ECO-FRIENDLY SCHOOL

In eco-schools, the building itself is used as a lever for environmental education. This research examines how architecture, engineering, landscaping, and educational systems are combined to make school buildings the instruments through which students learn how to lessen human impact on the environment. Eco-Schools is more than an environmental management system for your school. It enables its users to analyse its operations in order to become more sustainable. It is a programme for you to use in order to promote environmental awareness in a way that links to many curriculum subjects and enables you to tackle many cross-curricular areas such as citizenship, education for sustainable development. The Eco-Schools process is holistic. It works by involving the whole school –pupils, teachers, non-teaching staff and governors –together with members of the local community –parents, the local authority, the media and local organisations and businesses.

It will encourage teamwork and help to create a shared understanding of what is needed in order to run a school in a way that respects and enhances the environment.

What is a Green School?

Green schools are designed to be high performing, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly buildings. These high-performing schools have features such as rain water catching systems, solar hot water heaters, and photovoltaics, which turn the sun’s energy into electricity. All these features make buildings reduce their demand for water and energy. There are many clever ways that buildings can save energy that are not as visible, including aerated faucets, which reduce the amount of water used, but maintain pressure; orienting the building towards the south to allow more daylight and therefore more heat called passive solar gain; strategically placing trees to shade the building to reduce cooling demands; natural ventilation, or opening windows at the right heights, to reduce energy costs. Green school buildings also do not use paints or carpet that have “volatile organic compounds” (VOCs) that off-gas harmful chemicals into the air and contribute to poor indoor air quality. Green buildings reduce total environmental impact, meaning that even the products and specific materials in the building do not harm the environment. For the purposes of this study, an eco-school is a green school where not only is the building employing energy-efficient technologies, but the curriculum and activities at the school incorporate environmental values and ecologically responsible life skills into daily routines. Figure 1 shows four fundamental aspects of eco-schools. From the left, a green setting is created, then demand reduction methods are considered, then green policies are instated, and finally, an environmental curriculum is established.

Eco-Schools offers your school:

·        an opportunity to make sustainable development issues a part of school life

·        a chance to reduce the environmental impact of the whole school

·        an opportunity to help develop young people’s decision making skills

·        curriculum materials and ideas for resources, projects and events

·        access to a network of local and national support agencies

·        a prestigious award at Bronze, Silver or the internationally recognised Green Flag level

·        opportunities for local and national publicity

·        potential for financial savings due to lower energy bills and waste collection charges

It requires:

·        the active support of the head teacher

·        a willingness to involve pupils in decision making and action planning at every stage

·        involvement of staff and the wider school community

·        a willingness to take action to generate long-term change

How to bring green into the classroom

1.     Connect the Dots
Instilling a sense of connectedness to nature and the environment--be it a forest, field, or urban landscape--is essential to helping fledgling TreeHuggers care about the world around them. To teach your students about global issues such as climate change and endangered species, look to local issues such as recycling, storm-water runoff, or air pollution. Making it personal and connecting it to your community makes it real.

2.     Calculate Your Carbon Footprint
Carbon and environmental footprint calculators help us see how much impact we have on the world around us. If everyone in the world lived like we did, we'd need five planets worth of resources to sustain life as we need know it! Using these online tools as fun games can really drive home the point of what kind of impact each of us has. Learn about your environmental footprint and check out some of our favorite carbon footprint calculators. Then create a plan to reduce your group footprint.

3.     Conduct an Energy Audit in the Classroom
You don't have get too technical to teach your students about energy use; you can simply take stock of where and how you're using energy, by assessing where in the classroom energy is going (and being wasted). A simple energy audit can help out. How many lights are on? Is there heat or A/C? Do the computers get left on at night? Determine where you can cut back, then create a checklist kids can follow every day. Adjusting computer monitor settings, turning the lights off before recess, have a "lights-off" hour once per week, and so on can help raise awareness. If you do want to physically measure the energy you are using, the Kill-a-Watt is a great, inexpensive measurement tool.

