Students bring global sustainability awards back to Birmingham
Three teams awarded prizes for ideas including gamifying sustainable choices at festivals and promoting better biodiversity in beet farming
Three teams awarded prizes for ideas including gamifying sustainable choices at festivals and promoting better biodiversity in beet farming
Winners of the internal competition (left to right: Riciann Alexander, Emily Uren, Jack Mitchell and Madison Gould) with David Hannah and Julia Myatt.
Award-winning students from the University of Birmingham have created innovative ways to tackle global sustainability challenges, including reducing waste from festivals, and promoting biodiversity.
The Reimagine our Future competition, led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, saw over 254 participants and 47 submissions from 11 higher education institutions. Their task was to develop an innovative solution to a sustainability challenge, which encompassed more than one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
There were 14 teams from around the world in the final, which took place in December 2024, including teams from the UK, US, South Africa, Columbia, China, Italy, Austria and Ukraine. Three out of ten Birmingham teams were selected by an international panel to be finalists and presented their work at an awards ceremony.
All three teams were awarded special prizes. The ‘Let’s Beet Pesticides’ team, comprising Emily Uren (BSc Psychology with a Year in Environmental Sustainability), Madison Gould, and Jack Mitchell (BSc/MSci Global Environmental Change and Sustainability), were awarded the Most Multidisciplinary Idea prize. Their project proposed more sustainable ways to control aphids in sugar beet farming (one of the UK’s biggest crops).
The ‘ECOPASS’ team, including Ethan Said, Molly Watson and Esme Yates (BSc/MSci Global Environmental Change and Sustainability) were also awarded the Most Multidisciplinary Idea prize. This initiative explored ways to engage festival goers to be more sustainable through an app which provided daily challenges and points to win.
Finally, the ‘Putting an End to the Recycling Confusion!’ team, which included Jael Maw, Valerie Imbrah, Jamie Gower and Trina Ntambara (BSc/MSci Global Environmental Change and Sustainability) won the Sustainable Education Solution prize. This project sought to develop a better system to support recycling in the UK as currently 84% of UK households accidently contaminate their recycling.
The University of Birmingham and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign work together through the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement & Education (BRIDGE). This was established to foster mutual collaboration and investment between the two institutions, deliver groundbreaking research and address shared global challenges. To find out more about the BRIDGE partnership, which celebrated its ten-year anniversary last year, please visit the BRIDGE webpage.
Thanks to the vision of Professor Julia Myatt and Aleks Cavoski, and our collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the competition continues to grow stronger and more focused each year. We’re thrilled to see how students will reimagine the future with innovative sustainability ideas, driving meaningful change for a better world.
Professor Leon Liebenberg, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, commented: “The Reimagine Our Future competition has thrived with the exceptional contributions of University of Birmingham students, representing one of 11 international participating universities. In 2024, their impact was particularly notable, with several students selected as finalists and award winners. Thanks to the vision of Professor Julia Myatt and Aleks Cavoski, and our collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the competition continues to grow stronger and more focused each year. We’re thrilled to see how students will reimagine the future with innovative sustainability ideas, driving meaningful change for a better world”.
Professor Julia Myatt, Director of Sustainability Education, added: “We are very proud of all ten University teams who took part in the Reimagine our Future competition and wish the winning three teams a huge congratulations on their success. We are delighted to see so many students engaged in sustainability and passionate about creating multidisciplinary solutions to regional, national and global issues. They are a testament to our student community and we cannot wait to see what they achieve in their careers.”
We are very proud of all ten University teams who took part in the Reimagine our Future competition and wish the winning three teams a huge congratulations on their success.
On 27 November, as part of Green Week, the University held a day to celebrate the range of sustainability activities that students had been engaged with in 2024. As part of this, the ten teams who entered the competition shared their proposed solutions and two teams were awarded prizes for their contributions. The Reimagine Our Future competition is due to launch again this year; please visit the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign competition webpage for further information on how to enter.
The University of Birmingham is committed to achieving operational net zero carbon. It is seeking to change society and the environment positively, and use its research and education to make a major global contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Find out at www.birmingham.ac.uk/sustainability.