Find your
way in.

Length: 500–600 words.

Languages: English / Hindi.

Classes 5–6

Waste Segregation: The Future Is Still in Our Hands

Write an open letter explaining why separating wet, dry and harmful waste matters. Show how mixing waste creates landfills, while segregation allows recycling and composting. Connect small kitchen and classroom habits to a cleaner future.

Britannica Kids: Recycling

GreenSutra: Waste Segregation

Example open letter for climate justice

Files to prepare

• Written piece: PDF · 1 MB
• Typed work only; handwritten entries are not accepted.
• Use a title, introduction, body, conclusion and references. Include the author byline.
• No images, movie clips or hyperlinks in the piece; hyperlinks are allowed only in references.
• Keep the work personal and original, build ideas logically, use verified facts and offer a solution or call to action.
• Optional infographics may accompany the open letter.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Length: 500–800 words.

Languages: English / Hindi.

Classes 7–8

Diary of a Dustbin

Let a dustbin narrate what people throw into it. Give it a personality and feelings—curious, weary or hopeful—to reflect on everyday habits.

The Guardian: Stop wishcycling

My Trash Put Me on Trial

Imagine a courtroom where your waste is the evidence. Put your everyday habits on trial through testimony, self-defence or confession, and examine the small choices behind a bigger environmental story.

US EPA: Landfilled food waste methane

BBC Science Focus: Recycling and climate change

Files to prepare

• Written piece: PDF · 1 MB
• Typed work only; handwritten entries are not accepted.
• Use a title, introduction, body, conclusion and references. Include the author byline.
• No images, movie clips or hyperlinks in the piece; hyperlinks are allowed only in references.
• Keep the work personal and original, build ideas logically, use verified facts and offer a solution or call to action.
• Optional infographics may accompany the blog.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Length: 600–1000 words.

Languages: English / Hindi.

Classes 9–10

Technology and Responsibility

Explore the hidden environmental costs of devices and online life. Consider e-waste, manufacturing, data centres and personal habits, and imagine technology designed for repair, upgrades, reuse and recycling.

BBC Future: The footprint of internet habits

Human-I-T: Right to repair and e-waste

Swachh Bharat 2.0: Can Cleanliness Campaigns Transform Waste?

Compare ideas of cleanliness across generations and across private and shared spaces. Ask whether campaigns create lasting change, what systems and habits are needed, and what the next version of cleanliness should look like.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Circular economy

Garbage-free cities and Swachh Bharat 2.0

Files to prepare

• Written piece: PDF · 1 MB
• Typed work only; handwritten entries are not accepted.
• Use a title, introduction, body, conclusion and references. Include the author byline.
• No images, movie clips or hyperlinks in the piece; hyperlinks are allowed only in references.
• Keep the work personal and original, build ideas logically, use verified facts and offer a solution or call to action.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Length: 1000–1500 words.

Languages: English / Hindi.

Classes 11–12

Keep, Repair, or Throw Away: A Family Reflection

Study one real decision your family made about keeping, repairing or discarding an object. Compare attitudes across generations and reflect on consumption, attachment and waste.

A Community Built on Repair, Reuse, and Sharing

Analyse whether a neighbourhood built around repair, reuse and sharing could work. Compare older practices with today’s consumption and assess the social, economic and logistical challenges.

Files to prepare

• Written piece: PDF · 1 MB
• Typed work only; handwritten entries are not accepted.
• Use a title, introduction, body, conclusion and references. Include the author byline.
• No images, movie clips or hyperlinks in the piece; hyperlinks are allowed only in references.
• Keep the work personal and original, build ideas logically, use verified facts and offer a solution or call to action.
• Optional infographics may accompany the case study.
• The PDF mentions a separate reference case study; that document will be shared when available.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Languages: English / Hindi.

Classes 7–8

Voices from the Bin

Give waste from your neighbourhood a voice and personality. Use humour, drama, animation or mockumentary to reveal something surprising about daily habits.

The Day the Waste Vanished

Every scrap of waste disappears overnight. Film the ripple effects to explore how deeply waste is embedded in our routines.

Classes 11–12

The Day My Bin Refused to Work

A household bin refuses more waste until a family changes its habits. Build a serious or comic narrative around the bin’s strike and the choices people make without thinking.

One Technology and One Climate Problem

Choose a technology and a climate challenge—such as AI and energy, smartphones and e-waste, or renewable technology and changing weather—and explore their connection through a character or moment.

Files to prepare

• Short film: MP4 · 120 MB · up to 5 minutes · landscape-or-portrait
• Maximum five minutes, MP4, 120 MB and 1080p. Landscape or portrait is accepted.
• Build a compelling narrative, a clear message and a call to action. Strong ideas and storytelling matter more than expensive equipment.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Languages: English / Hindi.

Classes 5–6

A Day Without Throwing Anything Away

What would your neighbourhood look like if nobody threw anything away for a whole day? Describe the sights, sounds and small inconveniences to reveal how waste shapes our world.

National Geographic Kids: Reduce plastic use

Redesign an Everyday Object So It Never Becomes Waste

Choose something you use every day. Explain how its materials, shape or afterlife could change and what that redesign says about the future you want.

Iberdrola: Circular design

Classes 7–8

The Forest Inside the City

Imagine a forest growing in a busy city. Use vivid imagery or real urban rewilding examples to explore how nature and human life might coexist.

C40: Urban rewilding

Story of Packaging

Trace a package from convenience and consumption to disposal. Speak as a package, consumer or observer and explore the tension between what packaging promises and what it costs.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Upstream innovation

Classes 9–10

The Climate Speech

Share your own hopes, questions, fears or frustrations about the planet’s future and your role in it. Speak honestly rather than repeating familiar statistics.

