the youth club, organised litter and cigarette butt clean-ups, and made an awareness video for the campaign. Young people in our locality have now learned about the huge impact that cigarettes can have on both the environment and their bodies.

Balbriggan Blue Flag

WAACCSAYS, Dublin

Sarah O’Harte; Ella McManus; Ceara Nolan; Ryan Nolan; Eva Newell; Niamh Tierney; Amy Mc Cusker; Renee Nolan; Finn Clerkin; Lily Clerkin; Katelyn Reavy; Conan O’Neill

Ardgillan Community College, Dublin We were keen to raise awareness about the safekeeping of Balbriggan beach and to inspire the community to come together and improve the locality. Our group came up with the idea when we watched a video showing the huge amount rubbish that had been discarded on the beach. We hope to make enough progress to eventually achieve a blue flag for our beach. We understand that this will be difficult, but we are beginning the process by making small, continuous improvements to our beach.

Tammy Mc Donald; Alannah Walsh; Adam Mc Grath; Adam Wildes; Leah Tate; Megan Sherlock; Ciara Shelly; Daniel Johnson; Summer Sheridan; Lisa Mc Grath; Erica Tate; Mary-Kate Moore

ECO-Community Development - Junior Sphere17 Priorswood, Dublin

Ruairi Harkin; Cillian Moore; Ciaran Hannigan; Stephen Dowling; Niamh Ryan

Cavan Youthreach, Cavan

We decided to decorate the lane at the entrance to our youth centre. We had been thinking about how we could take better care of our patch of the woods, and this seemed like a great idea. Littering and dumping was a huge problem at the site, and the whole area had a very grey and jaded appearance. We were initially met with some resistance, as people thought it would never stay tidy even if we did make the effort – but we finally got together over three days to make the clean-up happen, and we all played our part in making this section of or community a more pleasant place to be.

Caitlin Collins; Catherine Mc Donagh

Gairdín Faoi Uisce - One Wave At A Time St. Mac Dara’s Community College , Dublin

Martin Maughan; Monika Petkute; Robert Sivak; Kathlyn Maughan; Therese Maughan; Shania Maughan; Alanna McDonagh

Stimulating Our Senses

Moate Community School, Westmeath Our YEA project focuses on further developing and maintaining a garden that stimulates the five senses in Dun Na Si Amenity and Heritage Park.

The group worked on maintaining the park with young adults from St Hilda’s Rehab Centre Tullamore, as well as the local Men’s Shed group.

The young adults from St Hilda’s had learning disabilities, so we wanted to create a garden that they could enjoy as much as possible. We met weekly with the young adults, and have designed and produced two hundred unique tiles to reflect both the five senses as well as other aspects of the park. These tiles are currently being placed on a water feature that sits in the park.

Our varied YEA project was designed to create a sustainable and eco focused state of mind, initially amongst local young people and then, through example and involvement, our wider community. Our key activities this year have been bee keeping and honey harvesting, commissioning an ecological survey of a river, building a range of wild animal houses, constructing a plastic-bottle greenhouse, developing tree Trails in Mayo and Dublin, and finally - maintaining and expanding our community gardens in Dublin.

The Refreshers Laneway Project

The Human Cost of Electronics Our group wants to promote peace and justice in the Democratic Republic of Congo by informing the Irish public on how our consumption of electronics and jewellery can have a negative impact on the lives of people living there. After interviewing Imani Tutu, a Congolese refugee, and contacting a number of relevant agencies, we put a project plan together. Our group gave a presentation, created an email campaign, organised an awareness event and sought the support of all relevant stakeholders in our organisation. The biggest outcome so far has been convincing our centre manager to pass a conflict-free IT procurement solution for the centre.

Emma Kelly; Kate Considine; Aimee Burke

Plastic is a man-made object, it has no place in the environment, and the environment has no way of dealing with it. With this in mind, we redesigned a school garden using items that had washed up from our waterways. We upcycled items such as plastic lobster pots and fishing containers - turning them into flower beds. Our main aim is to make people consider the fact that plastics end up in our oceans, and how they can change that with their own actions.

Bolu Akingbade; Alexander Burke; Killian Carolan; Alex Carroll; Matteo Carron; Conor Cheetham; Sam Damien Clarke; Eoghan Cluskey; Caragh Collins-Smith; Lee Cullen; Cara Fitzgerald; Anthony Santana Johnson; Ellie Kearney; Thomas Keegan; Seán Kirwan; Daragh McGrath; Pádraig McNally; Alanna McSorley; Alan Nulty; Adam O’Loughlin; Cara O’Riordan; Kamile Olechnaviciute; Jamie Redmond; Antonia Rus; Ashlinn Viret

Castleblayney Litter Action

Castleblayney Youth Café, Monaghan

Ciara Maxwell; Karina Conteh; Niamh Kelly; Sinead Kelly; Colm Shortall; Steven Falsey; Annalise Peredo; Eoin McCormack; Michael Browne; Jake Nugent; Saoirse Ripley; Lauren King Carroll; Brian Conlon

Our goal was to form a weekly Eco-Club in our youth café so that we could all become more environmentally aware. Initally, we decided to have a look at litter hot spots in our town as that was the biggest concern to the young people of the group. We took action by cleaning up one particularly littered site in the town, and we also designed a park that could be built there.

Abbey Fitzpatrick; Amelia Siembida; Ben Mallon; Ellen Carroll; Ethan Clarke; Fiona McKinney; Jade Myles; Nathaniel McEntee; Sophie Moore; Sarah Parke

21

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

ECO-Innovation - Senior

ECO-Innovation- Junior

HAUS

Environmental Learning Games

For our YEA project, we want to create a sustainable range of products from textiles that were destined for landfill. We noticed that fast-fashion is a growing issue, with clothes and household fabrics suddenly becoming ‘single season’ items. In opposition to this trend, we decided to repurpose materials that others might deem as ‘rubbish’. We’ve successfully produced a range of sustainable and stylish bags and cushions, presented at the Westport Tidy Towns Annual General Meeting, attended a trade fair, spoken on Midwest Radio, presented at our school, created an Instagram account and were featured in a Mayo newspaper. We’ve created a great deal of local awareness, sold eighty-five bags and cushions and most importantly - saved 32kg of materials from landfill.