4.     Get to School Greenly
Biking, walking, public transportation or the bus to school can all help reduce carbon emissions. Biking to school has even has health benefits and has been shown to be more important for kids than breakfast! Lead by example and try green transport options for yourself. Discuss with students their experiences in getting to school more greenly. What was better? What was annoying? Websites that can help include: 

o    Cancel a Car

o    Follow Safe Routes for Kids

o    "Walking" Buses

5.     Green Your Supplies in the Classroom 
Whether or not you have the support of your school, you can do your best to green your classroom supplies by choosing environmentally friendly new materials when possible, and also starting a classroom program to collect and reuse gently used supplies from past and present students. If possible, choose 100 percent post-consumer waste recycled paper. You can also make your own notebooks from old paper.

6.     Start a Zero-Waste-in-the-Classroom Policy

School-wide recycling is a brilliant move...but implementing can be tougher than teaching long division to an eight-year-old. If your school isn't recycling at-large, start a classroom-wide policy of "zero-waste." Set up recycling bins (teachers, students, and parents can volunteer to be responsible for removal), audit how much rubbish is created in a day. Sorting trash (it doesn't have to be gross) will help kids understand how much waste they are creating in a day, and where it's all coming from. Challenge kids to pack zero-waste lunches by using reusable bottles, containers, and satchels, rather than disposable ones. Competing with another classroom to see who can reduce their waste output most is a great way to create healthy competition and less waste.

7.     Grow a Garden, or Just Take a Nature Walk
Creating a garden or "backyard habitat" on school grounds is great for experiential learning. Growing food and native plants can really help kids connect with the world just outside their door, as well as the food chain and sustainable agriculture. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation offers lots of great advice. If a garden is not happening, a romp around school grounds will help teach about natural wonders. Even in urban settings, trees, grasses, and wildlife abound. Get kids to pay attention the environment that is all around them.

8.     Compost--Outdoors or In!
Getting back to zero-waste, starting a compost pile is a great way to make the connection between food, waste, and the nature at work! If an outdoor composter is out of the question, consider getting a worm bin for the classroom. (It's not as crazy as it sounds! Check out how-to tips for starting worm bins or get more tips at Instructables.)

9.     Bring Nature Indoors
Whether you're in the city or the country, any classroom can bring plants into the mix. It's easy to build a self-watering plant container and get kids growing right in the classroom. You can also bring experts in the classroom. Field trips can get complicated and expensive; often nature centers, recycling facilities, and so on are willing to send volunteers or staff members to schools for in-house demonstrations. Added lesson: Explain that bringing one person to many means cutting down on carbon emissions due to transportation.

10.                        Make the PTA Work for You
Work with your community to identify group goals. From easy, inexpensive changes such as switching to greener cleaning supplies and swapping out light bulbs to major changes such building energy-efficient, green school buildings or getting local farm-fresh food into cafeterias, green changes often happen due to grassroots efforts. The Go Green Initiative, founded by mother and ex-PTA maven Jill Buck, has loads of advice. The group's ultimate goal is to unite parent-teacher associations across the country in an effort to help bring environmental programs into the school via parents, while giving teachers more time to focus on using those programs in the classroom, rather than having to organize them on their own.

“Green” for Profit

One of the main factors in school construction has always been cost. A convincing argument for green schools is that it saves money and resources by thoroughly planning every aspect of the design to utilize renewable energy sources, e.g. the sun. By merely orienting the building to have maximum sun exposure to the south façade, or arranging the banks of lights parallel to the windows, you can save heat and electricity, and therefore, money. But the term “green” has been so overused in the media that many don’t know the difference between the terms green, energy-efficient, regenerative, or sustainable. Consumers have been bombarded by “green” companies who more or less use the term, “green” as an advertising agent, but do not seriously seek to lessen their carbon footprint, or check the details of their operations for wasted energy. For the purposes of this study, these non-synonymous definitions will be used (Stein, Reynolds, & Kwok, 2005):

Energy-efficient:   reduces net negative energy impacts

Green:                   reduces net environmental impacts

Sustainable:           no net environmental impacts

Regenerative:         positive environmental impacts

Biophilia:               humans’ inherent affinity to the natural world

Ecology:                relationships between organisms and their environments

Passive system:     uses renewable, non-purchased energy;  multi-purpose

Strategy that is integrated with the structure

Active system:       uses fossil fuels, single-purpose, added onto or independent of structure

Embodied energy: how much energy must be invested to mine, harvest,          .                                produce, fabricate, and transport a material

By understanding the technical differences between these terms, we are able to distinguish purely marketable “green” intentions from entities who truly have thought through the greening process.

