Like how the Eco Generation is a platform for advocating sustainability, the Sustainability Council in my high school is a student organization which aims to promote sustainable behavior and safeguard the environment. We aim to bring a sustainable lifestyle to our school community and launch initiatives to make our school more green, with our most recent initiative being BYOC(Bring your own container and cutlery) as the school cafeteria and cafe no longer provide single-use plastic or containers. Out of many projects that my school’s Sustainability Council has successfully launched, I would like to share the Eco Schools Project that I am leading as the Council’s Environmental Officer in hopes to inspire you and your community to take the action in bringing sustainable lifestyles to our future generation.

We first started out trying to find a global recognition for our school’s sustainability. However, we quickly came to realize that the sustainability recognitions awarded to schools mostly take the form of awards given to schools that are part of an eco-friendly school alliance or an education program. While the school had its own sustainable initiatives and policies being implemented into student life, we realized that as a school, there were not as many opportunities for students to be educated on what sustainable lifestyles are, the necessity of striving for green actions, and the grave environmental problems that endanger our world today. The search into different sustainability education programs helped us gain insight into numerous programs around the world that offer curriculums that would allow schools to incorporate lessons on sustainability into normal classes. The programs that I will be sharing with you are all wonderful programs aiming to educate our young generations, and it is difficult to simply summarize the features of these programs in a single report. Due to this, I have created a series titled “Educating the Future Generation: Sustainability Education” where I will be discussing three major programs. 

As the first report of the series, this report focuses on the Eco-Schools Program.  

Eco-Schools 

Eco-Schools is one of the world’s largest global sustainable education programs that focuses on not only the education of sustainability, but also the cooperation of the community to pursue an eco-friendly endeavor. It is a prestigious program that is under the Foundation of Environmental Education which is recognized by UNESCO. In the Eco-Schools program, each school organizes an eco-committee composed of students from each grade level, teachers, faculty, school administrator, parents, and local community members. The committee conducts an environmental review of the campus and the community and decides on what areas they would work on. The committee will then establish an action plan to address these issues. There would also be new additions to the school curriculum linking to sustainability. The crucial part of this program is the participation of the school community and most importantly, the students. It incorporates an action-based learning where students have the opportunity to engage in hands-on experience where they would be taking the matter into their own hands and have their say in the environmental management of the school. 

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