Educating young poeple about caring for our fragile environment is super important, and that’s why for our YEA project, our group wanted to make learning about environmental matters that bit more fun. We developed a number of games that aim to assist Primary and Junior Cycle teachers with teaching students about environmental protection. We hope that with the aid of the games we’ve created, students will show increased engagement with the topic.

Westport Tidy Towns / Leave No Trace Ireland, Mayo

Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Clare

Mia van Rens; Aoibheann Reynolds

17 Goals. 1 School. and Minecraft.

Siopa Tuc: CETSS Eco-Tuck Shop for a Sustainable Food System

Presentation College Bray, Wicklow

To grow a culture of sustainable development mindsets within our community, we recreated our school in a virtual world. We then modified and improved it to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All of this was accomplished using the online game Minecraft.

Following a review of all 169 targets associated with the 17 SDGs, our team of researchers compiled a list of over 100 recommended changes to implement in the school. The exercise and findings have been shared with numerous stakeholders including Government bodies to promote sustainable mindsets within and beyond the school environment.

Rachael Howley; Shauna O’Kane; Alan McNamara; Beth Clark; Ian Woods; Holly Neylon; Grace Howard; Cindy O’Leary; Maebh Meehan; Áine Hegarty; Ella Mullins

Cork Educate Together Secondary School , Cork

Sam Barron; Harry Black; Luca Pezillo O’Brien; Luke Cunningham; Kane Cullen; Josh Downes; Eoin McEvoy; Kai Griffiths; Eoin Haughey; Caelan Jackson; Conor Kelly; Lochlann Megannety; Gerard McKendry; Eoghann McCann; Sean McKenna; Alex Moore; Kevin Morley; Adam Mulhall; Pearse O’Neill; Cillian Reid; Reece Ronan; Killian Taylor; Tadhg O’Toole; Daniel Walker; Joe Walker; Jack Walsh.

Darragh Domican Boylan; Ben Collins; Jack Hogan; Sam Kearney; Ben Jones; Jack Lawlor; Eoin Mahony; Tom Mooney; Cian Butler Short; Michael Timmons

In order to help promote sustainable food options within our school community, and to highlight how we can all have an impact on climate change and water pollution, our group has established an eco-friendly tuc shop in our school.

Our shop aims to provide students with healthy, sustainable, locally sourced snack food, and we hope that in doing so, we’ll contribute to reducing carbon emissions and agricultural pollution. So far, we’ve used our business profits to help purchase a ‘Big Pig’ composting system, and we’re in the process of developing a ‘Sustainable and Ethical Purchasing Policy’ for the entire school.

Ciana Ishaque; Abbie Deeney; Tom Humphreys; Allanah Campbell-Brookes

Sea Lettuce, Friend or Foe?

Sacred Heart Secondary School, Cork Each member of our group lives on the outskirts of Clonakilty and we’ve all been exposed to an unpleasant smell coming from the bay. We researched the problem and learned that sea lettuce was the cause of the stench, so we decided that we’d like to try and find an environmentally-friendly way of combating the issue. We chose to make fertiliser from decomposing sea lettuce, as this would not just help our bays to look beautiful – it would also mean no harmful artificial fertilisers would be running off into our waterways.

Ailbhe Dunlea; Aoife Moloney; Lydia Walton

Eco-Poly

ECO-UNESCO Youth for Sustainable Development Programme, Dublin Our team wanted to educate and inform people about the so to achieve this, we created a board game using entirely recycled materials. The game follows a similar theme to Monopoly, with players learning about sustainablity goals, incentives and liabilities as they progress across the board.

Cailum Doyle; Georgiana Teslaru; Adam Wang; Mohd Danial Che Ali; Jon Bryan Ortiz; Justin Redmonde; Oluwademilade Dayo Alade; Boris Nikolov

23

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

ECO-Health & Wellbeing - Senior Healthy Garden, Healthy Mind!

Wound Up Over Round Up

Student health and well-being is now a significant part of the Junior Cycle curriculum, so we tried to incorporate this into our YEA project by creating a ‘well-being’ space for students with special and extra educational needs. We did this by developing the school’s first environmentally friendly ‘Sensory and Well-Being Garden’, and we feel we’ve made the first step in ensuring the well-being of students by taking the subject out of the class room and back into nature. By reusing and recycling old material for the garden and planting new seeds, we’ve managed to create a space that is both environmentally-sustainable and incredibly useful.

Our YEA project aims to put a stop to Round-Up herbicide being used in public areas and farms. We care about our locality and felt we had to raise awareness on the matter, as our recent research had shown that Round-Up causes health issues such as cancer. We created a rap to spread awareness, organised a meeting with the council and visited places such as Mana Organic Farm and Bellfield Nursery. Our meeting with the council encouraged them to propose the ban of Round-Up in local public areas, which was a huge win for us.

Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School, Kerry

Pobalscoil Neasáin, Dublin

Dakota Broker; Deirbhile Twomey; Jack Roche; Louise Dowling; Luke Hampson-Byrne; Dylan Nicholson; Wojtek Sychowich; Olivia Bolliger

Give an ‘X’ to ‘Ticks’

Moate Community School, Westmeath

Presentation Secondary School Tralee, Kerry Lyme disease is very prevalent in Ireland, and our campaign hopes to create awareness of it and in turn, help prevent people from contracting it. To reach our goal, we talked about our project in local schools, held an awareness day in Tralee, contacted the local media and worked with Tick Talk Ireland. People in Tralee now have a better understanding of Lyme Disease, so we didn’t just help the environment - we helped to save people’s lives! We’ve learnt a lot as a result of creating this campaign, and this project has helped us to realise that we can all make change in our local community.