Necessity of School Improvement

Not only is physical health an issue in today’s schools, but emerging research shows that children’s mental health is declining with the lack of direct exposure to nature, a matter not confined to school settings. Children’s disconnection from nature is not necessarily solved with eco-schools, but is considered as central to their architectural form and their articulation of the educational setting itself. Because the built environment can only model nature’s systems, architecture and engineering create a visual landscape that is essentially a simulation, and as constructed representation, is inherently indirect and can never replace real outdoor experiences.

Maintaining health and meeting curriculum objectives are the bottom lines for schools. But a school shouldn’t stop there: with careful design choices, children can learn from the building’s features, which could serve as concrete example of things they’re learning. Taking this notion a step further, children could learn to be ecologically sensitive through building systems that mimic natural systems. This is achieved at eco schools by using accessible green technology to support an environmental curriculum.

Buildings’ Influence on the Environment

 “Green schools cost less to operate, freeing up resources to truly improve

students’ education. Their carefully planned acoustics and abundant daylight make it easier and more comfortable for students to learn. Their clean indoor air cuts down sick days and gives our children a head start for a healthy, prosperous future. And their innovative design provides a wealth of hands-on learning opportunities (USGBC 2008).” As noted by the US Green Building Council, green buildings not only save resources but also provide educational components not found in traditional schools. The reduced impact of a green school is not limited to the construction and operation of the building, but also includes the demand reductions that the occupants may continue to be conscious of the rest of their lives. This study intends to elaborate on this method of tactile learning in an attempt to assess whether children’s attitudes and behaviours can be influenced by the school buildings themselves.

Many are concerned with extra initial costs for higher performing schools, also known as the “green premium” which comes from higher efficiency, higher quality, and sustainable materials.

The Role of Architecture

Design Humility

The concept of creating buildings that provide services above and beyond the performance standards, even beyond green performance standards, is a new movement in architecture, led by William McDonough. Architecture of the 21st-century, will soon have to be regenerative. This means that buildings can no longer be a source of pollution or strain the natural resources of its context. They must have elements that attempt to restore what existing buildings have depleted, and replicate natural cycles of the local biosphere. McDonough and partners have led the way in redefining the purpose of buildings. We can apply this approach specifically to schools to combat the negative idea that what we have done is irreversible, a notion that could be extremely distressing to a young child. To use this optimistic standpoint, that we have solutions if we admit our reliance and fragile relationship to nature, instilling humility in those who reap the benefits, we can repair the destruction and wastefulness. I believe that this idea of human humility begins with the architect, who mediates the relationship between people and nature. His or her design intentions and will resonate with the users inside the building. If the architect is more concerned with making a sculpture of his own recognizable trademark rather than promoting life at the site, the people will undeniably be affected by the egotistical intention. It is this mentality that begins with the training of contemporary architects- striving to standout, making a name for him or herself, rather than serving the people who will be using the building. What is lacking is the necessary humility that the architect is not omniscient or omnipotent especially in the larger context of natural systems. With the understanding that we cannot know all the implications of our structures and our behaviour within them, “we must act cautiously and with a sense of our fallibility” (Orr, 2002). David Orr begins his discussion of ecological design by first describing the present circumstances of ‘economic obesity’ (in Lewis Mumford’s terms) and calling for a “deep revolution of thinking” to be able to solve our dilemma of justified (rightful?) over expenditure. He goes on to say that to avoid catastrophe, we must “transform human intentions” from prioritizing productivity to learning the ‘arts of longevity,’ his way of phrasing ‘sustainability’ in a way that is not affected by the overuse of the word. It is necessary to change the way we work and construct systems, to change the way we serve needs as responsible human beings. This necessity for change can begin at the elementary school level, cultivating responsible behaviours with concern for distant future generations. In this way, the green revolution is shifting the way people think about buildings; can it change the way buildings influence people?

