Winners of Ostrava’s ‘Be Eco-Friendly’ competition announced

In mid-February the City of Ostrava announced a new competition entitled ‘Don’t Be LAMA, Be Eco-Friendly’, targeted at children from local primary schools. Participating teams of children created short videos on environmental topics; entries included a total 20 videos from 12 schools. Each of the two best-placed schools will receive a valuable prize: an expert study proposing energy efficiency measures that can be implemented at the school, helping it to reduce its environmental footprint. There were also a range of other prizes for the children – cameras, tablets, kick-scooters, and funding for a school trip. The entries were evaluated by a jury of experts.

Deputy Mayor Vladimír Cigánek, who was also the head of the jury, gave more details:

“The aim of the competition was not only to give children the chance to win some great prizes, but above all to raise their awareness of the environmental footprint created by modern urban life. The videos were full of variety, with plenty of humour, facts, and thoughtful ideas – so the jury’s task was not easy. In the end, we decided to award the first prizes to the Ivana Sekaniny primary school and the Svinov primary school. Both schools will be able to benefit from an expert study proposing specific energy efficiency improvements that they can make. This is perhaps not the most exciting prize for the children, so they also received tablets, outdoor cameras, tickets for the planetarium, and funding for a school trip. I will be presenting the prizes at the competition awards ceremony on Friday 11 May.”

The expert studies for the two winning schools – to be paid for by the City – will include a thorough analysis and assessment of the current situation at each school, plus a set of proposals enabling the schools to achieve better energy efficiency, make more use of renewable resources, and improve their processes and systems in order to reduce their environmental footprint. Funding for the necessary improvements will be available via the national energy efficiency support scheme EFEKT, which is run by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The proposed measures will then be able to proceed to the project planning stage, with implementation scheduled for the summer of 2019.

Potential areas for improvement at the schools include their heating and temperature regulation systems, lighting technology, ventilation/air conditioning systems (to create a more comfortable teaching and learning environment), noise insulation measures, the creation of renewable energy generation systems, charging points for electric bikes, rainwater capture systems (which enable the water to be used for irrigation or to improve the general microclimate in the vicinity of the school buildings during the summer), and other smart solutions.

The competition also included a public vote via Facebook. The award for this vote went to three participating teams: from the Hrabová, Michálkovice and Gen. Škarvady primary schools. The winners will receive kick-scooters and season tickets to the Science and Technology Centre at Lower Vítkovice.

The videos included presentations on the following topics:

• My home-made recycled product.
• I use products that are easy to produce and easy to recycle.
• What would the Eco-Llama never do?
• The best eco-friendly ad.
• What would the world be like if everybody cared about the environment?
• I don’t waste things.