30 Day Nature Challenge

Niamh Rahilly; Ruth O’Connell; Áine O’Sullivan; Amy O’Sullivan; Mary O’Connell; Aisling O’Connell; Laura Scanlon; Doireann Thomas; Maura Ross; Clodagh O’Sullivan; Clare O’Connor; Natasha Tobin; Marie Blanche; Yasmin Sultan; Emma Reidy; Caoilinn Stafford

Bailieborough Community School, Cavan When we lost our woodland and outdoor play area to building construction, our group decided that we needed to take action in order to get young students reconnected with nature again. The benefits to spending time outdoors in nature are numerous, so we’re planning to organise a ‘30 Day Nature Challenge’ for our school’s first year students.

The challenge will include a range of outdoor activities and classes, and we plan to survey the students both before and after the challenge in order to see if their attitudes toward the local environment have changed as a result of the programme.

Jack Moran; Ali Kenny; Jade Corcoran; Caitlín Dunne; Hannah Lynam; Jamie Ravenhill ;Abbi Mills McKenna

Energy - Senior

Timmy the Turbine

F.C.J. Secondary School Bunclody, Wexford

Amy Clay; Shauna McElwaine; Chloe Gaffney; Holly Forde

John Scottus School, Dublin

There are several wind farms in our locality, so we decided to research the benefits of them. Our main goals were to educate people in our local area and school about wind farms, and to encourage locals to have a more positive attitude towards them. In order to achieve this, we surveyed people in the community, handed out informative flyers, presented to our school and hosted a walk to raise awareness. We feel that these actions were all worthwhile because locals are starting to see wind farms in a more positive light.

Aine Byrne; Brian Byrne; Meaghan Byrne; Riona Byrne; Aoife Clauson; Eve Furlong; Bronagh Judge; Joseph Kehoe; Edward Kinsella; Fionn O’Muiri; Hannah Sweeney

Energy - Junior Sarah Kelly; James Dempsey; Faolan Doeke Lauder; Manuela Fernandez Requena; Maria Colfer; Jack Bruton

Sleeping Beauty Energy Saving Campaign Dominican College Sion Hill, Dublin

Energy - Junior

Our group felt that young people are too dependent on mobile devices, so our project aim was to get them to switch their phones off while not in use – namely at night time and during class periods. To make this happen, we held action days, carried out student surveys and made promotional presentations. We also held competitions and produced leaflets. A large number of our school’s students now switch their phones off before putting them in their lockers, as well as during the evenings. We also encouraged use of the ‘Free Moment’ app in order to monitor time spent on devices, as well as use of the ‘Ecosia’ search engine, which plants trees to counteract carbon emissions.

Friends of the Forest

Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School, Kerry For the YEAs, our big idea was to get children to ditch technology and re-connect with nature. We’ve been encouraging young people to spend more time outdoors, learning about the world and experiencing the natural playground that surrounds them. To achieve this, we created a wonderful, child-friendly fairy trail in Ballyseedy Woods. It was our hope that children would engage with our hand-made fairy houses and begin to appreciate their natural surroundings. We believe that our project will benefit the entire community by bringing about increased tourism and awareness of our lovely local forest.

Our aim was to teach young people how to look after their physical and mental wellbeing through taking part in environmentally sustainable activities.

Our polytunnel served as an outdoor classroom and students were guided through the entire process of growing organic fruit and vegetables. Healthy cooking classes using produce from the polytunnel produce were part of the overall concept, and local primary school children visited our school to learn about healthy living and how to to reduce the carbon footprint of their grocery shop.

Energy - Senior

Sustainable Organic Food Garden The use of pesticides in vegetable production is a double edged sword: pesticides can help crops to grow, but are also incredibly detrimental to the environment. Our group wanted to see if we could produce organic vegetable crops on our school grounds, so we refurbished an old greenhouse that had been lying dormant and built some raised flower beds. To raise awareness on why organic food production is so important, we created a poster campaign and organised an informative assembly at our school. We’re proud of what we have achieved and are eager to taste the fruits of our labour.

Project Polly

Renee Brosnan; Emily Jane Crowe; Alice Dwyer; Padraig Harrington; Amy Hartnett; Mark Leahy; Roisin Meehan; Andrew O’ Connell; Michael O’ Sullivan; Jasmine Ryle; Alison O’ Leary

Jessica Barrett; Rebecca Conway; Lisa Costello; Angela Dineen; Caoimhe Edwards; Tennyson Efegbare; Bronwyn Foley; Alison Guerin; Mikayla Maunsell; Aisling Mitchell; Karina O’ Halloran; Kate O’ Keefe; Clodagh O’ Sullivan; Rachael Ryan; Abby Ward

Ellen Cole; Sarah Proudfoot; Helen Sheehy

25

The Food Savers

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Waste - Senior

Abbey Community College, Waterford

Bottled Water

Our YEA goal was help cut down on food wastage in both our school and in student’s homes. We decided to raise awareness on the topic by carrying out a number of activities, such as making a ‘food-wastage’ display and designing posters that we hung up around school. Our group have definitely noticed that less people are throwing food away in our school, and we’ve received great feedback from teachers and students, telling us that they’re are thinking twice before binning perfectly edible food.

Thornhill College, Derry This project focused on decreasing the amount of single-use plastic bottles used in our school. We ran an art competition to raise awareness of the wastefulness and health impacts of single use plastic bottles. Our group then followed this up by promoting and selling reusable stainless steel bottles within the school community. We’ve sold 95 bottles so far, and our school community is now much more aware of the issues surrounding single-use plastic. Our eventual goal is to have no plastic bottles in our school.

Chloe Brown; Caitlin McLoone; Hannah McMonagle; Hannah Markey; Shannon Bradley; Dalya Yucelar; Megan Harte; Molly-Rose Thomas; Sophie Williams

Thornhill College, Derry

Carrie O’Brien; Emily Breslin; Susana Granado; Kayla Henderson; Aine P. Doherty; Emer Barr; Shannon Coyle; Anna Crossan

L.E.A.F (Leading Environmental Awareness Further) Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School, Kerry

Our group want to raise awareness of the damaging effects that single-use disposable plastics can have on our planet. To do this, we first had to rally support in our school community and win over our school management.

