Invent The Future Contest
2009 Winners
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Karlena Lord |
Karlena Lord’s essay Look to the Green Heavens captured first place honours in the 13-17 year old age category. Karlena learned about the contest on Facebook. Her idea was inspired by an article she read in National Geographic about green roofs.
Invent the Future was not Karlena’s first foray into the realm of sustainability. From an early age her and her family have been recycling and composting. Karlena walks and rides as much as she can, not to mention doing the simple things like turning off the lights and reusing as much as possible. This year her commitment ramped up a notch after becoming president of her school’s environment club.
Karlena recognizes that, although good intentioned, a lot of people simply do not make the effort to recycle or minimize their consumption. She believes with the right infrastructure in place (like a recycle bin beside every garbage bin) people will start to recycle more. The key is to make it as easy as throwing stuff in the garbage.
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Cherrie Lam |
Our panel of celebrity judges determined that Cherrie Lam’s video, Use the Grey, Save the Day! was the best of the best in the 13-17 year old age category. Cherrie discovered the Invent the Future Contest on Facebook and heard about it on a Chinese radio station. After a quick look around the Invent the Future website and reading about the $2500 grand prizes she was in!
The concept behind Cherrie’s prize winning animated video is rooted in the water-saving technology and techniques used in Hong Kong and Japan. Digging around on-line prompted her to explore the idea of finding better ways to manage grey water.
Cherrie has always been interested in the environment but is conscious of the fact that living sustainably sometimes requires a little extra effort. That’s what made the idea of grey water management so appealing – it is a sustainable idea that is almost automatic.
The contest has made her strive to be more sustainable in all facets of her life.
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Marella Falat |
Marella was motivated by the enthusiasm of her friend, and BC Hydro PowerSmart outreach rep to enter her essay, Encouraging Sustainable Consumption: An incentive/tax based education program into the Invent the Future Contest. Marella had been mulling over her idea while studying global resource systems with a focus area on sustainable agriculture and food sustainability. The problem, it seemed to her, was that one of the barriers to buying locally produced food was the fact that in many cases imported and packaged food is cheaper. The solution? Shift the economy of the food system in a way that rewards people for buying local.
Marella has always been interested in sustainability, but really became an activist after attending a conference that inspired her to start a “local first organization” in support of her local economy. The fact that her idea caught the attention of the judges has bolstered her confidence in the concept and the possibility of developing her idea through a master’s program or maybe even a PhD.
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Rafael Tan |
Rafael decided to enter his video, From Vending Machine to Fountain Machine after seeing a transit ad for Invent the Future. As a student at Emily Carr, Rafael is immersed in the notion of living and working in a sustainable way. The concept of eliminating aluminum cans was one of many he had floating around in his head, that he felt would translate well into a video.
In addition to the influence of Rafael’s educational environment has had on his understanding about the importance of sustainability, he has always made an effort to do the small things that make a big difference like unplugging his electronics when he goes to sleep, and avoiding plastic bags. The time Rafael spent researching the subject of his video has broadened his understanding of sustainability issues and he has come to understand that as important as small behavioural changes are, making a lifestyle change is the most impactful thing we can do for our planet.
