The Young Green Briton Challenge
Social Innovation for All is a founding partner of the Young Green Briton Challenge, a national platform to nurture, support and celebrate youth-led, school-based climate action.
WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE?​
This exciting initiative combines climate education with innovation, design, and changemaking. The Challenge empowers students to create local climate action projects, fostering the development of transferable green skills. YGBC is accredited by the Skills Builder Partnership and aligned with Gatsby Benchmarks 4 and 5, supporting employability skills. ​​​Following a successful pilot with Pearson EdExcel it is also possible to link YGBC to an accredited Level 2 Project Qualification (equivalent to half a GCSE).
YGBC is open to state schools across England, as well as specialist and alternative provision. Each participating school selects a whole year group (Years 7-10) to participate in the Challenge. Students start by exploring real life sustainability topics including biodiversity loss, food, the future of transport, green energy, the circular economy and fast fashion. Students then work in teams to select an issue and design entrepreneurial solutions to address this issue locally. These could be awareness campaigns, community projects, or even mini-businesses. The most promising teams go on to to put their ideas into action, creating real change in their communities. One team from each school then has the opportunity to compete for further investment and showcase their ideas at regional and national events.
The YGBC volunteering programme (more info here) enables students to collaborate with a diverse group of industry professionals, helping to bridge the gap between education and the real world by showcasing practical experiences, demonstrating green jobs in action, and serving as role models.
WHAT IMPACT DOES THE CHALLENGE HAVE?
​In three years of piloting we have worked with around 14,000 students in 50 diverse schools across England and are really proud of the emerging evidence from our student and teacher surveys.​​​​
88%
increased their understanding of climate change​
79%
learnt skills they think will help them in their futures​
80%
are more hopeful about contributing to tackling climate change​
83%
enjoyed participating in the YGBC design workshop
100%
of teachers would recommend YGBC to others
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the ygbc coalition
The Young Green Briton Challenge is a powerful collaboration born from the shared vision of four organisations: Social Innovation for All CIC, GenEarth CIC, the Ministry of Eco Education and the Green Britain Foundation. United by our passion for climate action and youth empowerment, we came together in 2022 with a simple yet ambitious goal: to create something bigger than they could achieve alone.
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Since then the coalition has grown and we deliver YGBC together with EcoVida Routes (in the North West) and TerraLigo (in the North East).
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We are incredibly grateful to our amazing array of partners who are supporting the Young Green Briton Challenge in 2025/26 through both Social Innovation for All CIC and GenEarth CIC.
