This project involved building a fine dust sensor that measures the particulate matter load every 2 minutes for particle sizes ≤ 10 microns and ≤ 2.5 microns. It collects data on increase in micro dust particles before and after school hours when there is motorized traffic chaos.

Participating in the “Climate Challenge Ruhr” that was organized by the local government, the team mobilized people from around the world to contribute points through sustainable action in their everyday lives. For example, a person taking public transport instead of a car, could take a picture of the activity and upload it to support the particular team. With points collected in this manner, the team that got the most points at the end of four weeks was expected to win a particular amount of money.

Since there is no sitting arrangement for the students in the school yard due to construction work, the team wished for a solar bench for the students to sit on, which is additionally made out of PV (Photovoltaic) solar models that creates enough energy to charge electronic devices like mobile forsthoevel@jsg-nv.de phones. While the generation of energy won’t be considerably large, the
fundamental idea behind this bench is that the students are exposed to a product like this on a daily basis and are stimulated to think about modern ways of producing energy. This would promote lifestyle changes and alterations in behavior.

The team went on to win the solar bench and now aims to take this success forward by equipping the roof of the school center with solar models during the course of the renovation.

This initiative aims to encourage the habit of reading among children from Llamaquizu, Oxapamapa, Perú, by motivating them to make their own books with recycled material. The central objective of this initiative is to create ecological awareness through the recycling of plastic and aluminum bottles. The children are educated about the 3 R’s of sustainability – reduce, reuse and recycle – and they are taught to recycle plastic and aluminium bottles to create new library items. The sensitization of the 3 R’s is intended to initiate healthy consumption habits, and also encourage the habit of reading and recycling among children and young people.

Selling of plastic and aluminium bottles is also seen as a generation of new income, as the local community contains less resources.