Bord na Móna Recycling has been announced as a finalist for the Education Provider of the Year Award at Ireland’s Climate Change Leadership Awards for its Secondary Schools Challenge.
The award recognises organisations that show dedication to introducing climate, environmental and sustainable topics into education.
Launched in 2025 the Bord na Móna Recycling Secondary School Challenge brought the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the heart of secondary schools in a tangible, creative, and action-driven way. Students were tasked to pick a minimum of one SDG and upcycle discarded items or materials typically considered as waste to solve an element of the goal or spread awareness.
By encouraging students to identify a waste stream and upcycle it into a functional solution this nationwide competition empowered students and teachers to explore sustainability via hands-on learning. It turned the classroom into a space for innovation—where environmental issues were not just studied, but tackled. Students created real-world solutions to waste problems, deepening their understanding of circular economy principles and climate responsibility.
Each participating school produced a short video and photographic evidence to document their process, impact, and alignment with their chosen SDGs. The Challenge encouraged cross-curricular collaboration—linking science, CSPE, art, and geography—while building skills in teamwork, communication, and critical thinking, with students developing projects that addressed plastic waste, fast fashion, food waste, and more. These projects didn’t just reduce environmental impact—they inspired school-wide and community-wide conversations and actions around sustainability.
We are proud to have introduced an initiative that made the SDGs more accessible, proving that environmental education belongs in every classroom
