LANCASTER, NY--(Marketwire - August 6, 2010) - Ecology and Environment, Inc. (
"With Project Earth, our aim is to provide a platform of exchange where, regardless of geographic distance or cultural differences, young people around the globe are able to learn and exchange ideas that can bring real solutions to our escalating global environmental challenges," said Kevin Neumaier, Ecology and Environment president and CEO.
The www.ProjectEarth.net site recently hosted a World Environment Day contest, designed to recognize the ecologically focused efforts of middle and high school students from across a wide scope of countries. Winners were selected in an overall global category, as well as North American and European sub-categories. The global grand prize winner, 7th graders at the International School of Ulaanbaatar (ISU) in Mongolia, was announced on World Environment Day (June 5), and received a $500 award. ISU's project involved an awareness campaign on the environmental impact of plastic shopping bags, including research on plastic bag manufacturing processes, development of videos documenting plastic bag waste, and a school presentation at which reusable cloth shopping bags were sold to approximately 50 percent of the community. In addition, students participated in a litter cleanup on the grounds surrounding their school, collecting discarded plastic bags and other items.
Sarasota, Fla.'s Brookside Middle School won in the World Environment Day contest's North American sub-category for its mangrove propagule growth project. The school was able to provide more than 4,000 propagules to Mote Marine Laboratory and the Sarasota County Park Recreation Department in support of their Sarasota Bay replenishment projects.
In the European sub-category, winners from the International School of Brussels in Belgium were recognized for their creation of a sustainable food source and composting program. The students developed a garden in which vegetables and herbs are grown and subsequently used in the school kitchen. Waste from the kitchen is also then composted for eventual breakdown into fertilizer.
The World Environment Day contest followed an Earth Day "Green Schools" contest regionally focused toward 6th to 12th grade students in the Western New York area. An award and $500 prize were presented to the Pavilion Central School for its winning entry, which included conducting an energy audit, creating an inventory of all electrical use in the school building and identifying opportunities to conserve energy. Pavilion Central School students then organized an Energy Fair to educate students, staff and community members about their building's energy use and introduce alternative options to traditional energy sources. The Energy Fair included student displays and information on the school's wind turbine, photovoltaic system and recycling program, as well as energy trivia, prizes and conservation kits.
With the World Environment Day contest, E & E has officially launched Project Earth on a global scale, and will be reaching out to schools from around the world to continue sharing their environmentally focused projects.
"We see an almost endless stream of possibilities in connecting the world's young people to learn authentically and address real environmental issues with each other," said David Miller, director of strategic initiatives and Project Earth.net project manager at E & E. According to Miller, who recently visited Moscow and Kazan, Russia to promote Project Earth, "International students are undoubtedly ready to work together in solving environmental issues. Seeing this firsthand in Russia, we're excited that the leadership there has set a goal for several hundred of the country's schools to be actively engaged on the site by this December. That is the type of energy Project Earth is generating already, and it's highly encouraging as far as what's yet to come."
While further contests will not be conducted until 2011, the ongoing aim of Project Earth will be to engage representatives from as many countries as possible in posting projects to the site. Through a wide range of postings from around the world, and with simplified language translation capabilities enabled by the "Google translate" feature, E & E envisions that Project Earth will foster escalating country-to-country exchanges among students during the coming school year.
Near-term plans for Project Earth outreach include visits by E & E representatives to the Middle East and South America, as well as ongoing efforts to integrate site engagement in China. E & E will also continue its efforts to work collaboratively with school districts, superintendents and teachers unions throughout the U.S.
For additional information or to post a school project, visit www.ProjectEarth.net.
Headquartered in Lancaster, N.Y., Ecology and Environment, Inc. has completed more than 45,000 projects for a wide variety of clients in 84 countries, providing environmental solutions in nearly every ecosystem on the planet. The company is listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol EEI and is located on the web at www.ene.com.
