Year 12 students from six secondary schools in Buckinghamshire have taken part in the Dragons’ Den-style final of the Green Schools Challenge.

Students from Buckingham School won over the panel of judges, who were impressed by the students’ ‘Junk to Genius’ idea, ‘giving old tech new life’ and reducing the demand for new Chromebooks to be built, thereby saving energy and resources.

Organised by Buckinghamshire Council in partnership with Bucks Skills Hub and local businesses, the event enabled Year 12 students from Buckingham School, Waddesdon Church of England School, Highcrest Academy, John Colet School, Aylesbury High School, and St Michael’s Catholic School, to learn from professionals in the field of green technology and sustainable business practices; helping them to develop and display a range of green skills, employability, technical, creative and academic skills.

The Association for Project Management (APM) provided the initial challenge briefing to the schools, before each school was allocated a supporting business to mentor and help understand the challenge and then create and present their idea to help their school reduce their carbon footprint.

Schools and supporting business were:

• Buckingham School (Junk to Genius) – Construction Specialties
• Waddesdon Church of England School (Bloom Shakalaka)– Zenopa
• Highcrest Academy (Phanes) – Biffa
• John Colet School (Route2School) – Shellwin Real Estate
• Aylesbury High School (Pedals that Power)– Whiffaway
• St Michael’s Catholic School (Green Scene) – OCU Group
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Ade Osibogun, Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Climate Change & Waste, was one of the ‘Dragons’ at the event and said: “It’s been fantastic to see so much energy and creativity at this year’s event. A huge thank you to all the schools and students who took part, and to the local businesses whose support helped make it such a success.

“This is the fourth time we’ve run this challenge with our secondary schools, and it’s fantastic to see how ideas around green technology can inspire real solutions for the environment.

“The passion and commitment shown by the students was outstanding. Their determination to make a positive impact is exactly what we need for the future. We’ll keep building on this initiative as part of our ongoing work to strengthen communities and tackle climate change through our #BucksClimateChallenge.”

The green technology challenge was the brainchild of Rachael Shimmin, Buckinghamshire Council’s CEO, after her visit in 2021 to see Lunaz’s innovative electric waste trucks. Rachael wanted to involve schoolchildren in thinking about how green technology can help solve problems and originally spoke with Lunaz and DMC who wanted to get involved, the concept then turned into a competition aimed at Year 12 students.