Once we had everyone on board, we travelled to various local primary schools and delivered talks on ditching disposable plastics, as well as art workshops where we repurposed plastic waste. We genuinely love what we do and will continue to work to change minds on this topic.

Carlow Youthreach, Carlow

We noticed that there was way too much contamination in the recycling bins at our youth centre, so the goal of our YEA project was to spread awareness on how to recycle correctly. To kick the project off, we had a spokesperson from VOICE give a talk on how to sort our recycling. From there, we created a recycling list for use at our centre, which we then sent on to all of the schools and youth centres in our area. The positive feedback we received then spurred us on to create a Monopoly style recycling-themed board game in order to reach an even younger audience.

‘Naw to Straws’ Campaign We wanted local establishments to stop using plastic straws. We felt this was important for reducing plastic waste and also because straws are one of the top 10 marine litter items. After we had carried out some research, we teamed up with local group ‘Zero Waste North West’ to design a poster and create an online map of cafes who have signed up to our campaign. We visited local cafes,bars and restaurants and over 20 establishments have now signed up.

Are You BOARD Yet?

Brian Votta; Megan McCarthy;Oisin Percival; Liam Tuite

Jesus & Mary Secondary School, Sligo Improving awareness of plastic usage in our school was the main aim of our YEA project, with a view to improving recycling habits and raising awareness of the serious problems associated with single-use plastic. To carry this out, we wrote a blog for our twenty-three sister schools around the world, held three cake sales to purchase a bench made out of recycled plastic for the school grounds, surveyed the school community, held competitions in non-exam years, monitored our plastic bottle usage, created posters, and took part in the April 21st ‘Shop and Drop’ in three local supermarkets alongside Enniscrone Tidy Towns.

Renewing Recycling

Banagher College, Offaly

Lanesboro Community College, Longford

Our YEA project focused on the amount of litter we dispose of in our school and our main aim was to reignite the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ campaign as we felt it had become a slogan rather than an actual lifestyle goal. We carried out a number of actions including setting up an information station, developing new teaching tools, carrying out surveys, and making a display from waste plastic bottles that we collected in the school.

We want to rethink recycling with our YEA project. In the beginning, we discussed the biggest problems facing our local community, and it turned out that we were all tired of the levels of waste we were noticing. We wanted to see a change in our community, so we produced a questionnaire, carried out research, conducted interviews, held a poster competition, and even had a float in the St Patrick’s Day parade that highlighted the issue of waste in our rivers. As a result of our actions, students are now putting the correct items into recycling, our lunch service is providing reusable plates, and overall, our local community is much more conscious of recycling.

Unwrapped

‘Unwrapped’ is a youth-led campaign, dedicated to reducing waste in the Westport area. Once we discovered that we all shared a dislike for packaging and needless waste production, our project took shape. Our goal was to combat the issue of waste production by reaching out to young people in Westport. We’ve been discouraging the use of single-use plastics by suggesting the use of sustainable alternatives instead. We’ve also been busy informing young people about the detrimental effect that single-use plastic can have on our local environment.

Borris Vocational School, Carlow

Laura O’ Malley; Kate Moran; Constance Kennedy; Enda Harrigan; Jessica Roache; Roadhan McKenna, Ben Tropman

Ewa Bender; Tara Sweeney; Lauren Gregory; Owen Gillard; Tyler O`Connor; Ellie Gavin; Aoife Meenaghan; Kian Kearns; Heather Boland; Fergal Boland; Niall O`Hara; Ronan Wilson; Aoife Colleary; Roisin MacHugh; Ethan Walsh; Rebecca Johnson; Naomi Breslin; Rachel Naughton; Adam Mullaney; Alan Duffy; Aoife Cowley; Katie Bourke; Darragh Lang; Jack Crumley; Rachel Hallinan

Borris Vocational School - A Vertical Garden

Leave No Trace Ireland, Mayo

Bartosz Berent; Emma Brothers; Oisin Corcoran; Saoirse Coughlan; Jesse Davis; Brandon Hindman; Charlie Kavanagh; Craig McAssey; T.J.Moran; Lee Morrissey; Paddy Zhihang Zhang

Plastic - Power and Problems

Binning Isn’t Winning

Rita Augusto; Shauna Banks; Robbie Butler; Emma Cooke; Ryan Cox; Steven Cox; Ben Delaney; Michael Farrelly; Shauna Flanagan; James Gilligan; Megan Healy; Karen Hiney; Phoenix Hynes; Sinéad Keegan; Paula Kelly; Dylan Kidney; Niamh Langtry; Billy Ryan; Michael Troy; Mollie Yates

Jason Galibert; Klaudia Stefaniak; Katie Condon; Maciek Tomczuck; Shannon Dwyer

Evelina Bulotaite; Jennifer Brennan; Grainne Chawke; Luke Cullen; David Dalton; Leah Farrell; Bethany Feeney; Teresa Fuentes; Michael Gibbons; Zach Hanlon; Elvis Jolkins; Dominic Jeffrey; Conor Kenny; Róisín Kenny; Oisin McGowan; Sean Noone; Louise Parker; Jack Quigley; Bridzeta Rainika; Moya Reynolds; Rebecca Smith; Tara Tierney; Leah Wyse; Niamh Ward

The Vertical Garden’s goal was to reduce the number of plastic wate bottles circulating in the school and to create awareness on the dangers that singleuse plastics can have when released into the environment. The action plan involved asking students to collect all of their bottles over a three week period in order to to see how much plastic waste we were creating. We also held a poster competition for first and second years where they highlighted the issues surrounding plastic bottle pollution. Ultimately, the number of plastic bottles in the school reduced by half - with more students choosing resuable bottles instead, and we created a new school garden where we utilisied the bottles that we had collected.

