Volvo Adventure

Volvo Adventure - Supporting environmental education, practical projects and action. In partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Introduction

This is a briefing for people wishing to enter the Volvo Adventure award. The award is for teams of two to five young people working on a practical action project that will improve their school or community environment. It is an award for ongoing environmental projects that have had a positive impact on the environment. If you are just starting out we also offer resources to help you plan and develop your project based on successful past projects. Many winners have registered one year and entered the following year.

The young people aged 13 to 16 years should be devising action plans to help their environment. You will need to show the role that young people have had in the project and the actions they have taken. Your project can focus on any environmental subject that you have found interesting. For example we have had projects focussing on:

Biodiversity – how young people help animals and plants in their community.
Waste – what young people have done to reduce waste, reuse and recycle more.
Water – how young people improved the water quality in their community or school.
Energy – how young people helped to reduce energy use or make it more sustainable.
Transport – how young people campaigned to reduce local traffic congestion.

All you have to do is register and return your entries to us. The best entries will be asked to join an international conference to present their ideas in Sweden and compete for the final prizes. All of the ideas and action plans will be published and presented to the United Nations Environment Programme.
This briefing paper has been designed to help you prepare your entry for the web site submission tool. The next section provides details of what each part of your entry should cover. You can then prepare your answers before submitting your entry on the web site. We hope this will save time when submitting projects online.

What you have to do

The seven steps to completing a successful entry for your environmental project should include:

Step 1: Give us your team and project details

Provide us with details about your team members, project name etc and how to contact you in the event that your project is selected for the finals.

Step 2: Choose your subject

Tell us what your project is about, and what environmental problem you are trying to solve. Why did you choose this project? How long have you been working on it? After registering the Project galleries show other teams projects to help give you ideas.

Step 3: Define your objectives

What is your desired situation – the project result that solves the problem? What impact it is having or can have on your local area? After registering the 'Teacher resources' and 'Youth leader resources' areas hold documents and activities to help you with this.

Step 4: Do your research and fact finding

The judges are looking for activities that show the need for your project. How did you research the need for your project? Describe the research you did concerning the background to your project. What was situation before you started? What support came from local authorities, local companies or non-governmental organisations and policy-makers? After registering the 'Teacher resources' and 'Youth leader resources' areas hold documents and activities to help you with this.

Step 5: Write your action plan

The action plan should be a list of practical actions that the group has taken and will be taking, to help reach the desired objectives. They could be physical things such as tree planting or they could be communications-based actions, for example launching a campaign using press and posters or writing a policy for environmental improvements and presenting it to their local authorities. If the team has some recommendations for authorities or companies these should be included. The judges will be looking for evidence of actions taken and their impacts.

Step 6: Define your results so far

This should describe the vision and targets for environmental improvement. For example, by how much does your group think water or energy use in their school could be reduced? How are you measuring your success? What impact has starting a project had on your community? Who is involved and supporting you? If the project has been running for a number of years, how have you measured your impact? After registering, see the finalists results and compare them to your own.

Step 7: Summarise and submit your project

This section should briefly describe the background, your project goals, the activities carried out and the results of your activities. Once you have completed all the steps simply submit to the web site or send us your entry. You are now in the competition!

Projects must be submitted in English!

Volvo Adventure is officially endorsed by UNEP