The winners of the 2012 Lexus Eco Challenge have been chosen! Now in its fourth year, the Lexus Eco Challenge (in partnership with Scholastic) tasks middle and high-school students to go head-to-head in the ultimate green grudge match: they are to identify an environmental issue or problem that’s important to them, develop an action plan to solve it, execute the plan, and report the results. The challenge is comprised of three phases: Land/Water, Air/Climate and the a Final Challenge, where winners from the previous challenges compete to showcase their environmental action plans. Winning teams receive one of the two grand prizes of $30,000 or one of the eight first place prizes of $15,000!

This year produced some incredible ideas to address a range of worthy causes. View all of the winning teams and their innovative environmental action plans here.

Meet the grand prize winners:

The Green Musketeers
Also known as Kristin, Brendan, April, Anuja, Anirudh, Rebecca, Diane, Anuhita, Matthew, and teacher advisor Ashlie Beals, from Jericho High School in Jericho, NY.
The Green Musketeers had already developed its own water purification system as part of the Land/Water Challenge, and the team of motivated high-schoolers subsequently intended to patent it, sell it, and use the profits to help third-world countries. After hours of lab work, community outreach, and compiling data, the students had their water filtration research published in a nationally recognized science journal. They also made donations to a local laboratory in addition to a number of organizations to help maintain local water quality.

One Towel Wonders, Kentucky
Also known as Herman, Sara, Blakeley, Jordan, Baylee, Spencer,  and teacher advisor Serena McCalla from SCAPA in Lexington, KY.
Did you know that the typical four-person household uses as least 16 bath towels weekly? The One Towel Wonders Team decided that using one bath towel per week was a smart way to conserve water. Thus the “One Towel, One Week, One Way” campaign was born. The team of inspired high schoolers spread the word with a Q&A at a nearby University, distributed brochures, and took their project to the capitol building to speak with a state representative. They went on to devise creative fund-raisers at their school and even presented it at a district science fair that was attended by more than 1,500 people!