The finalists of Agri Aware and BiOrbic transition year programme 'Environmental Innovators' have been announced.

Students participating in the programme were challenged to develop innovative solutions to tackle food waste head-on.

This year’s Environmental Innovators peer day will once again take place at the Bord Bia Global Hub on Monday, April 7.

In total, seven schools will battle it out to be crowned national winners for 2025.

Last year, St. Tiernan’s College from Co. Mayo were crowned National Winners of the Environmental Innovators programme.

The students impressed the judges with their communication-style project titled ‘Binformation’, which examined recycling of waste and people’s knowledge of how to recycle properly.

This year’s finalists are spread across the country, coming from counties Offaly, Meath, Tipperary, Louth, and Dublin.

The selected projects bring about a range of innovative ideas on tackling challenges facing our global food system.

The list of finalists of this year’s Environmental Innovators programme and their projects are as follows:

Boyne Community School, Trim Co. Meath - Generation of homemade solar panels;
St Patricks Classical School, Navan, Co. Meath - School recycling competition;
De La Salle College, Dundalk, Co. Louth - Mobile solar-powered greenhouse;
Killina Presentation Secondary School, Tullamore, Co. Offaly - Teabag waste recycling;
Scoil Mhuire, Trim, Co. Meath – Baling twine reuse;
St. Patricks Classical School, Navan, Co. Meath – Sustainable equine bedding;
CBS Secondary School, Thurles, Co. Tipperary - Using comfrey as a fertiliser;
The High School, Rathgar, Co. Dublin -Repurposing waste paper.

Agri Aware, the independent farming and agri-food educational body, is a charitable trust whose mission is to improve the image and understanding of agriculture, farming, and the food industry among the public.

Agri Aware executive director, Marcus O’Halloran, said that the Environmental Innovators peer day is "always a special day in the education calendar" for the organisation.

“Getting to meet students taking part in the programme and seeing in person the projects they have created to tackle head on the food waste challenges we face is always exciting and one we look forward to next Monday at the Bord Bia Global Hub.

“I’d like to wish all eight finalists the best of luck and congratulate all schools that took part in the programme and entered a project.

"It was a tough task picking our finalists, as it is every year," he said.

BiOrbic is Ireland's national research centre for bioeconomy and connects over 200 researchers from across Ireland into one platform.

It conducts research across 15 key societal challenges that aim to regenerate biodiversity, harvest biological resources sustainably, repurpose waste, and scale up bio-based technologies.

Amanda Mathieson, head of Public Engagement and Communications at BiOrbic, said that they are very excited for the upcoming peer day.

"It's a fantastic opportunity to see what the students have been working on and every year we are incredibly impressed with their ideas," she said.