15.01.2010
Portuguese MEP Edite Estrela brought the fourth edition of FuturEnergia - the Europe-wide student competition on plastics and energy efficiency - to a close by presenting the prizes to the winning students. The award ceremony organised by PlasticsEurope was held in the European Parliament in Brussels. When handing out the awards, MEP Estrela said: “I am very impressed with the creativity students showed when faced with these energy challenges. It is through initiatives such as FuturEnergia that fresh perspectives on these issues come to life.”
The winners are teams of three students each from Denmark, Italy, Poland and Portugal. Aged between 14 and 20, in the Internet competition, they were asked to propose solutions to pressing energy and environment problems and capture their suggestions on film or in a presentation. A jury panel consisting of energy experts selected the best entries at the end of the school year.
The FuturEnergia project is cooperation between PlasticsEurope, the association of plastics manufacturers, and European Schoolnet, network of 31 Ministries of Education in Europe and beyond. It is aimed at increasing awareness of energy efficiency issues amongst children between the ages of 7 and 20, across 34 European countries.
Over the past 3 years, the project has reached students from all over Europe through an interactive website (www.futurenergia.org) with monthly live chats hosted by high-profile energy experts, online European-wide competitions and more. It has generated thousands of creative and illustrative contributions, all relating to energy, resource efficiency and climate change. They have been created in Science, Language, Art and ICT classes, and were submitted across several age groups.