In March, more than 150 middle and high school students from schools across Western Pennsylvania gathered to proudly pitch community-focused projects at the Consortium’s 2025 Student Sustainability Design Challenge showcase.
The packed room at Rodef Shalom marked the culmination of several months of student research, career exploration, and project development focused on the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Planning bike lanes in rural communities, the benefit of dog parks in underserved neighborhoods, and green tiny homes–just a handful of the 35 projects–represent the wide range of topics and passions among the student teams. Other projects included supporting the elderly; conserving energy through a school-wide lights off campaign; leveraging a school garden to support the local food pantry; opening a take-what-you-need clothing store; or raising awareness of radon’s effects on children.
As students fanned out across the event space to pitch their sustainability concepts, they were joined by an audience of peers, teachers, and sustainability professionals from across the region.
“The energy in the room is infectious,” said Mike Storms, Director of Manufacturing Operations at Ebara Elliott Energy. “We sponsor because it is important to drive change in our world around sustainability initiatives.”
In a program survey, students overwhelmingly thought that the SSDC helped them grow key employability skills, specifically communication, teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking.
“I found most valuable the ability to see others’ ideas and grow my ideas based on others’ feedback,” remarked an SSDC student.
Another shared, “I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to talk to people in the real world that work with sustainability every day.”
The SSDC aims to inspire students to action–to show them that they can have agency and impact in their schools and neighborhoods, and that if they are passionate about sustainability in its many facets, there are learning and career pathways out there for them. At the fall kickoff, students spoke with dozens of community partners and employers from across industries and higher education, with several teams opting to visit with partners throughout their project work.
The Consortium would like to thank our SSDC corporate sponsors for their generous support of the program: Covestro, Ebara Elliott Energy, EQT, PITT OHIO, PNC, PPG, and UPMC.
