Tauranga Boys' College Wins 2025 Enviro Challenge
Tauranga Boys College won the Enviro Challenge Award, and Whakatne High School received the Rising Star Award for their creativity and emerging leadership.
The importance of collective climate action amongst youth was evident at 2025's Enviro Challenge competition.
Organised by Sustainability Options, this year's Enviro Challenge brought together 77 students from nine Bay of Plenty secondary schools for a one-day sustainability competition held at Tauranga Girls' College. Made possible thanks to the sponsors: Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Whakatāne District Council, and Sustainability Options.
Tauranga Boys' College won the Enviro Challenge Award, and Whakatāne High School received the Rising Star Award for their creativity and emerging leadership.
Back due to popular demand after a 6 year hiatus, run by Sustainability Options team members Amy Earles (leader of the 2019 Enviro Challenge winning team) and Jo Wills (a longtime organiser), the event gave students a chance to explore sustainability through five interactive activities:
Presenting a sustainability audit of their school
An upcycling task using a mystery box of waste materials
A photo challenge based on the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
A structured debate on a topical environmental issue
A sustainability quiz
The energy and creativity on the day were evident in projects like a rainwater recovery system built entirely from repurposed items. Photography entries showed impressive insight into global sustainability goals, and debates revealed a depth of critical thinking from all schools.
Students shared mahi from their kura ranging from native restoration to food sovereignty, energy and water efficiency, and local partnerships—demonstrating a strong understanding of real-world environmental challenges.
The three judges certainly had their work cut out for them and were impressed by the standard of work produced:
Western Bay of Plenty District Council's Ilze Kruis stated 'Congratulations to the winners and all the schools participating in the 2025 Enviro Challenge. Your innovative approaches to sustainability have genuinely restored my faith in the younger generation's ability to implement impactful projects, both within your schools and in the wider environment. It's inspiring to see the next wave of leaders step up and take action. Keep pushing forward—your efforts are more important than ever.'
'Congratulations to all the schools that participated in this year's Enviro Challenge. It was truly inspiring to see such creative ideas, meaningful content, and passion the students brought to the event—making the judging process a very challenging one,' said Tauranga City Council's Gabriel Hurford. 'The students are all leading the way in making a positive difference, one step at a time.'
Karen Summerhayes, from Whakatāne District Council added 'Congratulations to all the participating teams. It was inspiring to see the creative thinking and relevant content that was presented. Struggling to ingrain sustainable behaviour within the school community was a common theme but these young people are certainly leading the way.'
Thanks to the participating schools: Te Puke High School, Aquinas College, Pāpāmoa College, Tauranga Boys' College, Tauranga Girls' College, Katikati College, Ōtūmoetai College, Mount Maunganui College, and Whakatāne High School.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
16-07-2025
- Scoop
From Diamonds To Dirt: Sierra Leone Youth Bring Land Back To Life
16 July 2025 But now, parts of the land have been restored. Crops are beginning to flourish and bees are buzzing around once again. The people responsible for this change are a hodgepodge group – former taxi drivers and miners, people who barely finished secondary school and some with higher education degrees. The unifying factor? Most have youth on their side. ' There is life beyond mining [but] we all grew up with the mentality that diamond is the only solution,' said Sahr Fallah, chairman of the Youth Council in Kono. Over 44 percent of the 1.3 billion people aged 15-24 are employed in agrifood systems. However, this group often does not have the same access to resources as older generations. Moreover, they are sidelined in the conversations which might change this systemic exclusion. ' A lot of the time, what we find is that young people are included in policy processes but it is a little bit tokenistic. They don't feel like their voice really matters,' said Lauren Phillips, a deputy director at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Decent work = economic growth The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in New York has been convened this week and next, to discuss progress – or lack thereof – towards the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which guarantees decent work for all. Despite this commitment, over half of the global workforce remains in informal employment, according to the Secretary-General's report on the SDGs released Monday. This means that they do not have adequate social or legal protections. ' Decent work must be at the heart of macroeconomic planning, climate and diesel transitions and social recovery strategies,' said Sangheon Lee, director of employment policy at the International Labor Organization (ILO). Don't ignore youth Like other vulnerable groups, young people face unique challenges in the agrifood sector. Specifically, they often lack land rights and will struggle to act collectively to protect their interests. 'If you are not looking at data with a lens of age or gender, you are actually missing part of the story,' Ms. Phillips said. Among these assets are land titles – which the elderly may be reluctant to pass down because of insufficient social protections. Youth also are less able to access credit so they can invest in themselves and their families. Betty Seray Sam, one of the young farmers in Kono, said that her family never used to come to her when they were going through a crisis – they knew that she had no money and a child to support. But now, through an agricultural job in Kono, she can support her family during times of crisis. ' This project has had a rippling effect for the youth in terms of not only improving their livelihoods but also the livelihoods of their families,' said Abdul Munu, president of Mabunduku, a community-based farmer's organization in Kono. Bee a farmer Providing training to young people in agrifood systems is absolutely essential to ensure that they can practice sustainable agriculture. In Chegutu, Zimbabwe, FAO has helped establish Bee Farmers Schools where young people are taught how to support apiaries through hands-on training activities. 