Force of Nature: Supporting students with eco-anxiety

Data Has a Price

Speak as someone discovering the climate cost of searches, scrolls and clicks. Make the environmental footprint of digital habits visible.

Yale Environment 360: AI energy and water

Carbon Literacy: The carbon cost of an email

Classes 11–12

India’s First Green President

Imagine becoming India’s first Green President. Explain your first policies and the trade-offs you would face, grounded in real issues.

UNEP: Green economy

OECD: Bhutan Gross National Happiness

Right to a clean and healthy environment

The Earth — 2080

Speak as someone living in 2080, in a world shaped by today’s decisions. Paint a vivid future and trace it back to the choices being made now.

PwC: Circular cities

One Earth

Stockholm Resilience Centre: Planetary boundaries

Files to prepare

• Monologue video: MP4 · 50 MB · up to 2 minutes · landscape · closed captions required
• Optional transcript: PDF · 1 MB · optional
• Maximum two minutes including the introduction. Submit landscape MP4, up to 50 MB and 1080p, with mandatory closed captions.
• Start with: “Hello, I’m [student name] from [school name with city]. The topic for my video is [topic name].”
• An additional transcript PDF up to 1 MB is optional; it does not replace the captioned video.
• Build an engaging, clearly structured piece, draw on personal experience and offer a fresh insight or call to action.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Classes 5–6

Waste Segregation: The Future Is Still in Our Hands

Show how the daily choice to separate materials creates a chain reaction that can reshape our world and put tomorrow within our creative control.

Beauty in the Bin

Challenge the idea that objects lose value when discarded. Discover unexpected patterns, hidden beauty or untold stories in the overlooked and broken, and express the feeling of transformation.

Files to prepare

• Artwork: JPEG / JPG · 1 MB · landscape
• Submit your own original artwork, not a copy.
• Include a short sentence or tagline explaining your message.
• Use a landscape JPEG or JPG file, up to 1080p and 1 MB.
• Create the painting on an A4 or A3 sheet. Use durable, sustainable materials where possible.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Classes 7–8

Beyond the Celebrations

Explore the environmental footprint of our celebrations. Interpret the tension between collective joy and ecological impact through an atmospheric piece, an eco-tradition or an abstract visual metaphor.

Classes 9–10

The Planet Sent Me an Invoice

Visualise a bill for every resource you have wasted and your response. Explore ecological debt and responsibility through surrealism, portraits, symbolic landscapes or futuristic design, beyond a literal receipt.

Files to prepare

• Artwork: JPEG / JPG · 1 MB · landscape
• Submit your own original artwork, not a copy.
• Include a short sentence or tagline explaining your message.
• Use a landscape JPEG or JPG file, up to 1080p and 1 MB.
• Create the work using digital tools or software.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Classes 5–6

Waste to Art: Crafting Wonders from Waste

Transform discarded electronics into a creative model. Possible starting points include Green Robot Warriors, Digital Earth, Eco-Bots Rise and The Sorting Station. Explain its purpose, materials, inspiration and environmental impact.

Classes 7–8

Waste to Art: Crafting Wonders from Waste

Transform discarded electronics into a creative model. Possible starting points include Green Robot Warriors, Digital Earth, Eco-Bots Rise and The Sorting Station. Explain its purpose, materials, inspiration and environmental impact.

Classes 9–10

Waste to Art: Crafting Wonders from Waste

Transform discarded electronics into a creative model. Possible starting points include Green Robot Warriors, Digital Earth, Eco-Bots Rise and The Sorting Station. Explain its purpose, materials, inspiration and environmental impact.

Classes 11–12

Waste to Art: Crafting Wonders from Waste

Transform discarded electronics into a creative model. Possible starting points include Green Robot Warriors, Digital Earth, Eco-Bots Rise and The Sorting Station. Explain its purpose, materials, inspiration and environmental impact.

Files to prepare

• 360-degree model view: MP4 · 25 MB · up to 30 seconds · landscape · closed captions required
• Model explanation: MP4 · 25 MB · up to 1 minute · landscape · closed captions required
• Optional transcript: PDF · 1 MB · optional
• Choose your class band: 5–6, 7–8, 9–10 or 11–12. The common craft prompt applies to all four bands.
• Use at least 50% e-waste. The remainder may be other waste materials. A wider variety of e-waste materials can earn bonus consideration; the PDF does not assign bonus marks.
• Create the project safely under teacher supervision. Keep construction durable and avoid potential hazards.
• Upload two landscape MP4 videos: a 360-degree view up to 30 seconds and an explanation up to one minute. Each is limited to 25 MB, up to 1080p; the two videos together must not exceed 50 MB.
• Closed captions are mandatory. An optional transcript PDF can be up to 1 MB.
• The student should be visible in the explanation, describing the topic, model idea, materials and inspiration.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.

Classes 7–12

Green Innovations: Innovating for a Sustainable Tomorrow

Propose a genuine environmental sustainability business. Waste segregation, e-waste recovery and circular-economy solutions are encouraged, but not required. Define the problem, business model and USP, innovation and action plan, funding needs, and social and environmental impact.

Files to prepare

• Business presentation: PDF · 2 MB
• Business explanation video: MP4 · 50 MB · up to 1 minute
• Submit both a presentation PDF up to 2 MB and a one-minute explanation MP4 up to 50 MB.
• Use the headings in the organiser’s shared slide template. The template will be added when the team provides it.
• Waste segregation and circular solutions are encouraged; any genuine environmental-sustainability business idea is welcome.

AI-generated submission content receives a 15-point deduction. Credit your sources.