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curate, socialize, empower

In this digitized global world, it is easy to both find information and to be overwhelmed by it. The projects in this section leverage on today’s information distribution channels to offer not just information, but proactive pathways for action and connection

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Cinematographic Introduction for Climate Change Awareness

Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México
TEAM: Diana Laura Rangel Vargas, Vania Amaro Redonda, Alicia Espinoza González, Sara Cedi Voirol.

Vision

Through our audiovisual project, we hope to raise awareness of climate change and teach people about its effects to see the relationship between them while engaging them and making them interested in participating in the creation of strategies that help reduce its negative consequences.

Metrics for success  

To get accurate measurements of impact, we will plan some sessions to show the video we create to groups of selected people according to our objectives. At the end of the presentation, the audience will receive a questionnaire to gauge their perception of the short film, learn their opinions on the subject, and find out if they have any comments or suggestions.

Final report 

We encountered various barriers during the months we had to carry out our project, starting with the setbacks and limitations derived from the COVID-19 circumstances. In addition, we found that information on Mexico’s climate change situation is scarce and often outdated. This inspired us to generate and update the information so that it is easier to share with anyone. In the audiovisual project, we also had difficulties making the recordings. However, the result was good, although it did not fully meet our expectations. The results are available online at Cortometraje Documental- La comida nos consume. The short documentary’s primary purpose is to recognize some of the people’s daily actions that contribute negatively to climate change, mainly activities related to food. We will later generate specific information on how these actions could change or improve, which would be our next steps. As a team, we plan to produce more audiovisual content to achieve greater awareness of various issues related to climate change. In general, it was enjoyable to work on this project and contribute to producing materials that help disseminate scientific information in a more accessible way. In addition, getting to know the projects of other Forum teams helped us think about other projects in the future, added to the great experience.

SDGs

  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%

Ambassadors of Earth 

University of Plymouth  (England)
TEAM: Sancha Conway Holroyd, William Jones, Lauren Pollard, Mark Turner.

Vision

Our vision is to successfully create reward scheme. We hope to see 100 young people engaged in the scheme, working towards gaining the title Ambassador of Earth 2021. We will form an expanding network of communities focused on helping their surrounding environments and thereby our broader climate. We should see a measurable difference in youth engagements, awareness, and perceptions through social actions and total hours of participation in environmental activities.

Metrics for success  

  • Survey responses (from those who have completed the project)
  • Number of engaged young people and schools.
  • Number of “pledges” (both from individuals and schools) and youth who have completed the project.
  • Hours spent doing environmental activities.
  • Number of different environmental activities youth engaged in.
  • Number of people that the youth spoke to as part of the social aspect of the project.
  • Social media and website presence e.g., likes, comments, clicks, shares, and downloads of resources.

Final report 

Ambassadors of Earth has received a hugely positive response from young people and adults across the UK and internationally. We have collected feedback from participants and schools partaking in the project, helping us continue developing and improving our initiative. We have around 40 young people and 12 schools currently engaged in the project. One of the main unexpected challenges for Ambassadors of Earth was tackling the difficulty of conducting outreach to schools during another lockdown and school closures. Therefore, we decided to alter our approach and reach young people through alternative means on social media and building relations with youth groups and organizations. As the COVID-19 situation began to improve, we saw a growth in interest from schools and are currently bringing more into the project. Key actions taken during the six months included:

  • Partaking in a college sustainability week.
  • Attending a meeting with Luke Pollard, the Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.
  • Discussing opportunities with organizations.
  • Supporting young people through the project,
  • Establishing Ambassadors of Earth as a registered not-for-profit company with charitable objectives.

Our team is now applying for grants, which we hope will help build a more accessible and inclusive project. We are also currently discussing the involvement of Ambassadors of Earth in the Green Minds project and Devon Wildlife Trust activities. Moving forward, we are looking to continue to develop the project and strengthen the UK and international relations.

SDGs

  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 14: Life below water 100% 100%
  • Goal 15: Life on land 100% 100%

Eco-Tri, Senegal 

Gaston Berger University (Senegal)
TEAM: Alioune Banda Fall, Madiop Diop, Ndèye Khady Boye, Isaac François Mbow, Soukèye Diaw, Antoine Ngor Diokh, Saloum Sane.

Vision

Our project is to create a university resource to involve students in the management of their environment. The resource center is a platform to carry out environmental activities (awareness-raising, training in environmental education, recycling workshop, debate on environmental themes, introduction to the circular economy) and implement a responsible system of waste prevention and management (selective sorting and treatment of plastic and aluminum.)

