Young Laois environmentalists highly commended at national awards

A group of young people from Mountmellick Community School were highly commended at this year’s ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards (YEA) 2024.

Over 1,000 people attended the awards showcase and finals, which took place at the Royal Convention Centre, Dublin recently. 

The group from Mountmellick Community School tackled recycling, electricity waste and fast fashion in a wide-ranging campaign aimed at improving their school’s sustainability. 

They were among 26 eco-projects to receive awards at this year’s competition. The awards recognise the work of young people who are tackling key issues in relation to climate and biodiversity loss, taking environmental action in their school or community and coming up with creative solutions to solve environmental issues.

Now in its 25th year, the YEA programme has reached people in every county of Ireland, with a total of over 65,000 young people participating and 6,000 projects entered down through the years. 

Commenting on the awards, Elaine Nevin, National Director, ECO-UNESCO said: “Since the Young Environmentalist Awards began 25 years ago, we’ve seen the programme go from strength to strength each year. I’m so impressed by the number of projects and the high standard this year from students in Laois and across Ireland. Our young people are the heart of the YEA programme, using their passion, creativity and dedication to make a lasting impact on their communities. We have created a strong tradition of effecting environmental change over the last 25 years and I’m proud of the work that’s been done to date. When we started the YEA programme, there were five awards categories, since then it has grown to 12, reflecting the sheer scale of environmental issues that impact our planet and our young people."