Lenika Artini; Niamh O’Toole; Zak Foley; Aine Behan;Ruth Curran; Rachel Breen; Kate Doyle; Jessica Devitor; Zoe Dunne; Shauna Marie Monaghen, Adam Rudkins; Mary Sullivan

27

The De La Salle Greenhouse

Be Fantastic Recycle Your Plastic

Our YEA project’s main focus was to reuse plastic items destined for landfill and in turn highlight how much plastic waste we produce. During our research, we stumbled upon a greenhouse made entirely of plastic bottles, and thought it would be a wonderful idea to construct one in our school. As we were building the greenhouse, we realised that many of the plastic bottles we collected were water bottles – so we decided to find out why people preferred drinking bottled water and what we could do to change that. We carried out surveys around the school and are currently working on our very own own reusable water bottle.

As a group, we’re aware that we can’t change everything, but we can try our best to make a difference! Our main goal was to have our school community re-think their attitudes towards to recycling, particularly when it comes to plastic bottles. To action this, we created a bin in the shape of a plastic bottle and a designed a poster campaign to educate staff and students on how to use the recycling bins properly. Both staff and students at the school are recycling much more effectively now, particularly when it comes to plastic bottles, so we feel we’ve played out part in making a positive difference to our local environment.

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

De La Salle College, Dublin

Convent of Mercy, Roscommon

Daniel Stroia; Omar Hassan; Clayton Bardon; Maverick Labastilla; Omar Teyehi

Fishy Pins

Coláiste Iognáid, Galway

Aoife Bullock; Muireann Spillane; Luke Murray; Messerah Abdullah

Bin It to Win It!

It is now well known that plastic waste doesn’t biodegrade, instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces of itself. We knew that larger plastic particles could be filtered out by our public water treatment plants, but what about the hidden microplastics? Our study aimed to see if microplastics were present in the public water supply of primary schools in Galway. A total of 32 samples were gathered from 23 schools, and our study concluded that microplastics are present in our schools drinking water at an average level of 2.05% per 500ML. This is above the European average, and our study has spurred us on to take further action on the matter.

Aoibhe Briscoe; Ellie Concannon; Kate Owens

Precious Plastics Ecoschool - We Deserve a Waste Free Education

ECO-UNESCO Youth for Sustainable Development Programme, Dublin

Think of any street in Dublin city - have you ever seen a permanent recycling bin on it? Your answer is more than likely no, and that’s the problem we wanted to solve with our YEA project. Our main aim was to reduce littering in Dublin city centre by getting more recycling bins installed, so to do this, we contacted Denis Naughten, Minister for Communications, Climate Change and the Environment, and designed a protoype recycling bin to present to him. We also raised awareness in our school community by hosting an informative presentation on the effects of plastic pollution.

Ellen Cafferkey; Ali Campbell; Niamh Cuttle; Sarah Duggan; Emily Feeley; Laura Finan; Niamh Fitzgerald; Fiona Garvey; Shóna Grady; Roisín Hamrock; Laura Henderson; Wiktoria Katarzynska; Niamh Lennon; Aleksandra Maronska; Kawany Marques; Ciara Martin; Síoda Mc Guinness; Rachel Murray; Eimear O’ Farrell; Kate O’Brien; Joanna Okambawa; Isabelle Stephens Lohan; Liman Tsatiashvili; Caoimhe Walsh; Aoibheann Ward; Ava Whitney

Think Before You Drink: Microplastics

ECO-UNESCO Youth for Sustainable Development Programme, Dublin

As a group, we are equally passionate about the environment and appalled by the amount of plastic rubbish that’s washing up on our beaches. This rubbish is having a catastrophic effect on life in our oceans, and we thought there must be some small way in which we could help relieve the situation. Our solution was to create “Fishy Pins” - badges made from rubbish collected on the beach. We’ve already begun selling our product at €3 a badge, and all profits will go towards charities dealing with ocean conservation.

Cork Educate Together Secondary School, Cork

Seán Finn; Craig Hodgins; Robin Harris; Tomás Davis; Elise Murphy; John Maqueto; Omar Khan; Jaime Rivas; Alexander O’Connor

Waste - Junior

Our main aim is to reduce the amount of waste produced by our school and local community. We want to see the correct bins being used at all times and a massive reduction in the amount of paper and plastic being thrown away on our school campus. We plan to phase out single-use plastics in our school and to inspire the school community to stop buying plastic items that don’t have a permanent use. With the help of Second Year Technology students, we’re building a ‘precious plastics’ waste recycling machine which grinds up waste plastic and re-moulds it into useful objects that have a permanent use.

We’re also running workshops to train staff and students on how to sort plastics properly for use in our machine.

Faduma Mohammed; Sophie Durity; Bonhomme; Lily Pabiou; Saoirse O’Brien

Elodie

Pointless Plastic

Oatlands College, Dublin We want to make our school and local shops plastic free, so our project consisted of carrying out the initial steps to make these things happen.

After seeing terrifying images of plastic waste taking over our oceans, we wanted to make sure that our local community wasn’t contributing towards this environmental catastrophe. We carried out a poster campaign and petition, and had meetings with shop owners. As a result, we’ve gotten rid of plastic cutlery in our school canteen and suggested sustainable alternatives which our shops have begun to use.

Emmett Quinn; Neri Carcasci; Ross Bristow; Dylan O’Reilly; Konstantin Shrolik; Manu Xavier; Tom Hyland; Ivan Budanov; Richard Byrne; Francis Dela Rea; Alex Killilea; Abin Manoj; Justin Lazarev

29

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Water - Senior Water Warriors

Top Tap Tips

Global water demand is expected to grow by 55% by 2050, a fact which encouraged us to base our YEA project on raising awareness for water related issues. We investigated methods of conserving water and examined the leak in our school. We then created awareness of the importance of recycling and the connection between climate change and water. Finally, we designed four signs relating to the biodiversity of our local river. They are now on display along our river walk in Castleisland town.

