Carmen Renee Memorial School Wins St. Lucia’s First Green Champions Challenge

St. Lucia: Carmen Renee Memorial School was crowned as the winner of Saint Lucia’s first Green Champions Challenge, which started on May 26. This four-week championship was aimed at diverting hazardous electronic waste from St. Lucia’s landfill and inculcate responsible solid waste management and disposal habits in St. Lucian communities.

More than 2,400 primary school students across five St. Lucian schools mobilised to collect electronic waste and aluminium cans for proper recycling. Students collected around 2460 items in total which were received at Greening the Caribbean’s recycling centre at Odsan. They are being safely sorted, disassembled and prepared to be exported to certified recycling partners.

The Green Champions Challenge was coordinated by Greening Caribbean Inc. (GtC) with St. Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority (SLSWMA) as presenting partner, with approval from the GOSL Department of Education and Digital Transformation.

The campaign is part of a national effort, Greening the Caribbean/IDB Lab-funded Integrated E-Waste Management and disposal habits in St. Lucian communities.

At the prize distribution ceremony which was held on Wednesday, 24 June, Carmen Renee Memorial School received the Massy Stores Champions Award, which consisted of EC $1,500 in Massyy Stores vouchers, refreshments for the whole school, and the title of 2026 Green Champions Winner.

Following this Canon Laurie Anglican Primary School was named as the First Runner-Up and received the LUCELEC Spark Award of EC $1,000. Three more schools include, St. Aloysius RC Boys School, Ave Maria Girls’ School, and Gordon and Walcott Methodist Memorial School, were awarded SLASPA Green Seed Award of EC $333 to fund small environmental projects on their school grounds.

The campaign was designed as five community-anchored school events, and did not remain limited to the schoolyards itself, rather extended into more than twelve communities which serves as the residence of the students of the five schools.

A prominent feature of the campaign was its permanence. Each of the five participating schools have kept their branded Green Champions collection bin as a continuing school community recycling drop-off point, in order to ensure that even after the campaign ends the efforts continue.

Moreover, Greening the Caribbean has indicated that the Green Champions Challenge is expected to become an annual event, with the planning for the 2027 edition to begin this year.

Saria Best-Joseph, Communication and Stakeholder Lead of Greening the Caribbean, who also coordinated the initiative among the various partners and the schools have said that, “Every school in this challenge has won something far greater than a prize. They have shown Saint Lucia that our children, supported by a strong coalition of partners and sponsors, can lead a national response to one of the region’s fastest-growing environmental challenges. Ultimately this was never just a competition, it is a school’s community environmental coalition which now leads the way.” 

Green Champions Challenge 2026 succeeded because of the partnership of Greening the Caribbean Inc., the Saint Lucia Solid Waste Management Authority, the Department of Education and Digital Transformation of the GOSL with financial sponsorship from Massy Stores, LUCELEC, and SLASPA.