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It’s almost 9 o’clock in the morning as I make my way past the lake for morning announcements.
Inside the wooden hall is just as chilly as the outside breeze on this September morning as 200 campers huddle together to begin the day’s activities.
We start with icebreakers, continuously meeting and connecting with people from different countries. The day brings with it new tasks of getting us ready for our final goal – the pitch competition back in New York City.
What happens when 200 youth go to camp?
Campers arrive as strangers and leave as friends and a community of impact.
Camp 2030 brings youth leaders and innovators together to work on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and create solutions to the world’s most crucial issues by 2030. They collaborate to create a project with impact, feasibility, and scalability to receive a winning prize as well as guidance and support to bring their projects to life.
In the environment of being in the woods, isolated from the daily pressures of society and pushed out of their comfort zone, changemakers are able to connect and get creative – a truly un-conference conference.
This year, over 200 youth from 61 countries came together for six days – a journey that felt like a lifetime and passed by in the blink of an eye. We met in New York City and traveled four hours north to the middle of the woods in Upstate New York. There we reached the glorious 135-acre Camp Echo Lake.
Over the course of the five days in the woods, campers were divided into 32 teams, working on one of eight selected SDGs. Each day consisted of a mixture of knowledge and guidance from counselors, teamwork through an innovative ideation process, and taking mental breaks to enjoy the outdoors.
Camp Echo Lake offered enough outdoor activities to span a whole summer on its grounds. Set by a beautiful lake, campers could let their inner child out through swimming at the lake, kayaking, rock-climbing, tree-top trekking, playing tennis and volleyball, and even making use of their full-sized gymnastics course, to just name a few. Enduring the cold September nights sleeping in single-digit-degree weather in wooden cabins and sharing our personal space with what starts off as complete strangers, Camp 2030 pushed us out of our comfort zones thereby fostering an environment of creation. Campers spent their days creating solutions, building relationships, and enhancing their skills.
What did we create?
Throughout the week, we worked in our group of four through a curated process to create a meaningful solution to SDG #1 ‘No Poverty'. We collaborated through a series of tasks to reach the main deliverables of the Camp 2030 innovation workbook:
As with all SDGs, poverty is a multi-faceted and widespread issue with many causalities. One major issue in this regard is rising energy prices and inflation which are adding to the monthly cost of living. Populations with lower incomes are seeing a significant decrease in their disposable income, keeping them in a vicious cycle of poverty.
For this reason, our group proposed launching SunUp Co-op. The initiative would develop a community-owned shared micro-grid run on solar power. A micro-grid is a localised energy power station located near communities which would be financed through a co-operative (co-op). This solution would invest in renewable and reliable energy for disadvantaged rural communities and would result in less money spent on energy. A co-operative allows community members to improve their purchasing power by combining individual payments together to avoid the larger investment in solar power systems.
The project is set to initiate in Puerto Rico as poor infrastructures, frequent natural disasters, and the dependence on one primary energy provider have caused energy prices to increase several times a year and energy to be scarce and unreliable.
The pilot for the project would benefit 5 homes, cover 50% of each household’s energy consumption and offer a $250 annual reduction of energy cost. The solar panels would to be financed over a 10-year period after which energy from the panels would be free for member families with only a small maintenance cost.
A competition we all won
On day six we returned to New York to pitch our ideas at the SDG Solutions Hub to a panel of judges in our respective SDG fields. With emotions running high to receive the winning prize, each team delivered their Action Plan and made their best case during a Q&A session.
The winning team from each SDG continued to pitch to the final round of judges, which comprised of individuals such as Chief Sustainability Officers of businesses, CEOs of learning platforms, Directors in non-governmental organizations, and Advisors and Managers of affiliated United Nations organizations. It was an honour to meet, network, and hear about the change these individuals are making. While our team did not receive the winning prize, the project is moving forward by working on securing funding, all due to the Camp 2030 innovation process.
In a short span of just six days, 200 individuals from across the world were able to co-create impactful action-driven solutions, gain mentorship from experts in the field, have the tools to bring their solutions to life and create a community of passionate and determined people who want to change the world.
A big thank you to #SenecaCollege for making this experience possible for faculty and students. I’m proud to be part of an education institution advocating these values. #SenecaProud
Click Here for Camp 2030 Highlight Video
Photos sourced from Unite 2030.
Anitta Toma
Professor • School HR & Global Business
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