DARE TO CHALLENGE
ECO TEAM:
In October 2018 we had the opportunity to participate in a really interesting lab which is called “DARE TO CHALLENGE”. Our teacher Ms Betty Tsakarestou informed us about “SDG” and we were really excited to start our social innovation. First of all, the three of us (Κωνσταντίνα Κύρκου, Andria Theofanous, Tonia Jafery) showed our excitement about Climate Change. We consider that this topic is one of the most important issues that we have to deal with.
Our challenge has to deal with Climate Change which is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change, often referred to as global warming. We decided to build an innovative solution for clothes recycle. In 2019 there are so many clothes that are wasted or even thrown away from the first use. This is destroying our environment because in order to create clothes , you need a lot of energy and many chemicals that do not help the situation with temperature rise. For this reason we thought that is really important to deal with this issue and create a site that informs people where to recycle their clothes.
At first we decided to deal with Climate Change ( SDG 13 focusing on “Takeing urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”) and then we thought that in Greece we have issues with Recycle. Recycle is really useful because we save resources and do not pollute our planet. Specifically in Greece recycle clothes is not something really popular, that’s way we took action about it ! We designed an experience map to organize the idea and the way we were about to work. We built a prototype site that informed people about this topic and then we interviewed some citizens to ask them what they think about our idea. (c, experience map, brain storming).
We asked around 10 people and here is our feedback. Most of them told us that although they had heard about clothing recycle they had not taken any actions. Here are some of their answers: ‘’I love protecting my planet and my environment, is something that I have as I priority for many years, so I recycle as much as a can. I think that recycling my clothes would be brilliant cause in this way I can minimize the waste. So I think that I would definitely use and support something that has to do with recycling’’, Aris said. Also Emily told us ‘’ I think that in Greece, the idea of recycle is not that popular and I usually find people having issues with that. They do not even recycle plastic or glass. So I think that recycling clothes in Greece will need a lot of time to develop’’. Over all, we saw that they really liked our project and found it helpful and useful. According to their words we decided to develop our site and add also a map that shows where exactly you can find red bins in Athens.
We learned that the interview was very important because we had the chance to develop our site, make it better and also see what really people think about it. Moreover we figured out how to think outside the box, find innovative solutions and design our ideas. We realized the importance of focusing on the SDG ( Sustainable Development Goal), to check our ideas with our users and that team brainstorming as the basic tools of this project. Last, but not least, the most important part is the feedback we received from Ms Tsakarestou, our colleagues and users.
The next steps we are going to follow are: Keep in touch with other companies that are working on this similar ideas too for a better future and of course we will try to cooperate with them. Also our main goal, is promoting this website because the world needs to be informed about recycling clothes.
OUR TEAM : Andria Theofanous, Κωνσταντίνα Κύρκου, Tonia Jafery.
