The Net Zero Challenge brings students’ environmental innovations to the forefront

Climate change continues to have an increasing impact on our world, so it’s no wonder that young people are invested in ensuring a sustainable future for the planet 🌏

To help learners take the initiative on our collective climate future, we wanted to provide an opportunity to design solutions in Minecraft: Education Edition that would represent more sustainable and inclusive visions of their communities. To make it happen, we partnered with three school systems in three major cities for the Net Zero Challenge.

Each school system selected a unique prompt that their students could use to launch into their projects, then set them loose to dream up their sustainability solutions in Minecraft. The prompts aligned with the cities’ unique climate action plans, reinforcing the importance of policy and social collaboration in innovation.

These local challenges had four main goals:

• Educate young people on actions they can take to combat the climate crisis
• Engage urban youth in designing and building solutions for climate resilience and action
• Amplify citizen voices and ideas to city leaders to move beyond discussion and into action
• Celebrate student success and bring attention to their ideas with city leaders

The results were mind-blowing! If you’re thinking of running a build competition or looking for a way to energize your students around climate change, these challenges can help inspire your own initiatives.

Reimagining Stockholm

Stockholm’s challenge rested on the idea that replacing all greenhouse-gas-emitting activities with sustainable practices is vital to managing climate change. To align with the city’s climate action plan, they acknowledged that net-zero policies and lower carbon footprints are our best chance for a sustainable future.

The challenge asked students one core question: How might we reimagine our city with innovative solutions that lower our carbon footprints and create a more sustainable future?

After exploring their city in Minecraft and learning about local sustainability issues, over 250 student groups researched and crafted solutions that would reduce carbon emissions. Submissions included clean energy sources, education centers to build awareness of the climate crisis in the community, efficient transportation methods, and more.

Watch this video to learn about Stockholm’s competition and some of their innovative student builds.

Efficient Mobility in Austin

In Austin, the challenge centered on the ways we get around and how those affect climate. On-road motor traffic is one of Austin’s biggest emitters, so students reflected on how they could think about their transportation system differently to meet the needs of all community members and reduce their dependence on cars.

They recognized that cities can build a future where most people travel on foot, by bike, or by shared transport while ensuring that any necessary vehicle trips use zero-emission vehicles. The competition lined up with the city’s Climate Equity Plan, a roadmap for net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

One group of students imagined a car-free downtown Austin, complete with well-considered boundaries for motor traffic, a sustainably powered subway, and publicly available electric bikes.

Watch the video to learn about their build!

Net Zero: New York City

The New York City Department of Education—the largest school system on the planet—offered students the chance to address one of the following sustainability challenges:

1. Greener Buildings: Design and implement solutions to create new buildings or retrofit existing ones to increase energy efficiency and reduce water consumption.
2. Efficient Mobility: Help New Yorkers get around the city sustainably with a new or enhanced mode of transportation that utilizes modern technology, responsibly deployed to add to the mobility options that already exist throughout the five boroughs.
3. Zero Waste: Design an intervention that can help New Yorkers reduce, reuse, and recycle. It could be a system, a structure, or a resource.

Like Austin, New York recognizes that climate change is an equity issue, so the OneNYC 2050 plan includes commitments to confront the climate crisis, achieve equity, and strengthen democracy.

One group of student finalists from John Dewey High School used the Greener Buildings prompt to imagine thriving neighborhoods, healthy lives, equity and excellence in education, a liveable climate, and modern infrastructure.

Watch their video submission to see what motivated students can do.

The Net Zero Challenge demonstrated that when you set students free to imagine solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems, they’re willing and able to take the lead on creating solutions. That’s just the energy we’ll need from this young generation if we’re going to combat the climate crisis.

Exciting developments are on the horizon for engaging students on global problems. So stay tuned for opportunities to activate your learners!

In the meantime, if you’re feeling inspired to challenge young people to dream big and create something, explore lessons and build challenges for Minecraft: Education Edition here.

Together, we can build a better world.