Sustainable Buildings

Referring to the definitions above (Stein, Reynolds, & Kwok, 2005) sustainable buildings are those that do not impact the natural environment; their operations could continue on for centuries without affecting the resources of future generations. The concept of sustainability therefore demands that people shift their thinking to a long-term model, thinking beyond themselves, beyond their children, beyond just the building materials. However demanding sustainability is not even as direct and involved as pushing for regenerative design. How do we construct buildings that not only leave no trace, but actually attempt to repair hundreds of years of damage?

Implications

How could environmental education in general schools and in special programmes like the eco-schools be improved?

1. Well defined programme

Quite  a  few  researchers/authors  have  found  that  implementation  of  a good  programme  can lead  to  greater  awareness  and  thus  make  environmental  education  more  successful.  Patrick Devine-Wright  (Devine-Wright,  Devine-Wright,  Fleming,  2004)  claims  in  his  research  that pupils  who  have  attended  a  school  with  an  organised  and  well-defined  environmental education  programme  –  what  eco-schools  should  be  –  have  reached  a  higher  level  of awareness than those who have not been involved in organised work in this area.

2. Development of critical thinking competence

A  U.S.  study  (Ernst  and  Monroe,  2004)  proved  that  environmentally  oriented  education present  throughout the  entire  education  process  improves critical  thinking  in  other areas  as well.  It  was  established  that  the  curriculum  as  a  whole  should include  activities  of  dealing with simple situations and artificial problems, which are then gradually applied to real issues. The outcome of such gradual and long-term development of critical thinking is much more successful than dealing with one-off situations on a particular topic. This is also in accordance with Courtennay–Hall and Rogers (2002), who emphasised the importance of critical thinking competence against environmental behaviour.

3. The role of experiential learning

Littledyke  (2004)  claims  that  teaching  should  be  focused  on  achieving environmental education  by  understanding  environmental  issues,  training  in  and  through  the  environment. This should be accomplished by gaining direct experience resulting from actual work in the environment and by receiving education that will help preserve the environment and form the values and attitudes necessary to protect it. Education should include critical understanding of the impact of science on society.  Therefore, it is important to systematically include environmental issues in class work.

4. Motivation

The environmental education consist of topics that children find interesting  (animals,  waste);  this  suggests  a  bottom-up  organisation.  Moreover,  class  work should be about concepts explaining the network of connections between causes and effects (goods – waste – energy). Empathy and care for animals and other living organisms should be fostered  and  (critical)  thinking  on  appropriate  measures  promoted  (If  you  were  president, what would you do?). Role-playing should be used to detect impacts and consequences caused by environmental problems. Environmental education in such form could serve as the basis for a scientifically, environmentally and ethically (morally) educated society.

5. The role of adults

Negev,  Sagy,  Garb,  Salzberg  and  Tal  (2008)  brought  out  the  important  role  of  teachers  or other  adults  who  mediate  children’s  relationship  to  nature  and  have  a  crucial  impact  on attitudes  and  behaviours.  It is also important for parents to be involved in education.  They should  take  time  together  with  their  children  to  focus  on  activities  that  teach  a  child  to develop awareness and responsible behaviour towards the environment. It should not merely be about sorting waste or energy efficiency, but also about renouncing the desire for material gain, striving for a healthy lifestyle, doing exercises, and adopting a critical attitude toward environmental “wounds”, origins of pollution, consumption, spoiled individuals,  etc.  It is important to make children understand the meaning of leading an environmentally responsible life. Our research accomplished the goals set.  It is our hope  that its results would  make  people think  and  be  useful  in evaluating  the  environmental  education  programme  in  both  ordinary and  eco  schools.  The  eco-school  project  was  the  first  step.  It is  now  important  to  further consider and elaborate plans for greater efficiency and improvement of awareness and more responsible environmental behaviour in the long run. Experience  has  taught  us  that  the  value  of  knowledge  lies  in  its  usefulness.  Dealing  with environmental  issues  in  schools  helps  broaden  and  deepen  knowledge  of  the environment, but fails to encourage logical and knowledge-based reflection on the causes and consequences  of  human  activities  affecting  the  environment.  Therefore,  it  is  necessary  to observe and think more, rather than simply to learn facts. It takes inspiration to do research – in other words, curiosity and creativity at the same time. In order to achieve better results in awareness and environmentally responsible behaviour, we should move from simple accumulation of knowledge to taking action. Positive examples, (ecological) trends and taking on values will play a crucial role.