This project was about finding out the most common ways in which water is wasted and then coming up with simple solutions to the problem. We raised awareness in our school by creating posters about water waste, holding a blue-themed non-uniform day to raise money for a water charity, and runing a competition to encourage first years to turn off the the tap when brushing their teeth. The main message of our project was that if everyone in our school turned the tap off when brushing their teeth, we could save a whopping 4,800 litres of water every day.

Castleisland Community College, Kerry

Stanhope Street Secondary School, Dublin

Shauna Aherne; Matthew Broderick; Siobhán Collins; Ben Cooney; Greg Currran; DJ Feeley; Laura Fleming; Josh Horan;Kevin Keane;Kevin Lenihan;James Mc Donnell;Eamon Nolan;Aisling O Connell;Dylan O Connor; Adam O Donoghue;Mark O Donoghue;Tommy O Reagan;Conor O Sullivan;Eric O Sullivan;Sarah O Sullivan;Dannielle Reidy;Maebhb Young

Joana Franca; Bianca Saridu; Taylor Branigan; Keshini Soonidh; Katelyn McElwaine; Leia Bennett; Shauna Fitzharris;Brook Donohoe; Ciara Dunne;Tara Donohoe; Tagwa Adam; Paula Suarasan; Sarah Louise Conaghan; Lauren Parkinson; Sophie Kearney; Yasmin Dowling

Beat the Beads

Abbey Community College, Waterford Microbeads are man-made solid plastic particles that measure less than one millimeter in width. They’re not something that people want to find in the food and water they consume, but unfortunately, that is increasingly becoming the case. For our YEA project, we wanted to make our school community aware of the risks of microbeads and how they can change their behaviours in order to stem the tide of microbeads in our oceans.

We carried out this task by creating informative posters and giving presentations on the topic.

Water - Junior Protecting Our Water and Pollinators by Investigating Alternatives to Chemical Weed Killers St. Joseph’s Foróige, Westmeath Agata Jaciow; Emily Kleijn; Róisín Guthrie; Kate Brennan; Áine Phelan

Reducing Plastics in Bush Post Primary Bush Post Primary School, Louth

Plastic bottle waste is a huge problem throughout our school, and we felt that it was our duty to combat it. Our core aim was to reduce the waste in our school by introducing a water fountain and providing students with reusable water bottles. School management have been very supportive of our ideas, and we’ve had the opportunity to inform the entire student body of the importance of using refillable bottles in order to reduce plastic waste.

The Streamstown Tidy Towns group invited us to work with them in order to research alternatives to chemical sprays, and we thought this would be great material for our YEA project. What we ultimately hoped to do was to offer an eco-friendly alternative to weed killer. To do this, we completed a survey in the area, carried out extensive research, and made a number of samples for testing. Much to our delight, we were able to develop a chemical free weed killer recipe which we launched at an event alongside our local Tidy Towns group and the Community Water Officer. As a result of the project, we are now far better informed as to the importance of water quality and protection of pollinators.

Adam Costello; Adam Kelly; Adela Perez; Aine Maxwell; Aisling Keega; Alan Conlon; Ben Kavanagh; Ben McDonnell; Brian Egan; Brian Mc Mahon; Ciara Maxwel l;Claire Conlon; Cliona Mc Cormack; Colm Kennedy; Daniel Keegan; Dylan Mc Donnell; Eilis Slevin; Emer Killian; Eoin Mc Cormack; Erin Pettit; Frankie Day; Hazel O’Callaghan; Jamie Mc Donnell; Joyce Conway; Laura Conlon; Lauren McDonnell; Luke Connell; Max Mohan; Noah McDonnell; Pearse Weir Norris; Peter Reid; Roisin Killian; Ross Montgomery; Saoirse Kennedy; Sinead Robbins; Liam Killian

Richard Campbell; Katie Carville; Luke Cavanagh; Sofia Challoner; Ryan Gregory; Vada Haberland; Lorna Keenan; Shauna Lavery; Peter Lynch; Liam Maguire; Eoin McCann; Eoin McEneaney; Katie McGrath; Jake McLaughlin; Demi Mulligan; Kirsten Murray; Deirbhle O’Doherty; Diarmuid O’Neill; Aran Ralph; Rebecca Shields; Jamie Smyth; Oisin Smyth; Emily Ward; Gerard White

Water Project

Jesus and Mary College, Our Lady’s Grove, Dublin Our team wanted to raise school awareness of water shortages, pollution, waste and what is required for water production and conservation. We worked as a team to support Irish Charity Aidlink in providing clean water to countries experiencing severe drought and water scarcity. We did this by creating water themed cakes and biscuits for sale, and designing awareness posters which were put up around the school.

Niamh Cunningham; Caoimhe McTigue; Reshma Raji

31

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Super Junior Biosnap Biodiversity Project

ECO Eddie’s Quiz Quest

Our school’s building is new, and we noticed there was little done during construction to encourage local biodiversity. We felt a garden would be a great addition to the school, so we researched native plants that could benefit wildlife, met with Limerick Diversity Network to get the necessary guidance, and had a bake sale and a concert to raise funds. Once the funds were raised, we planned and planted a garden. As part of the garden, we created an informative poster which gives gardening tips to visitors.

‘Eco Eddie’s Quiz Quest’ is a board game that is based on environmentalism.

Our Sixth Class students decided to create and design a board game inspired by the main character ‘Eco-Eddie’. It’s a clever mix of chance and knowledge, with awareness of environmental matters being central to the game. It can be played by individuals, teams, schools and families, and it allows the players learn about the environment in a fun and interesting way.

Carnaross National School, Meath

Biosnap, Limerick

Dylan Maher; Isabella Watanabe; Sadhbh Connolly

Enjoy Sliabh Beagh

Tina and Tom Walk to School

Illegal dumping is a big problem in Sliabh Beagh, a mountainous area of blanket bog close to our school. We wanted to stop people from damaging this important area, so we decided to educate them about how important it really is. We believe that if people know about the significance of Sliabh Beagh, they’ll look after it and appreciate it. To create awareness, we talked to the children in our school and produced a brochure for the wider community. We hope that going forward, people might consider their actions carefully before dumping in the area.

