Mayo school leads the way in national Daily Swaps Challenge

Students at Kinaffe National School in east Mayo have been recognised at a national level for their outstanding efforts in promoting sustainability, earning the Best Creativity Award in this year’s Daily Swaps Challenge – a nationwide initiative from the Green-Schools programme, run by An Taisce.

The award celebrates schools that bring bold, imaginative, and inspiring ideas to raising awareness – and Kinaffe National School stood out for doing exactly that.

Throughout the initiative, students designed a series of colourful graphic designs using Canva, with a different design created for each day of the week highlighting a new sustainability swap. These eye-catching posters were displayed around the school and shared on social media, helping to spread the message both within the school community and beyond.

At the heart of the campaign was a dynamic school noticeboard in the shape of a tree. Throughout the week, students recorded the swaps they made by adding leaves to the tree. As the days passed and more leaves appeared, the display grew bigger and fuller, creating a powerful visual reminder of everyone’s efforts.

Seeing the swaps 'grow' each day helped to motivate and excite students across the school, turning the challenge into a fun and engaging shared experience.

The Daily Swaps Challenge invited students across Ireland to take simple everyday actions – such as taking shorter showers, boiling only the water needed, or donating unused clothes – to reduce water and energy use.

Taking place from March 9 to 13, the challenge saw participation from schools in 18 counties, with students recording an impressive total of 22,923 daily swaps.

The initiative reveals the close connection between water and energy use in everyday life. Heating water for showers, running washing machines, producing food and manufacturing clothing all require significant amounts of both resources. For example, washing machines consume an average of 50 litres of water per cycle, while producing a single cotton t-shirt can require around 2,700 litres of water.

By making small changes to everyday habits, we can help reduce pressure on ecosystems and lower environmental impacts.

The Daily Swaps Challenge forms part of the Green-Schools Water Theme, supported by Uisce Éireann, which works with schools across Ireland to raise awareness about protecting water resources and promoting sustainable water use.

Geoffrey Bourke, head of customer operations at Uisce Éireann, a sponsor of the Green-Schools Water Programme, commented: “Daily Swaps shows how small, practical actions can make a real difference. By empowering students to lead sustainability campaigns in their schools and communities, we’re helping young people understand the connections between water, energy and the everyday choices we make.”

Tori Rickman, Green-Schools officer for the Water Theme, added: “Kinaffe National School’s Daily Swaps campaign is a fantastic example of how students can lead meaningful environmental action in a creative and engaging way. By running their own challenges, Green-Schools Committees build real skills in communication, teamwork and motivating others.

“It highlights that environmental action doesn’t have to be about giving things up; it can be about challenging ourselves and our peers to make small changes together in a way that’s fun and impactful.”

For more information about the Green-Schools programme, visit www.greenschoolsireland.org.