Overseas School of Colombo becomes the first school in Sri Lanka to achieve the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award

The Overseas School of Colombo (OSC) is situated in the Western province of Sri Lanka and has become the first International School in the country to achieve the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award.

Despite being a tropical island with lavish biodiversity and home to many endangered species, Sri Lanka faces considerable environmental challenges. The country suffers from a myriad of ecological impediments; poor solid waste management, air pollution due to serious traffic, significant habitat loss, and the burning of plastic to name a few.

OSC decided to address these environmental issues and find active solutions for the broader ecological problems that are prevalent, and so their Eco-School journey began in November 2020, with a group of passionate students, teachers, parents, and other representatives of the OSC community. The debut meeting drew the interest of 65 attendees and students started meeting weekly in early morning sessions before school. This soon became the basis of OSC’s Eco-Schools Committee which now consists of students, teachers, parents, operations staff, and the wider OSC community.

The Eco-Committee carried out a school-wide audit following the Eco-Schools Seven Steps Methodology and selected three themes that would be the school’s focus: Biodiversity, Climate Change and Pollution. These themes would be exploring how to drastically reduce the school and its community’s environmental impact, enhance biodiversity, reduce and omit pollution and waste, and implement actionable initiatives to tackle climate change.

Below are just a few highlights from OSC’s Eco-Schools journey:

Students from OSC examined the flora and fauna present on the school grounds and focused on discovering ways to increase the levels of biodiversity around the school while raising students’ awareness of local biodiversity and nature. To improve biodiversity, students proposed building several gardens around the school. They considered the best locations for the gardens and considered factors like sunlight and rain, tree coverage, shade and proximity to the school’s cafeteria and compost system.

The gardens project is a great example of students working together. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 have different roles. Different groups of students have designed, built, and planted garden beds within the school grounds. OSC students are also in charge of maintaining and fertilising the gardens with fertilizer from the school’s biogas plant and compost system. The different garden beds are used to grow vegetables and herbs to be used by the school canteen and reduce the need for acquiring these from outside the school, helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Students also examined the impact of waste on the environment and explored actions to minimize the amount of waste that the local community at large produces and disposes of daily. Students carried out ‘street sweeps’ around the school and in local wetland areas to remove plastic from the environment. OSC students also introduced themselves to their local neighbours and discussed the delicate topic of burning plastic waste in the area. Since the community-building work began, students haven’t seen any plastic burning around the school.

Waste management initiatives were also carried out through actions associated with the school biogas plant, compost system & worm farm and the very active Recycling & Sustainability Service Group. The OSC Biogas Plant is an initiative where the food waste from the cafeteria (amounting 2kg to 5kg per day) is utilised in the plant and converted to biogas. The students test the potency and quality of the biogas, which allows students to cook yummy popcorn and make delicious hot chocolate for everyone to enjoy!  

Eloise Golding, a Diploma Programme student who leads the Eco-Schools Committee, explains what the Green Flag Award means to the school:

“It's important to us to cherish what we have left of nature and to take care of it to the best of our abilities. Being part of Eco-Schools helps to push us towards those goals, keeping us motivated to stay on track. Getting this award has created a stronger feeling of community.”

In November this year, OSC students organised a school relay as part of the Running Out of Time Global Schools Action Day. As shown in the video below the whole school joined efforts to collectively demand quality climate education.

Our Green Flag Journey: Jerudong International School, Brunei Darussalam

Green Flag Awarded To Jerudong International School

Post written by Jerudong International School, Brunei

Setting ourselves the goal of being as sustainable as possible in terms of our campus, our community, and our curriculum here at Jerudong International School has been challenging. Our 120-acre school campus is very large and our student population covers a wide age range, from pre-kindy to sixth form. However, the Seven Steps set out by Global Eco-Schools have provided us with a valuable framework to help guide us in our endeavours. Following these steps has called for creative thinking on the part of our Education for Sustainable Development team, and required plenty of goodwill, support, and encouragement from students, staff, and our wider community.  We have had highs and lows in our journey, but we are very proud of many of the new initiatives that have resulted and have certainly learned a lot along the way. 

Our House Forest Levels Award encourages all of our 16 Houses to have Eco-Reps and Eco-Committees who in turn encourage the students in their respective Houses to get involved in various activities from in-school recycling, to running House Green Businesses and volunteering for events such as beach cleans and tree planting. We work closely with the school maintenance staff and are delighted that our purchasing department now buys toilet paper from the local company that receives our waste paper for recycling.

Students also play an important role in the development of our Outdoor Discovery Centre, a 1-hectare site within our school grounds which acts as an outdoor classroom showcasing student-led projects such as rewilding, fruit and vegetable gardens, rainwater harvesting, and eco-art. Our annual Earth Week events are held here, including workshops run by our student leaders and invited guests from local organisations.

All of these activities tie in with the Eco-Schools Themes and the wider Sustainable Development Goals, which are publicised through a range of different platforms, such as assemblies and social media sites, and are encapsulated in our School’s Sustainability Logo. 

Environmental Reviews are carried out each year, to help track our progress, drawing on the help of different groups across the school. For example, the Year 7 Geographers start their year with a unit called ‘Our Sustainable School’ in which they learn about the Green Flag Award and investigate themes such as Energy, Food, and Waste. Whilst the ODC team carries out reviews on Biodiversity, Climate Change, and School Grounds. The review findings and discussion summaries are then passed to our central EfSD team, based in our school’s Sustainable Development Hub, who help to coordinate action plans in selected areas based on this feedback.

