Students from Carlton Bolling are celebrating after winning an inter-school competition to create a Net Zero island.
The challenge, set by the region’s gas distributor, Northern Gas Networks (NGN) in partnership with the University of Bradford, Bechtle, Yorkshire Water, SkillsHouse and Bradford Council saw teams of year nine students, aged 13 and 14, develop ideas for sustainable living on a fictional Net Zero island.
The teams of up to six pupils explored how they would produce energy for heating and cooking, fuel transport and manage waste and water for a population of 30,000, without creating carbon emissions.
The UK government has set a target of achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050 as it looks to slow the pace of climate change and minimise its consequences on people, places, businesses, and nature. Bradford District has set a more ambitious target of achieving net zero carbon by 2038.
Pupils from Eden Boys, Titus Salt, Carlton Bolling, Bradford Academy and 2 teams from St Bede’s & St Joseph’s schools in Bradford took up the challenge and, following a launch event in early October and spent seven weeks developing their ideas.
At an event hosted at the University of Bradford this week, the schools presented their ideas to judges Rebecca Miller from NGN, Ryan Mallinder from N-Gen, Steph Renshaw from Yorkshire Water, James Machell of the University of Bradford, and Barry Cusack of Bradford Council.
In total 33 pupils pitched their ideas to the judges in a Dragon’s Den style challenge, with the team from Carlton Bolling being named the winners. Whilst attending the event, pupils also took a tour of Bradford University to find out how campus has been designed to reduce carbon footprint and be a sustainable place to study.
Carlton Bolling won the competition after presenting ideas for their Net Zero Island, that went into great detail across all areas they were tasked to research, including energy production, waste and water management, housing and transport. Their use of diagrams and statistics alongside their decision making and explanations showed a real understanding and passion for the topic. The judges were also impressed by the importance they put on sustainability, looking at the natural geography of the island and habitat conservation.
Commenting on the presentations, Rebecca Miller of NGN said, “What an amazing group of students we have been lucky enough to work with for this project. The research they have done and the presentations they have created are so impressive, I hope this inspires them to continue thinking about what they have learned and help the UK reach our Net Zero targets.”
Dr James Machell, STEM Curriculum Development Manager at the University of Bradford, said: “All of the students showed a clear understanding of the topic and worked hard to turn ideas into serious understanding of the technologies they were talking about.”
Barry Cusack, Sustainable Delivery Manager at Bradford Council, added, “We saw some amazing engineering ideas and nature-based solutions, all of which could help us move towards a greener and healthier future. Their pitches were of a very high standard.”
The winning team has been invited by Yorkshire Water to visit The Education Centre at Headingley Water Treatment Works in Leeds, where they will have the opportunity to take a guided tour of the site and learn how saving water can contribute to our net zero goals.
Steph Renshaw, Lead Ecologist at Yorkshire Water summarised, “It was brilliant to see how much research the pupils had undertaken into existing examples from around the world and the way they integrated nature into the solutions with blue-green infrastructure. I was also impressed by their presentation skills and confidence in the pitches. Given the skills of these pupils the future is bright in the hands of the next generation.”
