International Youth Day 2024: YIC & CEC Youth Engagement
Happy International Youth Day! Since 2010, the international community has celebrated 12 August as a day to bring youth issues to the forefront and celebrate the potential of youth as critical partners in addressing today’s challenges.
Join us today in celebrating youth, whose bold solutions, expertise and ideas have made and continue to make an impact in our trinational work and across North America. We’re pleased to share stories from some of our Youth Innovation Challenge (YIC) winners and highlight some of the CEC’s youth engagement efforts.
Youth Innovation Challenge
The CEC’s Youth Innovation Challenge was launched in 2017 to support innovative youth solutions in Canada, Mexico and the United States. In 2023, the challenge came to a close, having supported a total of 23 youth innovation projects and provided C$225,000 in seed funding. The innovative ideas and solutions resulted in numerous success stories that continue to inspire us.
Learn more about some of the YIC winners, how the YIC impacted them and where they are now:
Jérémy Lavoie (Canada) – Jérémy continues working hard with his team on their winning YIC solution at Inscott, where they focus on transforming agri-food residues using black soldier fly larvae. In the short-term, they aim to develop methods for extracting high-value-added components from larvae products.
“The YIC was a transformational experience. I had the opportunity to build a network of young international entrepreneurs with whom I share the same environmental vision. Also, I was able to meet the environment ministers of Canada, Mexico and the United States and present a project with great potential for generating change. Today, thanks to the YIC, my credibility and skills as a communicator and leader attained another level, as did my openness to the world,” said Jérémy Lavoie, 2022 YIC Winner.
Mariève Dallaire-Lamontagne (Canada) – Mariève is currently the head of research at Inscott. In addition to this role, she is completing her PhD in animal science and conducting a research internship at Eawag in Zurich, Switzerland. Mariève is also involved with Université Laval’s Chaire de leadership en production et en transformation primaire d’insectes comestibles, and is contributing to the development of a circular economy certification with VRIc.
“Thanks to my participation in the Youth Innovation Challenge, I developed an international network with other inspiring young entrepreneurs keen to provide real solutions to environmental issues in North America. The YIC really benefited my career by providing me with media opportunities to talk about the potential uses of insects in sustainable livestock waste management and as an alternative protein source,” said Mariève Dallaire-Lamontagne, 2022 YIC winner.
Monique Chan (Canada) – Thanks to the YIC, Monique and her team were motivated to expand their project, Bruized, in Ontario. Her team launched fulCircle, a Toronto-based sustainability collective with urban farmers, producers and business owners. Their first supper club was a success, and they plan to host more eco-minded events, such as clothing swaps, workshops focused on food preservation, mending and upcycling.
“YIC was a pivotal experience for Bruized. We connected with young change-makers around the globe and gained insight of the amazing innovation within the sustainability space. I loved the opportunity of refining our public speaking skills to improve communicating our message with new audiences, including many prominent global leaders. We as youth have so much power to influence the trajectory of our world and it was truly an honour to share the importance of reducing food waste,” said Monique Chan, 2020 YIC winner.
Annie Rosas (Mexico) – Annie is currently working as a business consultant at Minsait while pursuing her passion for the environment. She dedicates a significant portion of her time to Bluekali, her team’s winning solution aimed at cleaning oceans and aquifers. Additionally, she is planning to pursue a master’s degree abroad at a business school with a focus on sustainability and impact.
“Being selected as a 2023 YIC winner has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my career as a social entrepreneur. Throughout the mentorship program, I acquired essential legal tools for protecting our technology and I learned how to turn a social project into a viable business model. The CEC’s support and the visibility garnered through this award have enabled us to win several contests and participate in different investment and training programs. Thanks to the CEC, we’ve discovered that partnering with the government is a viable and effective strategy,” said Annie Rosas, 2023 YIC winner.
Rodrigo Trejo (Mexico) – Rodrigo has dedicated his professional efforts to building youth capacity in coastal communities in Mexico to co-create projects focused on circular economy. He is currently studying English in New Zealand, where he plans to replicate his winning YIC solution, From the Port to the Garden. His dream is to pursue a PhD in Environmental Economics and Innovation in Canada next year.