Although we are now able to fly the Green flag over our school with pride, we know that our journey is not over. We are keen to develop the key initiatives that we now have in place, and we will do our best to act on the recommendations provided by Global Eco-Schools assessors to help us progress further over the coming months.

Year 7 students in the Sustainability Hub

JIS Eco-Code

Students working with EnvEvo recycled Toilet paper

A House Eco-Assembly

How to reuse pallets as Plant boxes with the eco-school - British international school of Riyadh

Story provided by the British International school Riyadh-  Saudi Arabia

The British International school of Riyadh was confronted to an issue : the school could not commit to an expansion of the existing Eco Garden due to planned redevelopment of the school site.

Every member of the school scratched their heads. The eco-committee after working on an environmental review decided on an action plan, focusing for this academic year on the expansion of the existing
eco-garden. To achieve this objective they all came out with one solution : placing plant boxes at various sites around the school.

The solution found, it was up to the whole school to take part to this fabulous project, a real team work as Ms Helen Olds, Principle of the British International School Riyadh,  commented "Even those who were initially skeptical and reluctant got involved and seemed to have fun. It’s good to get everyone engaged in our eco work."

The Senior Eco-Coordinator liaised with a parent who worked on a large scale farm outside Riyadh for the delivery of approximately 50 used pallets. Upon receipt of the pallets in May 2019, the school maintenance staff disassembled them, ready for the teaching and administrative staff to construct the plant boxes from during INSET training week in August.

The constructed plant boxes were then handed over to the Senior Eco-Committee who decorated them with the odd touch of paints. Therefore, students developed their art and planting skills, while staff applied their construction skills.

By November, the plant boxes were ready to be placed at prearranged locations around the school site. The Primary Eco-Committee then added the plants they had purchased and took on the task of watering the plant boxes for the rest of the academic year.

This complies with  Eco Code motto of this Saudi Arabian  eco-school 'green thinking in a brown desert.'

Vienna International School Global Action Day

This text was adapted from Vienna International School

In November 2019, Vienna International School (VIS) celebrated two important events: the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and joining many schools around the world to engage in Global Action Day.

Since 2017, VIS has been part of the important mission to take action to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefrom, the school has been committed to provide education for sustainable development to the students in their journey to become responsible global citizens who adopt their lifestyles and way of thinking towards building a sustainable planet.

Through education for sustainable development, Vienna International School teaches students about the world and encourages them to become active participants in their communities. VIS believes that learning about the UN goals helps students develop insights into issues around the world and understand the unique challenges facing communities all over the world, and later figure out how they can contribute towards making the world a better place. By learning about the Sustainable Development Goals, it is VIS’ belief that students and teachers will be inspired to take action and make positive changes in big and small ways. At VIS, they already see the effects thereof daily – from high school students raising awareness about climate change to first graders conserving water or planting lavender to encourage pollination. VIS finds that students in any grade level can learn about the SDGs in age-appropriate ways through classroom activities and later apply the learning in ways they find meaningful.

The VIS Global Action Day was a special event for raising awareness and inspiring action towards making a better environment for all. The event was a celebration of the learning that took place across the school about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in the area of the school’s environment. When coming to the school in the morning, the community was welcomed with a very special treat. The Ambassador of Slovenia (Mag. Ksenija Skrilec) and her staff hosted the European Honey Breakfast, an event to raise awareness about the importance of a healthy breakfast for children. As part of the event, staff, students, and parents received an apple, honey sandwiches, and delicious potica – the traditional Slovenian cake while listening to the talented Primary School Orchestra.

Throughout the school day, the students took part in The World’s Largest Lesson and took time to inquire about each of the SDGs to build their knowledge of the goal, the related issues associated with it, and ways they could take action in their own lives to help achieve that goal. Following the Global Action Day, the Grade 5 students staged a series of dramatic climate action shows, to create a variety of riveting theatrical scenes raising collective awareness of how climate change will impact our world and inspire an urgent call to action.

Congratulations to the Green Teams of students, teachers, and parents for putting together this big event to take the school community on a journey from awareness to consciousness about the SDGs and for their endless endeavors towards a more peaceful, healthy and equitable world.

Eco-School in Colombia against disposable cups!

Story provided by Sandra Romero, Colegio Anglo Colombiano

At Colegio Anglo Colombiano teachers use a staff room, where they can also get a hot beverage, like coffee and tea. When new people start working at the school, they are all given a reusable cup for hot beverages.

At the same time, the school had disposable cups available for staff, so if by any chance one forgot or lost their cup they could still have a drink. The Eco Committee started to follow-up on the consumption of disposable cups and discovered that the staff was using 2600 cups in just a week! This meant that on average a single employee was using about 18 cups in that same period. All this ended up being waste.

The Eco Committee, terrified with this finding, decided to make a campaign to reduce consumption since one of the themes the school focuses on is waste management. They made posters they put in the staff room and circulated awareness infographics through the school screens about the number of cups being used. At the same time Fonanglo, the employee fund of the school, provided personalised thermos for every associate. This allowed the school to provide reusable cups for all the school staff and be able to cut the use of disposable cups.

As of 15 September 2019, there are no disposable cups available in the staff room!