Students Dutch Art academy win European video competition for awareness-raising on water footprint

Awareness-raising video on the water footprint of a shoe: 8.547 liters

Awareness-raising video on the water footprint of a hamburger: 2.393 liters

The European Commission announced two short films by Dutch students as winners of the European film competition 'Imagine all the Water'.

Students of the Junior Academy for Art direction in Amsterdam produced a creative portrayal of how the production of food and consumer indirectly can be associated with wasting water.

One of the two winning Dutch entries is an animation showing a drop of water travels over the world. The other is about the amount of water needed to make a hamburger.

A jury selected 10 videos and fans of Generation Awake Facebook page voted for their five favorites.

Stimulating water efficiency
In the film competition of 'Imagine all the Water', the European Commission challenged European youth in a short film that is dominated by the more efficient use of natural resources. They were asked to visualize how much water is needed to produce the following items: a hamburger, a bottle of beer, a cup of coffee, a chocolate bar and a pair of shoes.

The video competition was part of the campaign "Generation Awake 'started by the European Commission DG Environment in October 2011. The campaign

aims to establish a conscious and efficient use of natural resources to stimulate and revolves around making smart daily choices that take into account the environment.

Changing habits
Since its launch, the campaign website, which is available in 23 EU languages, has generated over 200 000 page visits. The campaign video has been viewed by over 1 million people and the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/generationawake) has attracted close to 13 000 fans. The campaign has been specifically designed to address young urbans and families across the European Union, not only to build awareness about the importance of resource efficiency but also to encourage them to change their habits.

Full details on the campaign's multilingual website:
www.generationwake.eu

The Campaign’s Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/generationawake