Frank Anouchka

Stela Toderash

Bern, 27 July 2016 The Swiss entries for the International Environmental Children’s Drawing Contest were presented in Bern last May. The theme of the annual drawing contest was “the ecological footprint”. Swiss school kids were invited to send in their drawings on this subject, all of which were reviewed by the organising team of the Swiss Association for Quality and Management Systems (SQS), which is a member of the World Resources Forum Association (WRF).

WRF President Xaver Edelmann was as in recent years one of the members of the jury. The contest is supported by the bank J. Safra Sarasin. The International Environmental Children’s Drawing Contest award session will be held in Tokyo in August and is organised by the International Certification Network (IQNet) in collaboration with the Japan Quality Assurance (JQA) and UNICEF Tokyo office.

Ltr: Rene Wasmer (SQS), Melanie Rotich, Dimitri Oechslin, Sofia Guttierez,Stela Toderash,Taisija Mueller, Anouchka Frank, Cristina Wiele, Michel Stauber (J. Safra Sarasin) and Bas de Leeuw (WRF)

Sofia Gutierrez

Students of elementary schools in Switzerland were asked to draw ideas on what they can do to decrease the risks for our planet.

“We all leave marks on the earth. When we eat, dress, move away or dwell, surface area is claimed. Without forest there is no table. Without farmland there is no food. Without land there are no roads and without water there are no T-shirts. These surface areas are resources which we are taking from our planet.”

“The ecological footprint calculates how much space we are consuming with our lifestyle. If we consume more than is available to us – all inhabitants of the earth – we over exploit our planet in the long term. The seas are over-fished. Forests are destroyed and farmland is becoming less fertile. We endanger the health of our planet and all creatures. The objective can therefore only be to live in such a way that we do not over-use the limited resources.”

Dimitri Oechslin

Winning drawings of the ecological footprint drawing contest and pictures of the jury meetings and award session in Bern are available on the SQS website as well as in WRF Facebook Photo Gallery.

Earlier editions of this contest focused on treasures of the earth, the value of water, food, and light. The World Resources Forum has showcased the winners at conferences in Davos, Beijing and Arequipa, Peru.

Since 1999, Japan Quality Assurance Organization (JQA) and International Certification Organization Network (IQNet) have been hosting the International Environmental Children’s Drawing Contest for children aged 7 to 15 years old from around the world, supported by UNICEF Tokyo Office. So far, the contest has been held 17 times. With over 17,000 entries this year coming from 94 countries in total more than 255,000 drawings have been received up to now.

From left to right:
Daniel Graf (Bank J. Safra Sarasin), Pedro Alves (IQNet), Matthias Winkler (Collection Matthias GmbH), Max W. Twerenbold (business communication), Xaver Edelmann (World Resources Forum), Katja Lang (children’s museum Creaviva at the Zentrum Paul Klee), Cornelia Renner (Federal Office for the Environment FOEN), René Wasmer (SQS and IQNet),

Write for more information to info@wrforum.org or contact SQS about the Swiss contest.