We created a storybook where the characters Tina and Tom, learn about the importance of walking to school. The idea behind it is to encourage young people to rely less on transport that uses valuable fossil fuels. In addition to that, we put a card game together and we played it with younger students to further raise awareness on the matter. But that’s not all! We also set up a blog where we can tell everyone about our progress. As a result of all of our work, we’re delighted that our school has been awarded the ‘Green Schools Travel Flag’.

Urbleshanny National School, Monaghan

St. Colman’s National School, Wexford

Katie Mc Caffrey; Dylan Mc Guirk; Jason Boylan; Nathan Mc Aree; Alicia Mc Kenna; Niamh Mc Ardle; Conn Deery; Eoin Prunty; Jamie Mc Aloon

How can we keep the Brent Geese Coming Back to Sandymount?

Niamh Doyle; Lucy O’Toole

Electricity Warrriors

St. Colman’s National School, Wexford

Scoil Mhuire, Lakelands, Dublin

With our project, we hoped to raise awareness on the Light Bellied Brent Geese that visit Sandymount every year. Their numbers are currently quite low, so we wrote a book, held an action day, informed businesses and local media, visited Bull Island where the geese live, and created awareness posters for our school and local community. We’re now ambassadors for the Brent Geese and are so proud of what we’ve achieved.

Finn Murphy, Nathan Smith, Callum Brady, Oisín farrelly, Oisín Colledge, Josh Byrne, Eamonn Whelan , Adam McInerney, Ben Carroll, Will Sherlock , Rachel Wyse, Jessica Delerue, Ellen Duffy, Claire Smith , Emily Farrelly, Niamh Roche

Amy Campbell; Anastasia Morozova; Anna Harold; Aoibhinn Lawlor; Aoife Hughes; Ava Campbell; Dearbhla Turner; Ella Murphy; Elyse O Byrne; Erin Byrne; Eve Hevey; Faye Kealy; Feá Maher; Hannah Flynn; Helen Cullen; Isabel Corbett; Isha Gaikwad; Isobel O’Neill; Karla Woods; Katie Bradbury; Laragh Heneghan; Molly McKay; Natasha Mulligan; Ondine Travers; Stephanie Dorman; Tamara Conroy

We want to turn young people into electricity warriors! Our motto is ‘Be an electricity warrior, fight against lights that are turned on during the day and left on in empty rooms’. To encourage young people to do this, we held a slogan competition and made an ‘electricty warrior’ board game. We also surveyed families and children about electricity wastage in the home. Not only that, but we also created a blog so that we could reach as many people as possible in our fight to save energy.

Jessica Bolton Lee; Caitlín Doyle

Let’s Conserve Energy & Protect Our Bogs St. Mary’s Primary School, Westmeath

The environmental issue we chose to tackle was energy consumption, with our main objective being to protect our local bogs through a series of actions. We prepared posters with the information we had gathered and outlined good practices towards consuming energy and turf. Our group also wrote the lyrics to a song called ‘Justin Timberlake: The Man of the Woods’, which helped us to get our message across in a fun and accessible way. All of the information we collected was posted on the school´s web page, and was also displayed around the school premises.

Joshua Okpeaye; Shreyash Shukla; Leah Walsh; Nouvel Pelumi Banjoko Johnson; Sara Zejnullahu; Sevda Cakici; Patrycja Czerniak; Rodrigo Dominguez Bilbao; Ciaran Mulvihill; Arthur Skrins; Lena Saluda; Daniel Majeed; George Mhitarjans; Lucas Carlin

33

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Notes Notes

35

Acknowledgements

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Gold Funders & Sponsors ECO-UNESCO’s Young Environmentalist Awards is part-funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE). ECO-UNESCO is also part-funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment through the Irish Environmental Network.

ECO-UNESCO would like to thank all of the participants, teachers and youth leaders who took part in this year’s Young Environmentalist Awards. We would also like to thank our volunteers and those involved in promoting and supporting our work over the last year including:

ECO-UNESCO’s Young Environmentalist Awards is part-funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is responsible for protecting and improving the environment as a valuable asset for the people of Ireland and plays key roles in environmental regulation, provision of knowledge and advocacy for the environment.

ECO-UNESCO Staff: Elaine Nevin, Breon Timmons, Dunchadh Kinane, Ji Hyun Kim, Niall Barrett, Dave Brooks, Susie Spratt, Triona Reid, Sarah McMahon, Allison Phillips, Kieran Allen, Doireann Dunbar, Gary Whelan, Mary Fleming

ECO-UNESCO is part-funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs which focuses on harmonising policy issues that affect children in areas such as early childhood care and education, youth justice, child welfare and protection, children and young people’s participation, research on children and young people, youth work and cross-cutting initiatives for children.

ECO-UNESCO Volunteers: Accenture Team, Serena Choong, Rachel Naughton, ECO-UNESCO Youth for Sustainable Development Programme participants, and all of our volunteers who have helped throughout the year

Bronze Funders & Sponsors

ECO-UNESCO Interns: Su-Hyun Go, Nadia Pryadilov, Carlos Cases, Hannah Charlton, Sabrina Boccia, Aidan Ring, Justine Kinobe, Lucyna Bak, Katie Kearney, Tiarnan O’Doherty and all of our interns who have helped throughout the year

