‘Save it or destroy it’ wins competition

Northcross Intermediate students have won first and second place in the 2011 HSBC Eco-Code Climate Competition, and were presented their winners’ cheques at their school assembly on 4th November 2011, by Lesley Pope, Head of Marketing and Group Communications at HSBC.
Elizabeth Lee and Jessy Kirk, both 11 years old, were presented cheques for $300 and $200 respectively for their ‘Save it or destroy it’, and ‘Save our water’ posters.
The competition, open to all greater Auckland primary and intermediate schools, aimed to raise environmental awareness in schools with participants asked to create a poster under one of six climate change topics: Litter, Water, Energy, Transport, Food or Biodiversity.
It was a tough choice for the judge Noel McNamara, Chief Executive of sponsoring organisation HSBC, but he said in the end the winners were chosen from more than 100 entries, for their clever and unique expression of the theme.
Elizabeth’s ‘Save it or destroy it’ poster shows a personified world, sick from toxic rubbish. Jessy’s poster shows a group of very well drawn young people demonstrating that people should ‘Save our water’.
 Third place winner, Leon Cuihua, from The Gardens School (Manurewa), also received a prize, with his ‘Think global, act local’ poster showing how pollutants are destroying the world’s streams.
“The winners really stood out, but overall I was impressed to see how the children expressed the different climate change themes. It was great to see the children really think about how environmental issues affect them and their community,” says Noel McNamara.
Rob Acton, NZ Coordinator of Eco-Schools, an international environmental education programme, talks about the need for environmental education in NZ, “Environmental education in NZ is no where near what it should be. Unlike many OECD countries where formal environmental education reaches more than 90 per cent of school children, locally less than 40 per cent of schools in NZ are involved in one of these programmes.”
The initiative is based on the international Eco-Code competition which has been running for two years, with tens of thousands of children involved across countries in Europe, America, Asia and South America. To learn more visit the international website: www.eco-schools-hsbc.org