“WE LOVE OUR PLANET” STORYTELLING CONTEST 2026
The 2026 edition of CDL’s “We Love Our Planet” Storytelling Contest edition is themed “Save Our Glaciers”, in conjunction with the CDL Green Gallery exhibit “Melting Ice, Sinking Cities II”. The contest continues to encourage family bonding through storytelling and home video production. It also aims to unearth young eco champions and their families, develop their love of nature and to take action to protect our planet and its climate.
To view last year’s winning submissions, click here.
Click here to submit your videos
Contest Format
- In celebration of World Environment Day on 5 June, contestants are required to choose and tell a story relevant to the theme “Save Our Glaciers”.
- Contestants are to create original storylines in relation to theme.
- At the beginning of the storytelling, contestants are to introduce their story title.
- At the end of the storytelling, contestants are required to share a brief, minute-long statement on the lessons that they have learned from the story, as well as aspirations to help conserve the planet (e.g. I will use less single-use plastic, I will use reusable bags, etc.).
- To participate, the contestants will film their storytelling performances and submit their video links on Google Forms.
- The video should not exceed 5 minutes.
- The video should be in landscape format.
- Voice over is not preferred. The video should show the participant narrating.
- Video editing is welcome but not a must.
- Contestants under Preschool category can take part as an individual, or with the support from one immediate family member (e.g. parent, older sibling).
- Deadline for submissions is Sunday, 5 July 2026, 2359 hrs.
- Top finalists will be invited to present their storytelling in-person at our Singapore Sustainability Academy to a panel of judges on Saturday, 25 July 2026.
- Videos with the most inspiring comments on lessons learned from the stories and aspirations to protect the planet would also be featured in a short video. The video will be shared on social media and on the organisers’ webpages on Saturday, 7 August 2026, in commemoration of National Day.
Contest Categories
| INDIVIDUAL – Preschool (support from one family member (e.g. parent, older sibling) is allowed) |
3 to 6 years old |
| INDIVIDUAL – Lower Primary | P1 to P3 (or equivalent) |
| INDIVIDUAL – Upper Primary | P4 to P6 (or equivalent) |
| FAMILY – Collaboration between at least two family members, one of which must be a child, from the same household – Contribution should be split relatively equally |
No age restriction |
| ALUMNI – Returning winners from past years to participate in this category |
No age restriction |
Prizes
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Consolation (4th and 5th) |
|
| Preschool | $600 | $300 | $200 | $100 |
| Lower Primary | $600 | $300 | $200 | $100 |
| Upper Primary | $600 | $300 | $200 | $100 |
| Family Team | $600 | $300 | $200 | $100 |
| Alumni | $600 | $300 | $200 | $100 |
Note: Prize money will be City Developments Limited vouchers
Scoring Criteria
Please slide left to view more.
| Storytelling Performance Note: video editing is welcome but not a must |
Eco Aspiration Note: Must be one-minute long |
Relevance of story to theme | BONUS POINTS (5 points) |
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Performs beyond expectations (as compared to his or her peers) |
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| Individual-Preschool | 50% | 40% | 10% | |
| Individual-Lower primary | 50% | 40% | 10% | |
| Individual-Upper primary | 50% | 40% | 10% | |
| Family | 50% | 40% | 10% |
Rules and Regulations
1. Contest is open to all Singaporeans, PRs, as well as expatriate families living in Singapore.
2. Each contestant can only submit one entry. However, families may submit more than one entry in different categories with different stories.
a. For example: Mr Lee (Father), Mrs Lee (Mother), James (14-year-old son), Angeline (4-year-old daughter), Mabel (1-year-old baby) participate under the Family category and present Story A. Mrs Lee and Angeline can also participate under Preschool category and present Story B.
3. Returning winners from past years who would like to participate must submit their entries under the Alumni Category.
4. The video must be in landscape format.
5. Voice over is not preferred. The video must show the participant narrating the story.
6. Marks will be deducted for regulations not followed.
7. Deadline for submissions is Sunday, 5 July 2026, 2359 hrs.
8. The organisers will only reach out to the finalists via email.
9. Top finalists will be selected to proceed to the next round, in which they will give an in-person presentation at the SSA on Saturday, 25 July 2026.
10. Contestants acknowledge that by participating in the contest:
a. The submitted video entries may be used by the organisers for education and publicity purposes.
b. If they are selected to proceed to the finalist round, their physical presentations may be recorded and used by the organisers for education and publicity purposes.
11. Videos with the most inspiring comments on lessons learned from the stories and aspirations to protect the planet would also be featured in a short video. The video and announcement of top winners will be shared on social media and on the organisers’ webpages on Saturday, 7 August 2026, in commemoration of National Day.
FAQs
1. May I read from a script or an electronic device.
Ans: Yes, you can read from a script or electronic device if you wish. but remember to engage your audience when reading aloud the story.
2. Can I submit more than one entry?
Ans: Each contestant is allowed to submit one entry per category.
3. Can you provide any examples that we can use as a guide as how the contest wants the storytelling to be presented?
Ans: Since we want you and your family to use your imagination and get as creative as possible with your submission, we’re shying away from providing any sort of “examples” to ensure that people will not fall into the trap of aligning their submission with the provided example. There is no perfect answer to this contest, any and all types of videos will be more than welcome!
4. Does my child have to be speaking the entire time or can I chime in and help? What is a good balance?
Ans: You can definitely participate! But your child should leading the video for the majority of the time. A 90%:10% balance would suffice.
5. If we upload our submission and decide to give it another go, can we re-submit?
Ans: As long as you submit your new video with the name “VERSION 2” at the end, and let us know via email that you’ve submitted twice, you should be good to go!
6. How long should my video be?
Ans: There is no minimum requirement for the video length, but it should not exceed 5 minutes, where possible.
If you have other queries about the contest, please email [email protected] and [email protected]. We will try our best to respond to you as soon as possible.
How to Upload Submission
- DropBox
- Create a DropBox account if you do not already have one on DropBox.com.
- Click Files in the left column, hover over the file you’d like to share, click Share, type the Email of the person you’d like to share with, click Share.
- For more information on how to use DropBox, go to this webpage.
- GoogleDrive
- Create a Gmail account if you do not already have one on Gmail.com.
- For information on how to email a video file using GoogleDrive, go to this webpage.
- Once you have uploaded the file, in the top right corner, click “Share”. Click “Get shareable link” in the top right of the “Share with others” box. To choose whether a person can view, comment, or edit the file, click the Down arrow next to “Anyone with the link.”
- YouTube
- Create a YouTube account if you do not already have one on YouTube.com
- For information on how to upload a video onto YouTube, go to this webpage
- After uploading your video, we recommend “unlisting” it. An unlisted video is a different type of private video, which means that the only people to know the link to the video can access and view it. It will not appear in any of YouTube’s public spaces and can only be viewed by those you send the link to.
- For information on how to “unlist” your video, visit this webpage