When Julian Spiteri's life was cut short in a traffic accident at the age of 19, his parents discovered a list of goals and dreams he had hoped to achieve.

So, Adrian and Nadia Spiteri set up ‘Julian’s Change the World Challenge’, beginning with a three-day workshop that helped 16 and 17-year-olds formulate their ideas on how to manage climate change.

Tweaking the curriculum in primary schools to include more environmental awareness, introducing tax incentives for meatless menus and setting up a digital thrifting site to reduce waste and encourage recycling were among some of the ideas presented this week at the Danish Village.

Denzil Lanzon, one of the 12 students to present their ideas, spoke about shifting to an anti-carbon curriculum in primary schools to instil respect for the environment from a young age. It would include having more outdoor lessons, school outings focusing on educating students about sustainability, such as trips to farms, and each school given a vegetable patch to manage.

Food sustainability featured strongly among the ideas in the Julian’s Pathfinder Foundation event, sponsored by consultancy company EY, QP building design and Bank of Valletta.

Nicole Grech suggested offering tax incentives to restaurants and other catering establishments offering meatless menus as a reward for their contribution to the planet. She stressed the importance of reducing the consumption of meat because the manufacturing of meat-based products, like burgers, involves lots of natural resources. It takes over 3,000 litres of water to make one burger, according to the World Economic Forum.

Haydn Cassar, 17, a student who comes from a family of farmers had an idea to decrease Malta’s dependency on exported food and make the island more sustainable. Eighty per cent of the food consumed in Malta is imported, he noted.

His idea involves powering farmland with solar panels installed at some 12 feet of height so that crops can be grown underneath. The project would start with berries and move on to other foodstuffs along the years.

Energy use featured in the pitch of Luke Anthony Cassar, whose idea centred around installing ground source heat pumps that would use the heat in the ground to power houses.

Cleaner air quality was also high on the students’ agenda. Hannah Snyders suggested installing CO2 vacuums around the island to clean the air. Matthew Luke Asciak suggested planting trees along watercourses around the island to improve the landscape, biodiversity and to remove pollution from the atmosphere.

On a similar note, Matthew Pirotta’s idea centred around creating agri-paths by limiting the number of roads and lining them with trees. Meanwhile, Mireya Hili’s suggested increasing the amount of sustainable spaces around the island.

Claire Casha suggested drawing up guidelines and criteria, in collaboration with NGOs, on the sustainability of public events such as village feasts and concerts.

Some of the ideas focused on digital tools. Katrina Conrad came up with the proposal of setting up an online platform for digital thrifting that would allow young people to purchase items at cheap prices while encouraging recycling and reducing waste. 

Elisa Sacco proposed an app that would support the use of public transport among young students while Meghan Muscat suggested creating a platform of resources for young people on how to live a sustainable life.