Metrics for success  

We have the support of student structures and university authorities. We have already identified the space to house the project. In addition, we developed the planning of prepared activities. However, we have not yet managed to get started.

Final report 

The project received support from university authorities and student structures. However, we did not manage to start the project concretely at the University. The reason is that team members have not been mobilized sufficiently and responsive to seize this opportunity. In addition, the English language has been an obstacle to interact with the community in real-time. At times, too, we were pretty busy developing the economic component of the project, which offers pre-collection services for household waste.

SDGs

  • Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth 100% 100%
  • Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities 100% 100%
  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%

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Changing Climate Change: A Social Media Communication Campaign 

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
TEAM: Diana Laura Díaz García, Sheccid Sarai Gómez Balvás, Karen Velasco Tapia, Camila Toledo Jime. 

Vision

We hope to have shown social affairs related to climate change that are not commonly visible while giving students a sense of belonging to a like-minded group. We also aim to make the fight against climate change less overwhelming and accessible to deaf people.

Metrics for success  

First, we plan to organize an online forum to know our viewer’s opinions, feedback, and the extent to which our content has impacted them. To evaluate those participating in the Forum and our followers in general, we will create an online survey to know their perspectives more broadly. Second, we will use the number of followers, views, and participants in an activity to measure our impact and engagement via comments, shares, and tags. 

Final report 

After months of dedication and hard work, we accomplished our goals of communicating climate change (CC) from a critical and social perspective through social media. Also, we created a like-minded community. However, since deaf people are a minority and only a small group of them use Instagram, it was a barrier to reach them and create deaf-inclusive content. We’re overcoming this by learning Mexican Sign Language, but it’s also essential to build a more inclusive society.

While creating our Instagram account, the design was a big challenge; we wanted to make sure the visuals aligned with our essence. In addition, we strengthened the bond with our followers through our humor, reflexive perspective, and the topics covered.

Throughout this project, we realized that teamwork is not a linear process; it requires patience and an open mindset. Having a solid posture has helped us to communicate our message better. Our proposal has shown it’s possible to share climate change-related topics with humor, vulnerability, and hope instead of a fatalistic approach. This contributes to the transformation of the mainstream climate change speech. Hopefully, we inspire others by it. 

In the future, we would like to continue with the project, reach out to more people, grow closer as a team, and become better communicators. We also aspire to collaborate with a wide variety of accounts and peers. Our desire to generate deaf-inclusive content is still very much in our minds. 

SDGs

  • Goal 4: Quality Education 100% 100%
  • Goal 5: Gender Equality 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%

Tic Tac Planet Challenge 

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
TEAM: Josué Almendares Baquedano, Grecia Bautista Acevedo, Mónica Calderón Céspedes, Sara Salinas Aceituno, Camila Cortés Franco.

Vision

We plan to promote improving the environmental habits of the Latin American population by raising awareness of the sustainable management of resources and by teaching viable reuse methods and the actual value of waste, thus alleviating the negative impacts. We will achieve this through the creation of content that is easy to understand and apply.

Metrics for success  

Through a design of optimistic emotional projections, with actions oriented to SDG 17 and generating measurable indicators to produce positive changes in the LATAM population through social media, we will measure the following:

  • Facebook and Instagram: likes, reach, video playback, followers.
  • YouTube: likes, hours of reproduction, total and average of reproductions, subscribers, and searches.

Final report 

We created Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook accounts for our social media activity under the Tic Tac Planet Challenge, where generated posts invite people from LATAM to learn about the SDGs and join the cause. Our best-performing social media platform was Instagram. We gained 418 followers, created 18 posts (videos, images, and infographics), and reached a total of 5,000 content reproductions there.

We engaged in networking activities with university mentors, the Latin American Association of Chemical Engineering Students (ALEIQ), including 25 of its delegates and four online environmental influencers. Furthermore, we built alliances with all of them to create videos/images and various posts on environmental commemorative days and related to the application of SDGs in our daily lives.

We delivered asynchronous training to our ambassadors (influencers) on the SDGs. Additionally, we joined forces with projects with similar goals among different universities and LATAM student groups, such as ConCiencia 2030 from UNAM and ECOQCI IV from the University of Guadalajara.

We successfully sponsored an online event named “The Earth Week Forum,” along with ACS from the USAC of Guatemala and ALEIQ. As a result, there were 2,762 registered participants in 20 conferences with international environmental experts.

We also managed to obtain new members in the team, strengthened our organizational goals, and made the tasks more efficient over time. Additionally, we received training on soft skills and SDGs from Eng. Fernando Gómez and Dr. Eire Reynaga, both of whom performed as our professional advisors.

