Four Nottingham students have won a trip to the Arctic Circle in the npower Future Leaders’ Challenge.

Umesh Kumar (Geography and Chinese), Ben Blackburn (Geography and Business), Andrew James (Management Studies) and Eliot Booker (Sociology) came up with SheepMob, a project was designed to encourage students to be more environmentally friendly without the need for major changes to their normal behaviour.

It deliberately distanced itself from the traditional messages that often surround environmental issues, and the team organised an event at Minus One, a Nottingham bar, during which students were encouraged to pledge to reduce their carbon footprint. Judges were impressed with the pledge event and their social media campaign.

Andrew said: “We wanted to run a project that helped students become aware of environmental issues but avoided the typical hippy stereotype.

“We created the SheepMob brand and made it relevant to students by using social media and hosting a night out to inform them of ways they could reduce their impact on the environment.”

The team were one of two winners; a team from St Andrew’s University in Scotland submitted a project called We Care. The students will spend a week in Northern Norway in March, putting their team skills to the test as they sled 124 miles in temperatures as low as -30?C.

Andrew said: “I can’t think of anything better than flying as far north as possible, being let loose with six huskies and travelling across the Arctic. Seeing the Northern Lights whilst lazing in a hot-tub at the end of a hard day sledding really would be something to tell the grandchildren when I’m an old man.”

The competition — in its second year — challenges students to create, develop and deliver a project which will have a positive, lasting impact on sustainability within their community. As well as raising awareness, the challenge boosts entrants’ employability as they develop time-management and event-organisation skills.

Volker Beckers, RWE npower’s CEO, congratulated the team for their commitment and enthusiasm.

He said: “The Future Leaders’ Challenge has offered a platform to develop specific skills to help them in their future careers. I am positive that their projects will continue to develop and that they will have inspired others to consider how they too can make a difference.

“We developed the challenge to find undergraduates with passion and drive, and I believe we have unearthed that passion and also found real climate-change champions in this competition.”