Argentina

Recovering What We Should Have Never Lost

2015, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The aim of this project was to afforest, with native species, the sidewalks of two bare blocks in the
town of Villa Lía. These two blocks were chosen because 52 new houses have been recently constructed in the area. The project has many benefits including the environmental benefits, and community participation in the implementation of this project.

To ensure the sustainability of this project, the students also had the idea of creating a commitment contract in which the neighbours commit to maintaining the species planted along the sidewalks.

The students were mentored by Gabriel Burgueño, a biodiversity specialist, who educated them and assisted in the selection of native trees.

The More We Save, The More We Live

2014, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The aim of this project is to carry out a massive, long-term campaign on the local radio stations, promoting and encouraging the community to reduce their use of non-renewable energy. The students are in charge of creating these messages and delivering them; designed as a long-term commitment, the campaign is meant to deliver a constant reminder to the entire community.

“Green” Education for Life

2013, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project emphasizes the early teaching of environment care to kindergarten students. It aims to teach the students about nature and simple ways to take care of it. One example is by making vegetable gardens that are built with disposable materials. This project also implements puppet shows and plays to captivate students while also creating awareness.

CNC assisted in the project by putting the students in contact with two plastic artists. These artists helped the students create a “square garden” with puppets for the puppet shows/plays and an “owl” that illustrates different images of birds and trees.

Locating Cesspools to Improve the Quality of Water

2013, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project proposes a solution to a common problem in the urban areas surrounding the watershed. The problem in these areas is that a high percentage of new homes are built without access to sewage systems or central running water. Instead, every new house makes its own cesspool and well to get water.

Lack of knowledge about the location of individual cesspool has lead to many water intakes being located too close to the cesspools. A minimum distance between the cesspools of the neighbouring houses is recommended, meaning this is currently a health hazard to many in this area.

The project proposes a simple solution: make a public database of the location of the cesspools with the help of the community and the town hall. The project will use GPS to make the data public, and easily accessible. It will be launched using a geospatial database built by one of the winning projects of CFW 2012. (See Database of the Good Things, 2012).

Areco, a River of Ideas

2013, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project aims to motivate youth to actively participate in the design of public spaces in their
towns. It was proposed as an exercise – inspired by a successful project carried out in Madrid in 2004 – to invite all young students to upload design ideas on the Internet. The criteria of the designs were that they should illustrate how a busy public place on the Areco River should look. Unlike the Spanish proposal, which ended in a paper publication, they proposed to post the proposals on a Facebook page, called “Areco, a river of ideas”.

Just Like a “Hornero”

2013, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project was implemented in a small rural community called Cucullú. The main business activity of this small village with a population of 1300 inhabitants is the making of clay bricks, and the income for these workers is very low.

CFW brought an architect to the school to assist the students. With the help and guidance of the architect, who specialized in sustainable constructions, the students proposed an architectural creation and architectural education organized in a small building in the town. This particular building is a place where the community gathers for training, meetings, and special events.

The aim of the project is to use this place as a small educational space for the town; the students, their parents and siblings will be trained in the craft of sustainable construction, helping to improve the primarily poor conditions in which the community lives.

As a first step, they created a “Russian chimney” that it is a sustainable way to cook and maintain heat, which will keep the place very warm in the winter.

Environmental Sustainability: Awareness

2012 Villa Lia, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project, presented by the rural school N3 located in Villia Lia, was to improve the new schools building energy performance by installing a solar heating system, using internal and eternal insulating material, and strategic planting of trees. Apart from communicating their actions to the community, the students also proposed a law that would force new schools in the jurisdiction to take these implementations into consideration; a local provincial senator was involved in the proposal process.

In order to begin the implementation of this project, the students arranged a meeting with the school principal to install an internal and external sensor. This sensor measures a number of factors such as temperature, relative humidity, direction and speed of wind, and precipitation, among other things. The project intention is for students to be able to develop a database that allows them to evaluate the results of the proposed implementations over time. The students also proposed the creation of a class that studies the mathematics, physics and statistics supporting environmental sustainability issues and management.

To collaborate in the implementation, CNC commissioned a sustainability audit of the building by the architect Guillermo Duran, a specialist in sustainable architecture. With this audit, CNC is going to create educational material for all students that are part of the watershed.

Reusable bags

2012 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This proposal was to provide a solution to the massive use of plastic bags we use to carry purchased goods, etc. The goal is to replace these plastic bags with reusable cloth bags that are being sold at different stores. By including members of the Local Association to Promote People with Disabilities (APROPDIS) the students aimed to generate an environmental and social benefit. The members of APROPDIS collaborated in the labeling of these reusable bags by adding the supermarket name, the Caring for Our Watersheds and the Institution logos.

These bags are now found in local supermarkets. They are stacked next to a donating box where interested patrons can take a bag and donate money at their discretion. This money is given to the APROPDIS for them to continue designing and “selling” the bags.

The students worked together with another school that had proposed a similar project.

Areco Tree Friends

2012 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

These students created a club to promote awareness of the environmental benefits of trees in urban areas. They started by institutionalizing the “Club Areco Tree Friends” in their school. First they created a Facebook account where they gathered and shared information about the importance and the environmental functions of trees, including photographs and the good or bad conditions of the local trees. They also published information about environmental activities that are being held and other environmental news. By hanging posters with information and our logo, the students continue to create awareness at school, and the students invited their peers – and anyone else who is interested – to follow them on Facebook.

The students also used their social media platform to promote the photograph contest held by the students of San Antonio school.

Database of the Good Things

2012 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project aims to raise awareness of actions that are beneficial to our watersheds and the environment. The project proposed the creation a geographic information system (GIS) which is viewable on the web, and illustrates beneficial actions that have been done in the Areco River. The display will be organized and linked to manuals with explanations. The proposal divides the actions into the following segments: agriculture, stockbreeding, industrial, schools/institutions and communities. Specialists of each segment will choose and add information to the database on environmentally friendly actions that benefit the San Antonio watersheds.

This will be one of the first databases with information of our watershed!