Social Impact Projects

Considering that irresponsible consumption plays a vital role in furthering environmental and social issues we concern ourselves with making consumption more sustainable in Lisbon. This project aimed to tackle the misconception surrounding sustainable consumption being more expensive amongst international students in Lisbon. To do this, they designed three brochures featuring sustainable and affordable places to shop and to eat, and distributed them throughout the city.

Visit their Instagram page here.

The city of Lisbon, renowned for its vibrant culture and beautiful landscapes, faces a significant challenge during the summer months: excessive heat. This not only affects the comfort of its residents but also poses a health risk, particularly to vulnerable populations such as the elderly, children, and those with pre-existing health conditions. The project Oásis Urbano (Urban Oasis) aimed to combat urban heat by creating shaded, green spaces in the city of Lisbon, in collaboration with local partners. They conducted a participatory workshop with international students to gather ideas to make Lisbon a greener city. 

Many large cities throughout the world have issues with trash management. The negative effects of improper waste disposal range from aesthetic concerns to environmental hazards. While it manages its trash better than some large cities, Lisbon still struggles with trash and litter. This project worked to reduce single-use plastic cups by supporting the implementation of an innovative deposit system for reusable plastic cups in a problematic area of Lisbon, Pink Street, in partnership with the local government and Portuguese start-up Ecoceno.

Project WaterSmart Golf aims to tackle the issue of water mismanagement in Lisbon, where 10% of clean water is dedicated to golf courses, by advocating for a change in mindsets towards sustainability of golf course managers. To do this, the team collaborated with a local Golf Course and hosted a webinar to promote sustainable practices in the sector, featuring guest speakers from the GEO Foundation for Sustainable Golf, the certified sustainable course Costa Navarino (Greece) and CNIG, the Portuguese golf industry association.

Learn more here.

Sexual Education in Portugal is taught as part of the curriculum of the citizenship and development course by the class teachers. Since the majority of the teacher’s teaching this class are not trained to teach sex education, they feel underprepared and might be challenged addressing the topic in class. This project worked together with teachers and schools to improve their experience when teaching sex education in public schools in Lisbon, by creating a handbook which works as a toolkit to ease the process of research and planning for teachers.

Greenwheels worked on the challenging issue of poor air quality in Lisbon and one of its root causes: the preference of Lisbon inhabitants for the car as a mode of transport. Through close cooperation with the local government in the neighbourhood of Benfica, the team explored different avenues to reduce people’s reliance on private vehicles, such as implementing a bicycle sharing system for local government employees and finding alternative, environment friendly solutions for school commutes. Their final output was a research report to support the local government’s expansion of the network of charging stations for electric vehicles, which received high praise from their local government partner.