SDGs

  • Goal 4: Quality Education 100% 100%
  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production 100% 100%
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals 100% 100%

Climate Fellowship Program for Graduate Students 

University of Pennsylvania (United States)
TEAM: Jeffrey Turben, Gautam Suresh, Jessica Salgueiro, Jennifer Lessick, Richa Agarwal, Mrinalini Verma. 

Vision

Climate Leaders @ Penn is seeking to institutionalize a student-led, faculty-advised and university-supported climate fellowship program for graduate students designed to accelerate climate thought leadership, policy, and entrepreneurship. The application-only program shall comprise regularly scheduled degree-complementary programming.

Metrics for success  

Our Metrics for Success include fellow-participant satisfaction, degree of program differentiation, number of interactions and collaborations that would not have happened but for the fellowship and number of applicants.

Final report 

Climate Leaders @ Penn piloted an application-only, student-led leadership development program focused on climate for graduate students. We received more than 65 applications for a 20 fellow-participant cohort. Our of Penn’s 12 schools, we received applications from the Wharton School of Business, Carey Law School, Perelman School of Medicine, Weitzman School of Design, the School of Veterinary Medicine, the School of Arts & Sciences, and the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. Almost every Friday of the semester, we hosted regularly scheduled programming that focused on three key themes of climate change solutions: clean energy, environmental and social governance, and infrastructure. We secured speakers and program participants from across the University of Pennsylvania, as well as industry, including Energy Impact Partners, Dechert LLP, Bloomberg, S&P Global, Vinson & Elkins LLP, Form Energy, Suez, HiiROC, CTVC, Insight Partners, Arcadis, City of Philadelphia, Carbon Leadership Forum and Vox. 

We executed three main types of events: crash courses, networking events, and community events. Crash courses were designed as round-table discussions that introduced key concepts and trends regarding pre-determined subject matter areas. Networking events were designed to highlight professionals’ climate journeys and facilitate relationship-building between graduate students and professionals. Finally, community events were designed to facilitate connections and relationships amongst and between the Fellows. Programming satisfaction was high, with a median score of 8/10. The impact of the Fellowship was also high, as students ultimately formed teams to consult a venture-backed clean energy startup, collaborate on a project with the Water Center at Penn and compete in a blog-post competition. You can find our presentation here.  

Our Metrics for Success include fellow-participant satisfaction, degree of program differentiation, number of interactions and collaborations that would not have happened but for the fellowship and number of applicants.

SDGs

  • Goal 3: Good health and well-being 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals 100% 100%

UABC Climate Action 

Universidad Autónoma de Baja California   (Mexico)
TEAM: Ana Luisa Ramírez Soto, Dominique Francisca Rivas Ponce, Fabiola Pacheco Pacheco, Monica Itzel Saba Desalez, Rosalía Rivera Rodríguez. 

Vision

The project’s vision is to strengthen the environmental culture with a particular emphasis on climate change in the university. If we succeed, we will have created a community that is aware and takes action.

Metrics for success  

To measure success, we will use data collection tools such as event attendance count, surveys at the end of events and sessions, and statistics obtained from social networks. We will mainly be measuring the scope of the content shared. There will also be documentation of the processes through photography, video, and written reports.

Final report 

The “UABC Climate Action” project was born in 2020 to create awareness and inform the university community about the current global climate and environmental situation. This project was created by five female students of the Global Development Studies postgraduate program at the Autonomous University of Baja California Tijuana campus, united by a common interest: sustainability and climate change. We proposed the project within the framework of the Global University Climate. Initially, the project had the objective of carrying out face-to-face activities such as discussion forums, community talks, organic markets, movie clubs, among other activities. However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way we carried out the project. The virtuality and advantages that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) represent gave us the tools to apply the project and reach a community large enough to ensure a significant impact. In this sense, the project turned into a digital format, an Instagram account under the user of: “eco.conscientess” with daily posting following this order:

  • Mondays: Sustainable Development Goals.
  • Tuesday and Thursday: an environmental concept
  • Wednesday: climate change issues
  • Fridays and Saturdays: open topics about the environment.
  • Sunday interaction: with the followers through quizzes and questions.

Using this digital format, eco.consientes managed to capture the attention of different audiences and establish links with other social actors, which makes it possible to be applied and replicated in a massive form.

