Sustainathon Schools Challenge seeks solutions for real-world problems

The 2023 Sustainathon Schools Challenge promises increased participation across South Africa following the successful launch in Cape Town last year.

The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Sustainathon is a global initiative that aims to inspire young people to envision a sustainable future by leveraging digital technologies to solve real-world problems. “It is a platform that enables our young minds to collaborate with private companies, non-profit organisations, and government agencies to co-create solutions to tackle sustainability challenges,” said Ismail Teladia, Senior Curriculum Planner: Life Orientation/Life Skills at the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).

Teladia said TCS, in partnership with Pick n Pay, approached the WCED at the end of October, to launch the South African Edition in Cape Town.

Selected schools were invited to participate in the challenge. Schools were required to identify any activity at their school or in the community where there were food wastage and they had to provide possible solutions to food wastage or look at innovative ways of producing food in a sustainable way.

The ten finalists were asked to present at the Grand Finale in December at the Sustainability Institute in Stellenbosch. The winning team were from Louwville High School with Gardens Commercial High School in second place, Livingstone High School in third and Spine Road High School in fourth place.

“It was an amazing morning and the presentations done by the learners were of a very good standard. The 2023 event promises to be an even bigger competition and may be implemented at a national level,” Teladia said.  He added that the representatives from Tata India, TCS SA (Langa Dube), PnP, Unilever, the WCED and the teachers were ecstatic about the overall Sustainathon programme and the day’s event.

Congratulations to the schools, the teachers and learners!