April 27, 2016
Four high school students from Monarch High School have won the BoCo Youth Climate Challenge for a project that aims to help local businesses use clean energy.
Students Mariah Wagner, Erika Shapiro, Alexis Weismann and Simone Fohrman hope to create a website featuring local businesses that use solar, wind or other forms of energy that don’t emit carbon dioxide. The online platform would also share information about clean energy and help to draw consumers to green businesses in Boulder County. Their winning proposal was chosen during a special event held on April 20 at eTown as part of Boulder's Earth Week and the students received $500.
The University of Colorado Boulder, the city of Boulder and the Boulder Climate Culture Collaborative (C3 Boulder) developed the challenge as a way to engage Boulder County youth in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. The challenge was linked to the goals outlined in the draft Boulder Climate Commitment, a framework developed by the city to cut carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2050 and build a healthier, safer and more equitable community. Students were encouraged to design projects focused on energy, resources or ecosystems, which are addressed in the Climate Commitment.
"The BoCo Youth Climate Challenge inspired me to do more for the environment, now and in college,” said Fohrman, one of the winning students.
Paul Knipe, an account director at Vermilion Design & Interactive in Boulder, mentored the group, suggesting compelling online strategies and best practices for engaging users and attracting them to a website.
“I look forward to seeing the project come to life. It's a great idea and it meets an important need,” Knipe said. “This team of students is very talented and insightful.”
Through their project, the group also learned how green companies can benefit financially, through programs like the federal Business Energy Investment Tax Credit that provides a 30% credit to businesses that use clean energy. As a next step, the students have talked to a website designer about how to develop and launch an online platform in Boulder County and beyond, said Shapiro.
“Young people are the ones who will have to build a more resilient, sustainable future, and so we wanted their voices to be part of the conversation of how to transition to a clean energy economy,” said Katya Hafich, CU-Boulder's Learn More about Climate coordinator and contest organizer. “We were really impressed with the students’ creativity and enthusiasm in their proposals.”
The other final projects, developed by students at Monarch and New Vista high schools, focused on landscaping with native plants, recycling and composting, and the financial and environmental benefits of greywater. Students developed the projects based on their own interests with support from a mentor, Hafich said. Mentors were from the city of Boulder, Boulder County government, local nonprofits, businesses and CU-Boulder.
Monarch High School science teacher Meghan Mosher, who worked closely with the students as they refined their ideas, said the challenge helped them focus on finding solutions to climate change.
"They became inspired to learn more about current efforts happening in our community to slow climate change," Mosher said. "Several groups looked closely at how our own school could make changes to become more sustainable and they also recognized the need to get more students involved in the effort."
The competition was coordinated by Learn More About Climate, a program run through the CU-Boulder Office for Outreach and Engagement that provides resources and tools about climate change to teachers, policymakers and citizens; C3 Boulder, a collaborative dedicated to connecting for a collective impact around climate action in Boulder; and the city of Boulder.