Action Plan

The Seven Elements

An environmental management system needs a structure to help it run smoothly and to make sure that there is continuous momentum towards setting targets and working to achieve them. The structure of the Eco-Schools process is made up of seven elements,

shown in the diagram below.

You are not expected to tackle every aspect of the environmental management of the school in one go. However you must have gone some way towards establishing each of the seven elements before applying for one of the three levels of award.

The type of award you apply for will depend on how thoroughly you have established each element. To give you an idea of the level you have reached, this section includes details of criteria for reaching the Bronze, Silver and Green Flag categories of the Eco-Schools award.

Case Study of an Eco School in India

Secmol, Ladak

The Highest Eco-School in the World

One of the most inspirational discoveries of this trip was finding Secmol campus, an eco-school in every sense. Located in Phey village, on cut platform alongside the Indus.

The story of Secmol is an interesting one (www.secmol.org) started by Sonam Angchuk, a passionate social ecologist who wanted to provide young Ladakhi’s with the opportunity to have a balanced and appropriate education, where what they learned, was built on the very foundation of their widely researched, sustainable society.

Secmol campus is situated at an altitude of around 3400m. It was built using locally available materials using the best of traditional Ladakhi architecture and enhancing it with accessible and affordable technologies wherever possible.

	The school grows as much of their food as possible. Only organic/permaculture principles are applied in these gardens.
	Rice is stored sensibly in re-used metal drums and is kept cool and dry in this mud & stone-built store room.
	Food is cooked almost entirely on these incredible outer focus solar cookers that concentrate the light through a hole in the wall so there is no need to cook outside.
	During summer all foods are gathered dried and stored. Here gorgeous tomatoes are sun-dried for the winter. The learners also have a well known apricot jam ‘business’ the proceeds of which they use to fund their annual school excursion.
	All buildings are made from these bricks, stone and locally grown poplar wood (introduced to Ladakh centuries ago for building purposes but are not invasive!).
	Thick walls, painted in lime and black paint to enhance heat absorbtion during the bitterly cold winters. In summer you can imagine how lovely and cool it is inside. Also notice the ‘greehhouse’, which is a ‘newer’ technology used during winter to trap heat and insulate.
	Walls are insulated with any suitable material such as hay and otherwise ‘waste’ materials such as paper
	Classrooms are airy and light, no desks, everyone sits on the floor and writes on their laps
	This is the powerhouse of the campus. Everything is run of solar, even the computers. There are 2 sets of these cells, however 1 is enough to generate all campus needs during the summer.
	Compost toilets. A remarkable simple, water-less and odourless system
	Hole in the floor into a 2m dry chamber to which soil is added. At the end of every autumn the night soil has completely broken down and is used in the vegetable garden
	A biodigester is currently being built. Note once again the orientation to the sun and the attention given to heat absorption with the use of black paint. The main source of feed to the digester will be the manure from the school’s cows. The biodigester has also been conveniently build onto the one side of the cowshed, making access to manure easy. Wherever possible everything is re-used as there is no recycling facility in Leh.

Playing

After school volleyball. Hard to believe this court doubles up as an ice-hockey rink in winter when the ‘field’ is flooded with water and then freezes.

The verdict: Secmol is an inspirational example of what a school should and can be – an centre of inspiration to young people who are bombarded with all the attractions of a globalised world. These students were reminded about their amazing heritage and are made to feel proud of the simplicity of sustainability no matter how attractive moving to Delhi/Mumbai might seem at first. It’s an Eco-School even if unofficially as India has recently joined this international programme (www.eco-schools.org) operating in 56 countries, I have no doubt Secmol and others will continue to inspire and encourage more schools to move in the same direction.