Last night, Grow Girls, of St Hilda's Collegiate School, won the Otago regional "excellence in business award" in the Young Enterprise Scheme, with their product which promoted sustainable gardening practices while supporting local businesses.
Mr Allen said their business was selling chicken manure to local gardeners and using recycled hessian bags that would have otherwise been discarded.
The girls had been part of the whole process from sourcing the raw chicken manure, bagging it, distributing it as well as in the promotion and administration related to running a business.
Grow Girls also won the best oral presentation and the best sustainable business award.
They were second in the best marketing plan.
Mr Allen said it was a noticeable trend this year that many of the 16 teams from the seven Otago secondary schools were becoming more socially aware about the needs of the community while making a profit.
The Kavanagh College team produced a guide to NCEA marks and how to understand them.
"This is purely education on how to look at the qualifications, but it is still a community awareness programme while wanting to make money from education."
Among the other projects with a social commitment were Be Aware (Queen's High School) helping raise awareness of breast cancer and Pure (Columba College) warning that some ingredients in "over-the-counter" deodorant had also been linked to breast cancer, he said.
Grow Girls will represent the region at the national awards to be judged in Wellington on December 4.