SDGs

  • Goal 5: Gender Equality 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 15: Life on land 100% 100%

GAIA-CC

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
TEAM: Naivy Montserrat Jiménez Quiterio, Elisa Solares Moreno, Ana Fabiola Hernández Dominguez, Jerónimo Almeida Rodríguez, Óscar Antonio Cardoza Pedraza. 

Vision

Our plan was to create a platform with climate change information and policies. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make a platform where the community could share their opinions and interact with each other.

Metrics for success  

We have developed a basic structure for building the website and a general schema to present the desired information. We uploaded information and are still working on the launch.

Final report 

We developed a platform with the support of UNAM’s Center of Atmospheric Sciences, to which we uploaded some articles and infographics with information about climate change. Due to a lack of time, it was impossible to generate all the content we planned to create. Thanks to this, we learned the importance of time management and having a work methodology and clear objectives. As a team, we maintained good communication despite the pandemic’s conditions and being in different places. We learned how vital it is to share scientific information, and that it is not a trivial job. Our mentor provided us with some valuanle tools involved in the area of communication and science divulgation.

We hope that other young scientists will be encouraged to communicate scientific knowledge in ways that are accessible to everyone, especially regarding climate change. Therefore, we decided to generate the information in our language (Spanish) and focus on our country (Mexico) since we want people to know about climate change to protect people and the planet. We also want people to have the necessary tools to demand our government changes and better environmental protection policies.

We plan to keep developing content like articles, videos, and infographics to keep the page fresh and informative. At the same time, we will try to make the page work to allow other students and scientists to communicate about climate change.

SDGs

  • Goal 4: Quality Education 100% 100%
  • Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities 100% 100%
  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions 100% 100%

ClimateLearn

University of Ibadan (Nigeria)
TEAM: Ifeoluwa Oluwasegun Oduguwa, Titus Adeolu Adekunle, Oluwawapelumi Akin-Ajani, Anuoluwapo Victor Adeyemi, Babatunde Isaac Ademusire, Toheeb Kasali. 

Vision

University of Ibadan students will become empowered with contextually relevant information and committed to tackling the climate emergency.

Metrics for success  

  • Over 500 University of Ibadan students to engage with the chatbot.
  • Over 3000 visits to the project blog.
  • Over 500 climate action pledges from undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan via the project’s blog.
  • A survey assessing knowledge and perception of climate change among University of Ibadan students completed with results published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Final report 

Our project outcomes were largely in line with our vision. We created a website where we shared eight articles to inspire climate action. Our website was visited 2,311 times, and our blog posts were read 759 times, with 55.7% and 61% of website visits and blog reads, respectively, being from Nigerians. 

Users had nine climate-action pledges to choose from, namely: Plant trees, turn off lights and electronics, not in use, eat less meat, take shorter showers, walk or cycle, buy thrift clothing, reduce plastic waste, use reusable food and water containers, and mobilize support for climate action. There was also an opportunity to make a custom pledge. So far, 69 pledges have been made. 

To improve our initially low social media reach, we recruited 20 volunteers who helped share our posters and articles and contributed articles to our blog.  We shared 20 posters on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with five posters showing co-benefits of taking individual climate action. We reached over 4,500 users and had over 1,700 engagements on Twitter and Instagram over six months. 

We concluded the analysis of our survey assessing University of Ibadan students’ knowledge of climate change and started writing the paper’s final aspects. 

We decided not to create the WhatsApp chatbot as we originally stated in our project proposal so we could focus on other aspects of our project and because we anticipated challenges with sustaining public interest in the bot over a long period. 

SDGs

  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 14: Life below water 100% 100%

Sustainability Week Accra

University of Ghana
TEAM: Nii Noi Kofi Omaboe, Jeffrey Adusei Opoku, Godwin Yao Doe, Nabeela Abubakar, Elidad Ofosu Addo

Vision

Most university students in Ghana have little or no knowledge of the ripple effects of single-use plastics. Together with the student’s current lifestyle on campus being highly unsustainable, our vision is to promote sustainable development, provide sustainable alternatives, and influence most university students to adopt a climate-friendly lifestyle to green our campus.

Metrics for success  

Our method of measuring our project’s success is through contacts with students, university staff, and the broad public via active social media engagements and direct contact with them.

  • Total University students: over 40,000
  • Students we reached with the project: 2,227

Final report 

The COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for us to host our planned climate-friendly activities. Because of that, we had to adopt a hybrid style for the events. The virtual platform provided us a great space to accommodate a significant audience, both in and out of the university space. However, we encountered several issues such as generating awareness. Our social media marketing wasn’t the best, and we had a limited number of days. Our approach in tackling the marketing issues was by strategically collaborating with lots of youth organizations. We successfully had nine youth organizations on board, who supported us by sharing our social media tools, creating a multiplier effect in terms of awareness. More importantly, we hosted both online and physical events and got in touch with 54 freshman year students who are also willing to be part of the team.

