How to Develop Green Skills: An Example from Baltic Green Leadership

On October 27, we concluded the activities of the Erasmus+ project “Baltic Green Leadership.” As part of the VOCO Green Forum, a Green Hackathon took place, bringing together nearly 60 students who contributed to solving real-life challenges.

Sustainability-related problems were presented to the students by:

• Zaba pet store, which was concerned about the dental health of pets.
• Pagarini bakery company, whose problem was used baking paper.
• Association of Tartu County Municipalities, which brought up the issue of school food waste.

The students formed teams and, with the support of mentors, developed a total of 12 ideas to solve the presented problems. All ideas were presented to the jury, whose decision revealed the hackathon winners.

• 1st Prize was won by the team “Reduce, reuse, recycle” consisting of Kennert Kose, Kädi Jõgi, Aadeele Jago, Kadi Voika, Anastasia Notberg, and Stepan Dovõdenko. Their idea was to recycle used baking papers from industrial kitchens to create packaging materials from them.
• 2nd Prize was awarded to the team “Söiv”consisting of Raimo Kivi, Erki Kuuse, Kaspar Koorits, Kaisa Aardevälja, Angela Roosmägi, and Kristelle Tasane, who proposed the best idea for reducing food waste in schools.
• 3rd Prize was recognized to the team “Eco Smile” consisting of Birgit Sinisalu-Pihlak, Laura-Liis Savotskin, Eneli Ahmen, Anete Leppik, Raina Ilmas, and Maia-Marit Riit, who developed a pet oral hygiene kit.

The participating companies also recognized their favorite ideas with special prizes.

The Green Forum also shared practical methods for engaging students and tips for organizing hackathons. A discussion was held on how to introduce sustainability topics to students in the future. Materials created within the framework of the Erasmus+ project “Baltic Green Leadership: VET Students as Agents of Change”  were distributed.