Transition Times:Transition year students are hoping to make 2008 the greenest year yet, writes John Holden

Giving up bad habits can be tricky. You usually need a couple of attempts before you succeed. If you fail once, you must try again. In the case of the environment, however, we do not have the luxury of a second chance. Everybody knows we need to reduce carbon emissions, improve waste management and replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.

Yet we are slow to change. We are creatures of habit. It can take a long time for a good idea to catch on. So if you really want to change people's long-term behaviour, you have to get to them early.

As part of their project for the Eco-Unesco Young Environmentalist Awards (YEA), and with this in mind, students from Scoil Mhuire in Athy, Co Kildare, spoke to local primary pupils about waste management. The awards, which are in their ninth year, honour the work of young people who "protect, conserve and enhance" their environment through local projects.

"We first got the idea for our project after we went to visit the civic centre in Athy," says Elisabeth O'Driscoll, who is now in fifth year at Scoil Mhuire. "We were keen to do something for the waste-management category, so we did some research into the area. We decided to start an awareness campaign in school. We put up posters, introduced new bins for plastic bottles and set up a paper- reduction scheme. Then we went out into the wider community to try and raise awareness there, too."

The students unleashed a PR campaign that any politician would envy. "We did up surveys to see what areas of waste management most needed to be highlighted in our campaign," says Elisabeth. "Then we put up posters, got an article published in the local paper and went on local radio. Many people we spoke to didn't know what could and couldn't be recycled."

The students' project, entitled "Help stop excess waste and make people aware of recycling facilities in our area", landed them an award for the best project in the 2007 YEA waste-management senior category. But the attention didn't stop there. The people at Repak got wind of the Scoil Mhuire project and presented them with their own Young Recycler of the Year Award.

"In Ireland we must make younger people aware of the need to be green," says 16-year-old Anna Daly of Scoil Mhuire. "Otherwise it will be the next generation that will face the consequences of our bad habits. If we raise awareness early, people will change their habits quicker."

Waste management is just one of a number of categories in the annual Eco-Unesco awards. Others include climate change, eco-community development and biodiversity. The last of these was the inspiration for the overall winner of the senior awards in 2007: St Mary's Knockbeg College, in Carlow. Francis Egan, a student at the school, sums up their approach. "Down here our motto is: think globally, act locally. That is exactly what we did."

The winning project, undertaken by five students, involved investigating the state of their local river, the Barrow, and its surroundings. "We went down to the river to carry out a field study on the flora and fauna in the area," says Niall Bergin. "But we found very little diversity at all: no wild flowers and no real evidence of plant or animal life. So we decided to introduce some native plant species back into the ecosystem. We thought this would be the most unintrusive way to attract other wildlife on to the banks."

The team sought the help of a local wildlife expert; then, once they knew what could grow on the banks of the Barrow, they needed to find money to pay for the scheme. "We fundraised among the local community," says Niall. "The local garden centre gave us all the plants we needed, and Carlow County Council agreed to supply us with all the necessary tools."

All in the community agree that the project made a visible difference to the banks of the river. "It has made a serious impact to the Barrow's ecosystem," says 17-year-old Paudric O'Connor. "The best thing about it is that the flora and fauna are growing wild now without our help."

Anyone with their eye on this year's prize would be wise to take a leaf from the St Mary's book: think about the environmental issues facing us from a global perspective, but try to do something about it in your own locality.

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Flying the flag for environmental awareness

Students at Coláiste Íosagáin, in Stillorgan in south Co Dublin, have been flying the flag for the environment higher than most.

Like many other colleges, they are taking part in Green-Schools, an international scheme that encourages and recognises environmental achievements. With themes ranging from energy saving to waste management, schools must implement initiatives to improve their environment. More than 2,800 schools take part in Ireland; globally, more than 14,500 schools in 37 countries participate.