SDGs

  • Goal 4: Quality Education 100% 100%
  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals 100% 100%

Academias Verdes
Green Academies

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
TEAM: Victor D. Rodríguez Rosas, Sonia Jaimes Aguilar, Guadalupe Guzmán Enriquez, Diego Araiza García, Ilse N. Torres Ocampo.

Vision

Our aim was to create an environmental education project for high school students in marginalized urban areas in the outskirts of Mexico City. We intended to awaken curiosity and raise awareness about environmental issues based on three axes: biological, ecological, and social, to understand local and global environmental problems.

Metrics for success  

In the near future (after the pandemic), we will offer five one-hour sessions, and one extra meeting to elaborate a final project within the National Preparatory School 3 “Justo Sierra” of the UNAM with the students enrolled in biology classes. We will use a questionnaire to evaluate the degree of understanding of the young people about the topics taught in the sessions. They will be awarded a certificate with possible curricular value.

Final report 

We had to adapt our project to the conditions in our country during the pandemic. The project was still very successful, though. We managed to contact teachers from the school where we will be teaching the sessions, and they received us with enthusiasm. Our mentor was also very helpful in setting out our objectives in a realistic way, and supported us in several virtual sessions. We were sad and unmotivated at times because of the pandemic, but that did not stop us. The next step begins in August with on-site classes and with the support of the teachers of ENP 3. We thought it would be a great idea that several people would learn about our project. We believe it is crucial to ensure the education of marginalized areas, which are often the majority, seeking to create a sense of curiosity and awareness about nature. Thus, improving their local environment and their global environment and ultimately teaching children or their own families, changing the way they see the world and nature.

SDGs

  • Goal 2: Zero Hunger 100% 100%
  • Goal 4: Quality Education 100% 100%
  • Goal 5: Gender Equality 100% 100%
  • Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation 100% 100%
  • Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy 100% 100%
  • Goal 10: Reduced inequality 100% 100%
  • Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities 100% 100%
  • Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions 100% 100%
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals 100% 100%

The Climate Collage on the Road to COP26. 

University of Vienna (Austria), University of Geneva (Switzerland)
TEAM: Katharina Haas, Mickaël Doré, Valentine Haran. 

Vision

Our Vision is to put climate education at the forefront of international negotiations and to nurture the idea of citizens taking action, empowered through knowledge. Fulfilling our vision is possible thanks to the Climate Collage, a workshop that gives access to science-based information on climate change and allows all audiences to grasp its complexity in a collaborative and fun way. 

Metrics for success  

After participating in our workshop and having grasped the complexity and urgency of climate change, how many people will change their habits? How many people will rethink their lifestyle? How many will become Climate Collage facilitators themselves to spread awareness and thus, have a multiplying effect? Every person we touch and inspire through our tool counts.

Final report 

Our project, the Climate Education Kick-off (CEKO) for Yale students, started off quite promisingly! We hosted the Climate Collage, a science-based, collaborative workshop on climate change, for the Yale Climate Council. We highly enjoyed our cross-continent synergy in the months that followed. Nevertheless, we got a bit off track – but for the very best reasons! Since December 2020, we have also been working on another long-term project: The Climate Collage is on the road to COP26, aiming to put climate education at the forefront of international negotiations at COY16 and COP26.

After a reality check in April, we finally decided to postpone the CEKO and focus on COP26 to make our presence in Glasgow as impactful as possible. 

Our bulletproof action plan encompasses several dimensions. With our diverse events, we will reach out to universities, the youth, international decision-makers, local movements, and citizens to trigger a rethinking on the individual, collective, local, and global levels. 

We formed five working groups to translate our mission into action. For that reason, we are currently preparing the Glasgow Climate Education Summit in cooperation with COY16 and the CEKO at Scottish Universities. In addition, we are building up an international task force of facilitators that will conquer Glasgow to host many workshops in the run-up to and during COP26. The 42 cards of our workshop will flood schools, hubs, parks, libraries. 

Our journey is also the most enriching volunteer experience since skill sharing and dream-team-building are our DNA. We truly managed to create a space where we can thrive.

SDGs

  • Goal 4: Quality Education 100% 100%
  • Goal 13: Climate action 100% 100%
  • Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals 100% 100%

Categories

Measure

Advance

Imagine

Regenerate

Rejuvenate

Act

Connect