With the support of ALF
From Ideas to Action: Youth Teams unveil solutions to Luxembourg’s environmental and social challenges.
The project
A Youth4Planet Luxembourg programme supported by the André Losch Foundation, and developed in close collaboration with ENAD (École Nationale pour Adultes).
Green Starters is a hands-on learning programme for young people aged 18–25 who are exploring or navigating their pathway between education and professional life, including those currently engaged in education or vocational training.
It supports participants in exploring real local environmental and social challenges and transforming lived experience into concrete small-scale projects through workshops, teamwork, mentoring, and storytelling.
Rather than starting from abstract topics, participants worked from lived experience and direct observation of their environment.
What the programme explored
Participants worked on issues rooted in their daily realities:
- housing and precarious living conditions
- waste and consumption
- access to resources
- local environmental challenges
Rather than starting from abstract topics, participants worked from lived experience and direct observation of their environment.
Who participated
Young people aged 18–25 not currently in stable study or employment pathways.
The programme was designed to include voices often underrepresented in environmental and social debates.
Participants used the space to express ideas, build confidence, and engage with real issues affecting their daily lives.
Collaboration with ENAD
Green Starters was built in close collaboration with ENAD’s teaching team. Beyond supporting participants, teachers engaged directly with the programme’s methods and tools – rooted in design thinking and participatory approaches – with the aim of integrating these into their own practice, both within this programme and in future work.
The programme was designed to include voices often underrepresented in environmental and social debates.
Green Starters
How the programme worked
Green Starters combined several complementary approaches to support learning by doing:
Circular economy & sustainability
Workshops introduced key concepts related to environmental systems, resource use, and circular economy thinking, helping participants connect local issues to broader challenges.
Participatory and collaborative methods
The programme was built around group work, collective decision-making, and peer exchange, with participants working in small teams throughout the process.
Ideation & Prototyping
Teams were formed and micro-project ideas were developed.
In hands-on workshops on project management, basic budgeting, and communication, the young people learned key fundamentals.Collaboration with educators and partners
Teachers, facilitators, and external contributors supported the process, ensuring continuity between workshops and reinforcing learning outcomes.
Final Presentation
On 3 July, participants of Green Starters – Build Your Own Future presented the projects they had developed throughout the programme at a special event at OekoZenter Pafendall.
Working in teams, they presented their ideas, explained the challenges they had chosen to address and discussed their proposed solutions with guests, mentors and partners. The projects included ideas addressing cigarette litter in public spaces and raising awareness around vacant housing.
The event marked the end of the programme and gave participants the opportunity to present their work publicly and receive feedback on their ideas.
What emerged
Green Starters was not about producing perfect solutions, but about enabling young people to:
- express their perspectives on real issues
- develop confidence and agency
- collaborate in structured creative processes
- translate ideas into concrete outputs
- engage with external stakeholders
The focus was on learning through action and making youth voices visible in local transformation processes.
Green Starters was not about producing perfect solutions, but about enabling young people
Green Starters
Our Partners
A Youth4Planet Luxembourg initiative In partnership with ENAD Supported by the André Losch Foundation
André Losch Fondation
ENAD – École Nationale pour Adultes
youthplanet Luxembourg
Green Starters sits at the intersection of youth empowerment, environmental awareness, and social inclusion, grounded in real-life experience and collective experimentation.