To get their fourth Green Flag - the first three are for litter and waste, energy, water - the students must focus on travel. "I'm on the school environmental committee," says Aoife Ní Dhéa, a student at Coláiste Íosagáin. "We've already done a number of initiatives, including a car-free day. We encouraged as many students as we could to walk or cycle to school. In return we gave them a free breakfast. It was a great success. The bike rail was totally full."

The students have implemented several other schemes, too. They have put green bins in all the classrooms and compost bins in the halls. "We also have a competition running called Glan agus Glas," says Aoife. "The girls have to clean and separate the waste from their classroom. They're given points, and there are prizes at the end for classes with the cleanest rooms."

The green bug goes well beyond TY. The whole school has been involved. It recently held a week of events where each year had its own part to play. "Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Energy, came in to speak to us," says Ciara Nic Grianna, a fifth-year student. "With so much more money in Ireland, more people are driving cars, especially younger people. Minister Ryan told us that there are statistics to show that more girls are currently driving to school in Ireland than cycling. That's really bad. Dublin is quite flat, so it would be easy to cycle. There is not the same problem with boys. Boys are more active and don't mind taking exercise in their uniform. Girls don't want to be smelly. Plus it's cool to drive to school."

The girls came up with some statistics of their own. Last year TY students surveyed traffic on the N11, the busy road that runs past the school.

"Every morning we had people out counting the cars, buses, motorbikes and bikes going by at rush hour and other times," says Sorcha de Barra, now in fifth year. "The results were shocking. Eighty-five per cent of the cars surveyed had only one person in them. I suppose the reason why so many people are driving is because public transport isn't dependable enough."

Coláiste Íosagáin has contacted Dublin Bus, but to no avail. "We want to get in touch with them to talk to us about our findings, but they seem to be unwilling," says Padraig Mac Donnacha, a geography teacher and member of the school's environmental committee. "I've contacted them several times now, but they seem unwilling to engage with us, which is surprising when you consider how many of our kids use the public bus system. I was hoping that maybe we could start some incentives - cheap deals on certain days, or something like that."

"The public-transport system in Ireland would be the first thing that I would try to improve," says Aoife Ní Dhéa. "It's cheaper to fly to Cork than it is to take the train, and cycle lanes aren't safe in the city. Our priorities are all wrong."

Ciara Nic Grianna believes energy consumption is the number-one issue that needs to be addressed. "We are using huge amounts of fossil fuels every day," she says. "We can't sustain that forever. We need to start changing our habits now and use renewable energy sources. We have the opportunity to do it now, but we won't have it forever."

Green fingers - and a green idea

Transition-year students at the King's Hospital school in Dublin have come up with a great idea for their Eco-Unesco project. They are designing a garden that can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. Student Jimmy Panama explains the concept. "We're using all kinds of indigenous flowers and plants from Ireland, but we will also be using plenty of herbs and aromatic plants, so that blind people will be able to smell it and enjoy it, too. The garden won't be on the school grounds. We will be putting it together on a plot in the neighbouring Stewarts Hospital for people with learning disabilities. It can be seen from our school, but this way it will be enjoyed by more people."

The students spent a lot of time at the drawing board before coming up with the garden design. They recruited the skills of some TY art students to help with artwork that will complement the plants and herbs.

As a group of just six, though, are they a tiny minority of environmentalists in their 120-strong transition year? "I have learned so much already in this module," says Jordan D'Arcy. "It took doing the module to learn about the environment. So many students wouldn't know that much. We've been having meetings about how to raise awareness in the school, and we have introduced new paper, plastic and can bins. There is the odd person who still throws anything into the bins, but the vast majority are doing it properly."

The bad habits of younger people should be easy to change. It's when you start trying to teach an old dog new tricks that problems generally arise. "The worst culprits are the staff," admits Victoria Malcolm, a science teacher at the King's Hospital. "We now have paper and plastic bins in the staffroom, but it took a while. We're certainly not as good as the students."

Flying the flag for environmental awareness Green fingers - and a green idea