UP Circuit and Santa Elena High School STEM Club bested other campus organizations in a recent competition aimed at encouraging the youth to help develop and adopt innovative projects to sustain environment practices in the communities.

The contest was organized by UP-Cifal Philippines and UP Asian Center for youth organizations that implemented such sustainability and environmental management projects in the last three years. 

The projects needed to be aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which include clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.

In the college/university category of the “Youth-In-Charge: Environmental Action of the Youth as Champions of Sustainability” contest, UP Circuit won the Best Youth Project award for its The E-Waste Project (TEP), which took off in response to the growing issue of electronic waste. 

UP Circuit, based in the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute at the University of the Philippines Diliman, has been pursuing the TEP for the past 13 years as part of its efforts to promote sustainable practices and to develop various projects on proper disposal mechanisms.

Santa Elena High School STEM Club, based in Marikina City, won the top prize in the high school category for its “Save Our EcosySTEM.” The project aims to make students more aware of the environment by promoting recycling and sustainable practices, including fundraising and collection and sale of recyclable materials.

The competition was organized with the support of UP Diliman’s Office of Initiatives for Culture and the Arts and in celebration of the 2025 UP Diliman Arts and Culture Festival last March 14.

UP Asian Center Dean Noel Christian Moratilla commended all the participants for their hard work in making their projects a reality.

“We can affect the change we want to see through the youth’s collective action and only if we open our eyes and our minds to the realities around us,” Moratilla said in his opening remarks during a program held at the GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium in UP Diliman. 

Michelle Palumbarit, UP-Cifal director and an assistant professor at the UP Asian Center, said the youth can be active agents of positive change. UP-Cifal Philippines is a training, advocacy, and research hub to promote the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, migration, and gender equality.

“We all need to believe in their capabilities, nurture their innovative skills, and trust that they can do so many things to achieve the SDGs we are all aiming for,” Palumbarit said.

UP Circuit posted on its Facebook page that winning the top prize is proof of the project’s impact in raising awareness on the effects of e-waste on the environment. For its part, Santa Elena High School STEM Club said the recognition affirms its commitment to environmental stewardship.

Placing second in the college/university category was NCPAGSikleta, which was spearheaded by UP Diliman’s National College of Public Administration and Governance. It is a bike-sharing initiative that provides an alternative and sustainable mode of transportation on campus. 

In the high school category, the runner-up was YES-O, a project of Timoteo Paez High School which employed a recyclable-based voting system for its Mr. & Ms. Eco-Champ Ambassadors. It encouraged students to bring their recyclables from home to be credited as votes for their candidates. 

The People’s Choice Award went to the Student Coordinating Body of Espiritu Santo Parochial School of Manila Inc. (high school category) and Community Outreach Movement Pro-Active Students Service of Centro Escolar University Makati (college/university category).

Each of the two top winners received P30,000, and the runners-up, P10,000.

Other notable entries included projects on vertical gardening (Don Bosco Technical Cooly Redeemer School of Kalookan), classroom cleanliness (Espiritu Santo Parochial School of Manila), use of santan and aloe vera as soap enhancer (Holy Redeemer School of Kalookan), climate resilience, hazard preparedness, and disaster management competitions (UP-Organization of the Palaweño Students), responsible waste management (Adamson IT & IS Society), and waste-segregation system (West Bay College Supreme Student Council). —ROCHELLE LEONOR