By Alexander Hodgkins-Jones
A De Montfort University student is celebrating after she was announced as a winner of a national ‘sustainable futures’ competition on Tuesday (NOV17) as part of an initiative called Brief Cases.
Jade Burrell won the gold award in the Sustainable Futures: Design and Print category for her beach-saving campaign ‘For Shore’.
The Brief Cases scheme, which is run yearly by The Heaven Company, tasks university students from across the country with producing a video, print and social media campaign around one of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals.
For Shore targeted goal 12, responsible consumption and production.
The 20-year-old communication arts student was shocked to win as she hadn’t felt her work was worthy of submission to the competition.
Luckily one of her tutors, Jenny Hibberd, saw the value of the project and submitted it on her behalf.
Jade said: “When I heard my name and saw my project, I couldn’t believe it.
“I didn’t know how they had got it, but there it was. I am so happy though.”
Of her concept, Jade said: “The beaches are depleting due to sand consumption and the idea behind For Shore is to recycle used glass bottles by turning them back into reusable sand.”
Jade also had the clever idea of using beer mats to spread the message of the proposed campaign.
“Drinkers would hopefully see the mats and think to donate their empty bottles,” she said.
“And it would give pubs an incentive to work with us.”
Fellow DMU classmate Callum Dingley secured a bronze award for his campaign aimed at housing the homeless.
Veronica Heaven, founder of Brief Cases, said: “[Our] projects are underpinned by the message of sustainability – and this year has been no different.
“We wanted students to show that creating design and print can be commercially viable, engaging and exciting and at the same time have a future focussed approach.
“We had so many amazing responses and a wonderful range of project outcomes.”
Communication Arts lecturer John Coster told Jade on Monday (NOV16) to watch the show when it premiered the following day as she may be “surprised”.
The pandemic forced the show to switch from an in-person event to a pre-recorded awards video.
“Through this whole period we’ve been reminded about the need and the importance of humanity and being able to care,” said Veronica.
Information about next year’s Brief Cases competition can be found here.
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