Sustainability Ambassadors programme hosts second Ecothon competition
The Sustainability Ambassadors programme, part of the Youth 4 Sustainability (Y4S) platform, hosted its second Ecothon competition of the year on February 12.
The day-long event saw participants tackle a challenge about energy access in rural areas, focusing on a case study on the Maasai Village in rural Kenya.
Groups of students were tasked with designing a solution to bring energy-access technology to the Maasai Village aimed at making it more resilient and to better reflect the culture of the community.
The groups presented their solutions to a panel of judges, who scored them based on a number of criteria, such as how innovative, convincing and financially sustainable their solutions were.
The winning team was The Shuka, which identified the village’s current energy needs and came up with pioneering solutions to generate and conserve energy, including installing solar panels on the roof of houses and village buildings, using cattle waste to create a biogas plant and building a sustainable education centre.
The Sustainability Ambassadors programme empowers high-school students to become sustainability leaders by offering them core knowledge, skills training, work experience and networking opportunities throughout the year.
The programme is part of Y4S, one of Masdar’s Strategic Initiatives, which announced the launch of its global platform under the patronage of HH Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, in January. The platform aims to reach 50,000 youth by 2030.