“Thanks to the training I received and the experience of presenting the “From the Port to the Garden” project to North American environmental authorities and leaders, I was able to inspire more young people. Winning the Youth Innovation Challenge encouraged me to continue my projects and to remember that we young people have big ideas and dreams to pursue, that we are not alone and that it’s time to create a better world,” said Rodrigo Trejo, 2022 YIC winner.
Karime Guillen (Mexico) – Karime continues her entrepreneurial journey through new projects, including Rearvora, which focuses on promoting circular economy and sustainable practices within the tourism sector. She also currently serves as the President of the Council of Business Chambers and Associations of the State of Mexico, supporting entrepreneurs who wish to bring their ideas to life. Looking ahead, she aims to expand Rearvora’s reach and impact, while continuing to amplify her voice and promote sustainability through conferences and consultancy work.
“Not only did my participation generate an impact on the project, but, as it entailed self-belief, it also had a positive impact on my life. It was the best way to encourage me to achieve my dreams and become the person that I am today,” said Karime Guillen, 2020 YIC winner.
Gener Méndez (Mexico): Gener’s YIC solution, Mobile School for Community Forestry, inspired him to apply to an international cooperation program that took him to Colombia. There, he spent a year working as a forestry advisor, providing technical support to local environmental organizations. Today, he serves as a forestry advisor and project manager in The Gambia. In this role, Gener leads the African Food Forest Initiative, which aims to enhance sustainable food and forestry production in The Gambia. This initiative seeks to establish the foundations of agroforestry practices that ensure continuous plot management and food security for The Gambian households.
“When my participation in the Youth Innovation Challenge ended, I thought about the entire experience and the personal growth it brought about. I cherish the bonds formed with the environmental leaders from the Indigenous communities from all three countries, and with the rest of the CEC team, who accompanied us throughout the project and encouraged leadership among the participants. Thanks to the seeds that the CEC planted in us, we successfully launched the Community Forestry Mobile School to promote traditional ecological knowledge and protect the land through agroforestry with local crops,” said Gener Méndez, 2021 YIC winner.
Hailey Hall (United States) – Hailey’s solution, “Is your water well?” focuses on well testing and public health awareness among rural or underserved communities by connecting people to information about their health and aquifer conditions. The Youth Innovation Challenge helped Hailey acquire skills that expanded her project’s outreach and impact. In the future, she hopes to continue increasing her sampling capacity, monitoring efforts and funding sources.
“Being selected as a YIC winner was an experience pivotal to my growth. To anyone who wants to take action to help our environment- be open, curious, and cooperative. Connect with others about our land, air, and water to learn and share passion, and know that there are so many positive and meaningful ways for you to make things better,” said Hailey Hall, 2023 YIC winner.
Xiangkun (Elvis) Cao (United States) – Elvis’s solution, Carbon2X, aimed to create co-benefits for communities alongside advancing climate technologies. Being selected for the YIC was a turning point for him and also helped secure the Carbon Removal Justice Fellowship, funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the New York Community Trust. Elvis is now a Senior Consultant at DNV, specializing in carbon dioxide removal.
“I benefited greatly from the communication training during my participation in the Youth Innovation Challenge. It also helped me to transition from a pure engineer to an engineer with a strong focus on the human dimensions of the technologies I develop in the future,” said Xiangkun (Elvis) Cao, 2021 YIC winner.
Please join us in congratulating all the YIC winners and wishing them all the best as they continue to drive positive impacts in communities across North America!
Ongoing CEC Youth Engagement and GELP
The seven years of the YIC, along with the 2023 CEC’s Youth Engagement Week’s recommendations, offered a great deal of experience and lessons learned to help inform the CEC’s forthcoming Youth Engagement Strategy and the newly-created Generation of Environmental Leaders Program (GELP). The vision for the new program allows the CEC to focus on long-term, meaningful youth engagement, provides a structure for continuous engagement and establishes an enduring youth network across North America.
We were pleased to announce the first GELP cohort this June, with the selected youth teams’ solutions addressing plastic pollution by developing compostable packaging from recycled agri-food waste, a community engagement program for wetland restoration and conservation, and an innovative workforce redevelopment tool providing training to incarcerated individuals for them to develop renewable energy skills.
For more info about the Generation of Environmental Leaders Program and to read more about the first GELP cohort, click here.
Stay tuned for more youth engagement events and activities!
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About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.