New green-businesses led by young people take centre-stage in Queensland’s Climate Week
On June 6, during Queensland’s Climate Week, young people pitched their climate solutions to a panel of judges and audience at the QPAC Playhouse in the first annual Minister’s Climate Challenge.
This panel of judges included Australian Actor Damon Gameau, ‘Snake Boss’ star Julia Baker and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur Leanne Kemp.
The five finalist teams came from Canterbury College (Waterford), Heatley Primary School (Townsville), Aldridge State High (Maryborough), Cooran State School (Noosa) and Lutheran Ormeau Rivers District School (LORDS) (Pimpama).
The ideas from the students from Grades 3-10 included:
a process to turn plastic bottles into bricks to combat homelessness (Canterbury College),
an app to gamify and teach the 6Rs of recycling (recycle, reduce, reuse, refuse, repurpose and replace) (Heatley Primary School),
an app to help restore the Great-Barrier-Reef by providing in-game facts which are supported by in-app purchases which would go restoring coral in real life (Aldridge State High),
a sustainable package of cutlery, bottles and straws which could be sold to businesses to provide to customer’s rather than plastic (Cooran State School),
and technology which could turn the kinetic energy from the exercise of everyday people into a renewable source of energy (LORDS)
On the night all of the students received encouraging and positive feedback from the judges, including the three nine-year-old girls from Heatley Primary School who received $25,000 and help in developing their 6Rs app from Chief Entrepreneur Leanne Kemp.
This money could be used to propel the girl’s new business prospect into the real world, which was the purpose of this event.
Taj Pabari is the Founder and CEO of Fiftysix Creations, Fiftysix Creations delivered the 2019 Minister’s Climate Challenge and have been contracted by the Government for the event.
“It is based around young Queenslander’s solving the climate problems of today and the future”. said Mr Pabari.
Fiftysix Creations visited around 100 State Schools in the past month, receiving 5,500 submissions which were narrowed down to 5 finalists from across Queensland.
Mr Pabari said some children already had ideas when Fiftysix Creations came to visit their school.
“All the ideas are relatively brand new.
“We started with looking at Climate Change in general…teaching what is Climate Change”. said Mr Pabari.
Young people took centre stage to pitch their new business ideas to combat Queensland’s Climate Issues
Mr Pabari said children aged 5-14 were engaged in the process, to find issues which interested them to come up with a solution which is sustainable.
But how do you teach a five-year-old about climate change?
“I think one of the interesting things was we started every single workshop by showing them a very brief video about the changing state of our Great Barrier Reef and I think it worked out beautifully.
“That we are in Queensland, we are in the home in the Great Barrier Reef, and we showed these little five-year-old students about the change of the Great Barrier Reef, most of them did not have the opportunity to go to the Reef”. said Mr Pabari.
Maria Sims is a teacher from Heatley Primary School and was accompanying the girls on the night of the event.
Ms Sims said the girls were taught the 6Rs at school which sat next to the blackboard at school.
The girls along with their fellow students also watched the ABC’s War on Waste’s episode on the water which especially hit home in North Queensland where the stormwater drains directly impact the water-life shown in the program.
Ms Sims said the girl also spearheaded their own recycling program at Heatley Primary School.
Although, $25,000 was not the only help which was provided on the night.
Other groups received help in developing Apps, making connections both locally and internationally and also one of the judges offering the be the very first customer for one of the brand new businesses.
The students earlier in the week also had the opportunity to meet with Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, who has attended some of the events during Climate Week.
On Wednesday Mr Gore also talked about the Adani Carmichael Mine, Mr Gore said India was shifting away from coal as an energy source.
The visit from Mr Gore has also received criticism from elements of the media, including 2GB’s Alan Jones.
On ‘The Alan Jones Breakfast Show’ Mr Jones said “When so many important instruments of government are underfunded, when farmers can’t feed their cattle in Queensland and $320,000 goes to waste on this shonk”.
The Minister’s Climate Challenge occurred only a week after the State Government announced the proposed Adani Carmichael Mine had only one more step in its environmental approval process before the mine could open.