‘Binnovation’! ECOChallenge Participants Celebrate Success

Friday 28th – Sunday 1st March saw 42 students, eight specialist mentors and five judges come together for an action-focused weekend of sustainability and innovation at ECOChallenge 2025.

Organised by LUSU Green in partnership with Work in Progress and the 9 Colleges, participants were guided through an intensive design sprint: identifying a sustainability problem within our community, designing solutions to solve it and delivering an engaging pitch to a panel of judges. Projects focused on a range of topics from education on the impacts of artificial intelligence, to reducing single-use plastic with a fizzy drink refill innovation.

Judges praised all the entrants for their engaging pitches and were pleased to see some real-life problems addressed by actionable solutions. After much debate and deliberation, the following teams were presented with awards:

Third Place: Fylde / Grizedale Colleges – LUSU From Me to You: A digital solution focused on reducing food waste from on-campus conferences and events

Second Place: Lonsdale / Pendle Colleges – ECOPop: A fizzy drink refill innovation focused on reducing single-use plastic bottles

People’s Choice Award: Cartmel / County Colleges – EcoDuck: An app innovation focused on improving sustainability engagement through points, rewards and social networking

First Place: Furness College – Binnovation: A community-based project focused on improving the attractiveness, safety and knowledge of campus bin stores and recycling

The winning participants from Furness College will take a share of £100 as well as having the ECOChallenge trophy stored proudly in their college and getting the opportunity to take their project forward in the University. All teams have received the opportunity to further develop and actualise their projects through Work in Progress.

Furness participant, Ruby, said that “I really loved ECOChallenge! I’ve done it every year I’ve been at Lancaster University and it’s gotten better every year! It’s such a valuable part of Lancaster University and LUSU!”