Author: Glenn Arnade

Malezi Community Centre Primary School
Nairobi, Kenya

This team addressed the large-scale issue of waste in their community. The ultimate goal of the Malezi team was to construct a centralized waste holding facility away from the community. The students did door to door campaigns across the community to educate families about the benefits of reducing waste in addition to more information about their cleanup efforts. This ambitious team collected 2 tonnes of trash and are planning to purchase trucks for waste transport that is independent of the government. Simultaneously, they also created a rooftop garden at their school to support further efforts in greening their community.

Mary Bragg Green Team
Cerritos, CA

The Mary Bragg Green Team stepped up to  take on every single environmental topic for their RISE Campaign! This student team sold trees via Tree Plenish, sold rain barrels, established a Trash Free Lunch Sorting Station, held beach clean ups, and began a food recovery program by donating edible food through Food Finders. On top of all this, they donated $500 to Matungu in order to help another team plant more trees internationally. Additionally, this team is participating in activities with This Little Light Africa to plant gardens and purchase new desks for a school.

Matungu Community Development Charity
Nairobi, Kenya

This year, Matungu continued with their project from last year and this time they planted 5005 trees. They met their goal  quickly while utilizing help from their community. In addition to tree planting, Matungu also created micro gardens to plant food items such as spinach, kale, coriander, etc. Furthermore, they conducted many outreach and educational events within their community. This team also worked with Mary Bragg Elementary in California to extend the reach of their project and they continue to inspire others with their dedication to the environment.

Team University of Buea
Buea, Cameroon

This team’s goal was to plant 500 trees in their community to reduce the amount of CO2 in their home, and they partnered with multiple organizations to complete their goal. Eco-leader Joel not only reached out to local organizations, he also met with multiple government officials and news outlets to spread the word. In the end, he gathered 400 trees and planted them throughout his whole community. Joel and his team made countless flyers, social media posts, and even made certificates for all of the students who participated. He also reached out with local radio and news stations to cover the tree planting event which helped  broadcast and widen the reach of his team’s goals.

Cooking Up Less Food Waste from Nathaniel Hawthorne Middle School
Bayside, NY

This team of middle schoolers from New York are a determined group who pushed really hard past many hurdles. Initially, this team set out to implement a food donation station at their school, but met a challenge when they found out that the Department of Education prevents this action. The team  took this as an opportunity to shift their project towards changing the laws. They contacted multiple government officials to gain support in changing the laws in addition to making a petition. The team continues their work to change the laws and aims to complete this ambitious task by the end of the school year.

Poly Green Team
Long Beach, CA

The Poly Green Team addressed waste and sorting in their large High School by installing 65 recycling bins on their campus. They also created and implemented food waste sorting stations around campus and created videos/presentations to educate students on how to properly sort waste. This dedicated team of students worked hard and showed real leadership throughout their year-long project.

Whitney High School
Cerritos, CA

This team of students set out to change out their district’s utensils from plastic into compostable. This was extremely ambitious which caused them to meet many roadblocks. They shifted their efforts from targeting the district to their school only. The students made multiple petitions, flyers, social media posts etc. to gain support. They held many food fundraisers to purchase their own compostable utensils that the school could use in addition to utensil dispensers. Moving forward, they are looking to have a district meeting to campaign for the district wide shift as they originally planned. If that does not work, they are also campaigning to switch from a plastic packaged utensil, napkin, and straw to single items.

Justin Sather from For the Love of Frogs
Carlsbad, CA

Justin has done many presentations to promote his own work and the new Grades of Green toolkit he has been developing. Justin also worked with multiple businesses to advocate for more sustainable products including ECOS and Native Shoes. He also won the Crate & Barrel Kids Changemakers prize and is currently aiming to advocate towards bigger businesses. Justin also did many outreach events/presentations with multiple organizations.

For the Greener Good from Mira Costa High School
Manhattan Beach, CA

The students at Mira Costa High School decided to take on the topic of waste by educating their community and hosting multiple events. Their first event was a clothing swap to raise awareness about the harms of fast fashion and textile waste on the environment. This student-led team educated their school community about reducing textile waste while promoting sustainable fashion. Another event they hosted was a harbor clean-up event in which club members and friends took to the water on kayaks and paddle boards to clean up litter in the harbor.

Eco Crew from EDUSN International Digital School
Myanmar

Eco Crew was our first team from Myanmar that completed a social media/presentation campaign on how to reduce litter. This included many posts, videos, and graphics to express their care for the planet. They held multiple webinars about their initiatives and worked closely with other teams in the area.

Student of the Year

Ruthie Heis
Long Beach Poly High School
Long Beach, CA

Facilitator of the Year

Kerry Flores
Mary Bragg Elementary School
Cerritos, CA

International Student of the Year

Deshna Jain
To Environment, With Love
Kolkata, India