'The idea is that one of the apiaries can be turned into a classroom where youth from different parts of a district can come just like a school,' said Barnabas Mawire, a natural resource specialist at FAO. This training has helped support local youth beekeepers to move beyond local and small-scale honey production to a fully-fledged business model that has the potential to not just fight poverty but actually create local wealth. Evelyn Mutuda, the young entrepreneurs representative in Chegutu, aspires to plant Jacaranda trees which she says will improve the quality of the bees' honey and enable the beekeepers to export beyond local markets. 'We want to maximize all the profits so we can become better and bigger,' Ms. Mutuda said. From Facebook to TikTok Being able to form labour associations is one of the key factors of decent work. This sort of collective action is even more important for youth in agrifood who often lack the social capital to enact real policy change. 'Young people are just starting out, making bonds within their group but also with people outside of their group. Those bonds are important…because there is power in numbers,' Ms. Phillips said. She also noted that young people are forming these bonds across geographic distances, often by using technology. Agrifood influencers on Instagram and TikTok, for example, are increasingly shaping conversations about the sector. Ms. Phillips also noted that it is important to think of collective action for youth as intergenerational. 'While the report is focused on young people, it's not ignorant of the fact that young people live in families…There is a lot which talks about the need for solidarity between generations,' Ms. Phillips said. Youth optimism The next generation will be the stewards of the food we eat, so integrating them into that system now is essential for future food security and sustainability. ' Many youth integrate tradition with innovation, creating sustainability and community resilience,' said Venedio Nala Ardisa, a youth representative at the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, at an online side event during the high-level forum. Angeline Manhanzva, one of the beekeepers in Chegutu, said that the opportunity to become a beekeeper changed her life. One day, she dreams of owning her own bee farm. 'I will be an old person who has so much wealth and is able to buy her own big land to keep my hives and process my own honey.'
Scoop
27-06-2025
- Scoop
Energy Access Has Improved, But More Funding Is Needed To Address Disparities: WHO
While the rate of basic access to energy has increased since 2022, the current pace is insufficient to reach universal access by 2030, one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a report published by the WHO and partners this Wednesday. The report highlights the role of cost-effective distributed renewable energy — a combination of mini-grid and off-grid solar systems — in accelerating energy access, particularly as the populations who remain unconnected mostly live in remote, lower-income, and fragile areas. Regional disparities 'Despite progress in some parts of the world, the expansion of electricity and clean cooking access remains disappointingly slow, especially in Africa,' said Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), as 85 per cent of the global population without electricity access reside in sub-Saharan Africa. In the region, renewables deployment has rapidly expanded; however, on average, it remains limited to 40 watts of installed capacity per capita — only one eighth of the average in other developing countries. Clean cooking As regional disparities persist, an estimated 1.5 billion people residing in rural areas still lack access to clean cooking, while over two billion people remain dependent on polluting and hazardous fuels such as firewood and charcoal for their cooking needs. Yet, the use of off-grid clean technologies, such as household biogas plants and mini-grids that enable electric cooking, can offer solutions that reduce the health impacts caused by household air pollution. 'The same pollutants that are poisoning our planet are also poisoning people, contributing to millions of deaths each year from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, particularly among the most vulnerable, including women and children," said Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. Lack of financing The report identified the lack of sufficient and affordable financing as a key reason for regional inequalities and slow progress. While international public financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy have increased since 2022, the developing world received significantly fewer flows in 2023 than in 2016. 'This year's report shows that now is the time to come together to build on existing achievements and scale up our efforts,' said Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the UN Statistics Division, as the report called for strengthened international cooperation between the public and private sectors to scale up financial support for developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
Scoop
25-06-2025
- Scoop
Ngā Poutiriao Ō Mauao Renew Commitment To Shared Kaitiakitanga
Press Release – Tauranga City Council This agreement continues the partnership established in 2013 and updated in 2018, and outlines the roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes of Ng Poutiriao Mauao, the joint administration board. The Mauao Trust and Tauranga City Council signed a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) this month, formalising the ongoing joint administration of the Mauao Historic Reserve. This agreement continues the partnership established in 2013 and updated in 2018, and outlines the roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes of Ngā Poutiriao ō Mauao, the joint administration board. 'This agreement is more than a document, it's a living expression of our shared responsibility to care for Mauao,' says Mauao Trust Chair Matemoana McDonald. 'It recognises the mana of iwi as kaitiaki and the importance of working together in good faith.' Under the new MOU, Ngā Poutiriao will continue to co-manage the reserve in accordance with the He Korowai Ariki o Mauao Strategic Plan and the Mauao Historic Reserve Management Plan. The board comprises equal representation from the Mauao Trust and Tauranga City Council, with four members appointed by each party. Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale says the renewed MOU is a testament to the strong relationship between the Trust and Council, and to their shared vision for Mauao. 'Together, we are committed to ensuring this taonga is protected, respected, and celebrated while ensuring public access and community engagement continues.'
