2009 FuturEnergia award ceremony

In 2009 the International FuturEnergia Awards involved 1,500 students between 10 and 20 years old from 27 European countries. The winning students, from 4 countries - Italy, Portugal, Poland and Denmark- presented their surprising projects (with the help of some videos in addition to a brief description) about the 4 proposed categories: design a vehicle that can travel with as little fuel as possible or is powered by a different source of energy; design a building that consumes as little energy as possible; identify the most environmentally-beneficial uses for different types of end-of-life plastics; design an energy supply to meet the energy needs of a community of 10,000 people without using fossil fuels. The event, organized by PlasticsEurope on January 13, took place at the European Parliament House and it was attended by operators, television and technical press. The day after the Ceremony winning students have been invited to the “House of the Future”, in Bruxelles, at Living Tomorrow seat, a forum for innovators in industry to introduce visitors to products and services with the potential to improve the quality of living and working in the near future. In particular, inside the House of Future the topics treated are energy, water and waste recovery with some suggestions that have a direct impact to the environmental safeguard. In the complex, social, economic and technological developments are observed, monitored and translated into realistic and accessible applications such as the use of plastics for furniture (a material that can be reclaimed), a jug with filter that purifies running water and thermal insulation with 2 glasses separated by a dried air cavity that permits to save energy consumption. The visit excited young people involved also with some texts to increase their acknowledge about environmental protection.