ECO-Den Expert Judging Panel: David Dawson (Environmental Protection Agency), Caitriona Rogerson (Irish Environmental Network), Dean Eaton (Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council), Ruth Maxwell (Westmeath County Council), Finbarr Coghlan (Accenture), Roberta Bellini (Rediscovery Centre), Fiona Coen (Galway City Council), Mary Greene (NUI Galway), Gary Brady (Longford County Council), Thomas Carolan (Gaisce), Rónan Mac Lochlainn (Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council), Niamh O’Carroll (Environmental Protection Agency), Sinead McDonnell (Limerick City & County Council), James O’Donovan (Cork Environmental Forum), Andrew Griggs (Lough Neagh Discovery Centre), Nial O’Connor (Monaghan County Council), Gemma Richardson (Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council) Showcase Expert Judging Panel: Mary Cunningham (National Youth Council of Ireland), David Dawson (Environmental Protection Agency), Brian Healy (City of Dublin Youth Service Board), Moira Leydon (Association of Secondary School Teachers of Ireland), Edwin Landzaad (Transition Year Ireland), Aidan Clifford (City of Dublin Education and Training Board), Caitriona Rogerson (Irish Environmental Network), Stephen Farley (Trócaire), Sarah Miller (Rediscovery Centre), Clare McNamara (Department of Children & Youth Affairs), Dean Eaton (Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council), Nial O’Conor (Monaghan County Council), Bernadine Carry (Meath County Council), David Richardson (Mid Ulster District Council), Gary Brady (Longford County Council)

ECO-Den Sponsors Clare County Council Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Kerry County Council

ECO-UNESCO Board: Jamie Cudden, Marie Collins, Chris Nolan, Danny Dockery, Niall Jennings, Eloise Heron, Orla McGreal, Padraig Ryan

Kildare County Council Mayo County Council Meath County Council Monaghan County Council

Roscommon County Council Westmeath County Council Wexford County Council

Venue Sponsors Lord Mayor’s Office (Oak Room) Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council (Lough Neagh Discovery Centre) The European Commission Representation in Ireland (Europe House) University College Cork National University of Ireland Galway

Other Supporters

Ceremony Award Presenters: Katherine Zappone (Minister for Children and Youth Affairs), Alexander Leicht (Chief of the ESD Section at UNESCO), Stephen farley (Trócaire), Caitriona Rogerson (Irish Environmental Network), David Dawson (Environmental Protection Agency), Brian Carroll (Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment) Special Guests: Mícheál MacDonncha (Lord Mayor of Dublin), Katherine Zappone (Minister for Children & Youth Affairs), Alexander Leicht (Chief of the Section of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education at UNESCO) MCs: Clara Murray and Ande Gray (RTÉ Presenters)

YEA 2018 Finalist Booklet Edited by Ji Hyun Kim Designed by Mary Fleming Contributions by Elaine Nevin, Su-Hyun Go, Hannah Charlton, Nadia Pryadilov, Carlos Cases, Sabrina Boccia

Irish Aid Irish Environmental Network (Biodiversity Zone) Make Ireland Sustainable for All

This booklet has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of ECO-UNESCO and can under no circumstances be taken as reflecting the position of the European Union.

37

ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards 2018

Venue Location Map Round Room adjacent to the Mansion House, Dawson St., Dublin 2, Ireland

Register for ECO-UNESCO’s Young Environmentalist Awards 2019!

Marks the spot!

Accessibility: The Round Room is wheelchair accessible – please feel free to contact us if you require any specific arrangements.

Scan this QR-Code to have the map directly on your smart phone.

Code of Conduct The ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards is being held once again in the prestigious Round Room and the Oak Room of the Mansion House, Dublin. We would like your group to gain as much from the experience as possible and for this, full cooperation and good behaviour will be expected from group members at all times. Please make note of the following rules, regulations and procedures and contact us if you have any queries or require any assistance. We look forward to a highly enjoyable event.

Project Displays • The Venue will be open for set-up at 8:30am – all displays must be completed by 9:30am sharp.

• Display materials are to be prepared in advance, according to the YEA Showcase Display Guidelines provided.

• You MUST NOT attach anything to the walls by any means; tape, blue tack, drawing pins, etc.

• All groups need to take their project displays with them after the awards ceremony.

Showcase • 2 team members must be present at team’s display at all times.

• Group representatives must be prepared to talk to visitors and judges about their project. All displays will be visited by judges during the showcase.

Food • Each group is responsible for organising their own lunch between 12:20pm – 1:35pm. The Mansion House will not permit participants to eat in the venue. The Mansion House is in close proximity to St. Stephen’s Green and Grafton Street, which can be used as possible lunch alternatives.

• All participants are requested to bring in waste-free lunch, snacks and drinks (water) in reusable snack and drink containers.

Award Ceremony • All group members must return to the venue before 1:35pm and be seated by 1:55pm.

• All group members must stay in the Round Room until the Ceremony closes.

• An individual representative from each award-winning group may be asked to say a few words about their experience during the Awards Ceremony. We would advise that you prepare for this in advance and nominate a suitable representative from your group.

• ECO-UNESCO reserves the right to eliminate and/or combine categories where there are a low number of entries or where entries are deemed not to have reached the required standard. In this situation, there may not be an award made in each category. A number of high commendations may also be made.

General Terms & Conditions • All participating group members must commit to attending the entire event (8:30am – 4:00pm).

• Leaders and teachers are responsible for the conduct of their individual groups.

• Dress code is optional, we would suggest that young people should decide themselves what they wish to wear. Part of the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards ethos is to encourage young people to make decisions for themselves.

• Groups are advised to check their travel arrangements as soon as possible. The nearest train station is Pearse Station, while the Luas Green Line terminus is close by at St. Stephen’s Green.

• ECO-UNESCO and the Venue take no responsibility for lost or stolen or damaged goods during the event.

• As per the details signed in your original YEA Registration Form, please be reminded that images and/or video footage may be utilised by ECO-UNESCO for promotional usage in print and online publications; educational resources; publicity; advertising; web content; and other ECO-UNESCO media. ECO-UNESCO may use these images / video clips with or without names.

Young Environmentalist Awards 2019 Timeline Sep 2018

Online Registration Opens

Sep - Oct 2018

Free YEA 6 Steps to Success Training

Nov 2018

Registration Closes

Nov 2018 - Feb 2019

Project Submission

Mar - Apr 2019

ECO-Den Semi-Finals

May 2019

Showcase & Awards Ceremony

Tel : +353 (0) 1 662 5491 Email : info@ecounesco.ie Web : www.ecounesco.ie

ECO-UNESCO’s Young Environmentalist Awards 2018 is supported by: Gold Funders & Sponsors:

Bronze Funders & Sponsors: