Inspirational Eco Teen

Alice is awarded ‘Inspirational Eco Teen’ 2024

Nomination for Alice Pinto for Inspirational Eco Teen for the ‘Little Green Change’ magazine:

Alice is a valued member of the Green Club since she joined Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School 2 years ago. Alice has attended every weekly meeting, no matter what the weather, rain, snow or sunshine. She loves to care for the environment and look after the school garden area. We can always depend on Alice turning up and getting stuck in and have a go with no fuss whatsoever, whether the job be clearing the nature pond (a rather smelly and cold job, I must say); planting spring flowering bulbs for the first insects of the year, in the pouring rain; or working inside making bird feeders or nest boxes, we can always count on Alice being there and giving 100%. She loves sowing vegetable seeds, caring for the seedlings and planting them out to grow beautiful courgettes, peppers and tomatoes, as she is strongly aware of the need for food security and sourcing food locally to reduce the carbon footprint and take a small action to reduce the impact of climate change.

Over the past 2 years in the Green Club Alice has taken part in many of our projects including the upkeep of our gardens, always keeping in mind the benefits for our local wildlife, as well as looking good for our community, building and looking after hedgehog houses, bird feeders, bird nest boxes and our very popular bug hotel (Bishop’s Bugs). She is also passionate about the upkeep and improvement of our nature garden (some may say bramble patch), but Alice can see the larger picture of the enormous benefits this little area has, not only to our school, but also to Hatfield in general.

Alice recently took a lead role in a joint international project with partner schools in Poland and Northern Ireland, highlighting the need to reduce food waste and how to reuse leftover food. She came up with the snappy headline ‘Bringing Leftovers to Life’. Her passion for conserving resources and protecting and conserving the environment was infectious and she led a group of her peers in pitching the group’s ideas on producing an educational e-book. This is a lovely example of Alice taking a small action to combat climate change and persuading her peers to do the same!

Alice also has an appreciation of the larger national and global scale and the importance of caring for the environment and considering how she and her peers can make a difference to combat climate change. She attended a KS3 Climate Change Summit at the University of Herts on 11/6/24 and contributed some excellent ideas on developing public transport so that our country reduces its dependence on fossil fuels and work towards the move to renewable energy alternatives.

Alice has to prioritise her time so that she can devote time to green issues as well as school work and leisure time. This can be a challenge, but her passion spurs others on and she is a fantastic inspiration to her peers!