Aylesbury students excel in Dragons’ Den-style green technology competition

For the third year running, students from five secondary schools and the Buckinghamshire College Group competed in the contest that also acts as an opportunity for youngsters to learn about green energy sources.

Bucks Council has revealed that Students from Buckinghamshire College Group won over the panel of judges, who were impressed by the carpentry and joinery students’ idea of buying a woodchipper to turn timber waste into wood shavings and wood chippings to be donated to local residents, farms, stables, landowners and animal charities to be used for things like household pets and agricultural animal bedding, mulch for soil conditioning, garden and landscaping projects.

It has been revealed that this would not only repurpose the waste, preventing it from being incinerated, but could also save the college approximately £32,000 per year that they would otherwise be spending on skips for disposing of the wood. Predictions show that the WoodWise project could reduce the colleges carbon emissions by over 80,000kg in the first year and over 125,000kg in the future. If the scheme becomes a success and there is high demand for the chippings and shavings it could even become an income source for the college in the future.

Year 12 students from Aylesbury High School, Buckingham School, Buckinghamshire College Group, Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School, Waddesdon Church of England School and The Highcrest Academy took part and were given the opportunity to learn from professionals in the field of green technology and sustainable business practices – helping them to develop and display a range of green skills, employability, technical, creative and academic skills.

Each school was paired up with a supporting business to mentor and help the students understand the challenge throughout the competition.

Team names and supporting businesses were:

-ThermoCast (Aylesbury High School) with Whiffaway (Winners of the Most Innovative Solution)

-BioBoost Collective (Buckingham School) with Construction Specialties (Winners of Best Branding and Social Media Presence)

-WoodWise (Buckinghamshire College Group) with Shellwin Real Estate (Overall winners and County Champions)

-ECLO (Sir Henry Floyd Grammar School) with Biffa (Finalists)

-Step Saver (Waddesdon Church of England School) with FCC Environment (Finalists)

-Miles (The Highcrest Academy) with Zenopa (Finalists)

Feedback received by the council has showed how much the students enjoyed the process. One said: “It was cool and interesting,” another added: “I really enjoyed the fact that they taught us about their job.”

Councillor Joseph Baum said: “Congratulations to the overall winners Buckinghamshire College Group and thank you to all the schools and students who took part in the challenge. I also wish to say a special thank you to all of the local businesses whose partnership with us helped make this event a great success. “Seeing how thoroughly engaged the students were and how passionate they all were about making a positive difference to the environment and to their schools was truly inspiring. We will continue to build on this initiative to continue to strengthen our communities and improve our environment as part of our #BucksClimateChallenge.”