Generation Earth Youth Dialogue Day
Generation Earth is an environmental programme for the youth of South Africa to help guide and develop young activists with the inclusion of career guidance and responsible behaviour. It is building a movement that nurtures and mobilises young minds to not only be informed about the environment and the challenges but to act on them.
IN preparation for this year’s Youth Expo happening at the end of the year, the youth of Generation Earth gathered at South Africa’s first Green Star building, the Nedbank head office in Sandton.
At this gathering the youth were exposed to the problems, solutions and the opportunities within four elements of the environment: waste management, food security, energy efficiency and water management. The council members will be implementing projects within their schools or local communities during the rest of this year.
Students have chosen water and energy audits, food gardens, recycled-fashion shows and waste management projects, to name a few. Nedbank, the official banking partner of Generation Earth, will be awarding R2 500 per category winner at the Youth Expo, while R10 000 in total will be awarded to help invest in the development of their project for the upcoming year.
The Dialogue Day was aimed at inspiring them to tackle the problems that South Africans face within these categories. WWF-SASSI manager Pavs Pillay spoke on food and water, educating the students from high schools and universities who attended on the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) programme. “In 1960 the average amount of fish being consumed by humans was 10kg, but since 2014 that number has increased to 19kg. This is a big increase, an increase we cannot sustain.”
Denise Lundall of SANEDI (the South Africa National Energy Development Institute), spoke on energy, renewable energy capacity as well as the role young people play. Their role in innovation and the development of technology within the energy field is key and their passion is needed from before they enter the industry – it needs to start at school.
Rudolf Keller from Mpact Recyclers, is passionate about paper recycling and waste in general and he spoke about energy and waste.
Preparations for the end-of-year summit have begun and students need to start getting their projects out of the planning phase and into the real world. To have your school join Generation Earth or to submit your school’s green project, contact the Generation Earth office at office@generationearth.co.za, on 082 5050 664 or follow the @Gen_Earth #GEDialogueDay on Twitter.
