Driving Sustainability for corporates, schools, society | TEDx Speaker | Corporate Sustainability SME at Emeritus | ex-PwC, IBM |

Teachers should be well-equipped to impart education that helps students develop 21st century skills. Can sustainability education for teachers help?

10 techniques to upskill your teachers for Sustainability Education 

The schools of today are consciously upgrading and rewriting their syllabus and educational structure to keep up with the evolving requirements of today’s children. Students’ evolving minds require constant nurturing and tools to help them develop into well-equipped adults, confident and informed enough to take on any problems that may come their way.&nbsp;Teachers must also constantly stay on top of the school’s and the student’s requirements to impart the best possible Sustainability education to students. It is a known fact that teachers have a very important role to play in delivering an effective learning experience for the students. The profile of the new-age teacher is holistic, and goes beyond pure subject expertise. NEP 2020 expects the teaching community to impart Life skills and Learning skills, apart from Literacy skills – together, they constitute 21st century skills.Taking a cue from this ever-evolving expectations from teachers, we have lined up 10 techniques to upskill your teachers, while imparting Sustainability Education to your students. These techniques have been categorized based on a typical human’s learning journey on any new subject, i.e Learn-Act-Achieve-Celebrate.

Sustainability journey through Learn, Act, Achieve, Celebrate

<h2>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Educative Techniques</h2>&nbsp;Sustainability Awareness WorkshopsConduct interactive, fun demo sessions for the teachers, explaining various aspects of sustainability – composting, gardening, health hacks, kitchen hacks, travel hacks etc. It is important for them to understand the various facets of sustainability themselves and start practicing/exploring some of them first-hand.&nbsp;Skilling SessionsTeachers have a strong sense of understanding of what works best for their students. On a new subject like sustainability, they would need to appropriately reskill or upskill themselves. Schools should facilitate such learning programs to help them be effective mentors. These sessions should consider equipping teachers with the right tools, content for effective delivery of sustainability education to their students.&nbsp;<h2>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Participative Techniques</h2>&nbsp;Ideation and IntrapreneurshipAs mentioned earlier, teacher’s have the best pulse of every student and every batch. They have better understanding of what would best suit their students. For a novel concept like sustainability, it would be appropriate to engage teachers in the design of the right pedagogy for students. This should be done using novel methods like Design Thinking to evolve ideas that are student-centric.&nbsp;VolunteeringEvery human learns best when he/she puts the lessons learnt to practice. Teachers should be provided opportunities to volunteer in campus-wide initiatives for green projects. They should be encouraged to participate in them and have a first-hand exposure to various real implementations like rainwater harvesting, solar energy production, organic gardening, composting etc. Switchover alternativesEncourage teachers to identify and use eco-friendly alternatives during their work at school, wherever possible. Switching over to eco-friendly options may seem tough to begin with but these are beneficial in the longer run. This need not be only at school but could be from their life outside school too. As an example, teachers may consider going plastic-free at their homes and this would find its way into how they manage waste within the school premises too.&nbsp;<h2>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Explorative Techniques</h2>&nbsp;Journey MilestonesHuman behaviour is driven by the encouragement they receive for their daily actions. Along the sustainability journey of the teachers, the school authorities should create opportunities for recognizing milestones. As mentioned earlier, Sustainability journey is a long one but with milestones along the journey, one feels encouraged to keep going.&nbsp;Behavioural ShiftsTeachers should be encouraged to go for behavioural shifts, not just at school. This could be at their homes or within their communities. Providing appropriate guidance on how to transition in a planned and phased manner will help them adopt behavioural changes with ease. It is important to enable this journey for them so that there are no reasons for giving up along the way. Impact AwarenessIt is important to provide teachers ample avenues to understand the impact of their individual sustainability actions. At the same time, they need to be educated about the impact of the sustainability initiatives within their school premises. It is only when they are aware of the impact that these individual and institutional changes are bringing about, will they be able to instruct their students appropriately on Sustainability. <h2>4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Communicative Techniques</h2>&nbsp;Internal and External BroadcastsIt is important to publish the results of the sustainability journeys taken up by the teachers for the broader audience – students, school management, parents and relevant authorities too. Such communications will encourage the teachers to stay on the pursuit for sustainability education. These broadcasts can happen on the school’s website, newsletters, official social media channels etc.&nbsp;Rewarding RightExceptional performances by teachers who have continuously traversed their sustainability journeys need to be identified. Such top performers need to be rewarded for their exceptional commitment. They have prepared themselves in the best possible manner to impart sustainability education further, and this will benefit the school and students immensely. A balanced mix of these techniques should be ideally used by school authorities to equip their teachers to deliver 21st century skills. This will further result in effective and efficient delivery of holistic education to the young learners.

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School campuses can be excellent opportunities for both the school management and the students to demonstrate sustainability.

3 building blocks for a Carbon Neutral School campus

Children need to establish a deeper connect with their surroundings and nature, and what better place to initiate this than at schools, a place where the young minds of tomorrow spend a majority of their time in? Schools provide the perfect setting for students to expand their ecological identity, to establish the connect with their environment to ensure that they grow up to be eco-conscious adults. Climate Education plays an irreplaceable role in the development of environmentally responsible future generations, as seen in our <a href="https://atquest.in/GreenWall/Blogs/6-ways-to-get-your-students-started-with-sustainability" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">earlier blogpost</a>.Schools act as the perfect systems to involve and influence children, along with their parents and teachers, plus any of the others who may have contact with these students through activities like mentorship. Schools have paramount scope to change the way students perceive Sustainability and a very significant role to play to encourage the proper, sustainable use of natural resources. School can imbibe Sustainability in real time in 3 broad areas.

Infrastructure, Operations and Education at schools

<h2>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sustainable Infrastructure</h2>This includes the school buildings and school campuses. In the context of carbon emissions, there are 2 broad categories that are relevant for schools – embodied carbon emissions and operational carbon emissions. The conversation on sustainable infrastructure deals with the embodied carbon emissions, which essentially refers to all the carbon footprint that gets embedded in the way the campus has been built. From the material that went into the construction of the buildings to the way the school has considered natural ventilation over artificial lighting and cooling, the embodied carbon emissions are significant.&nbsp;For schools that are constructing new physical spaces, they have an opportunity to bring these aspects into consideration and be conscious while making the decisions. This is the ideal time to decide right to avoid embodied emissions, wherever the opportunity exists.&nbsp;It is obvious that existing campuses will not be able to do much about the core construction material that has gone into building their campus. Yet, they can still address the secondary aspects that embellish the building infrastructure – energy infrastructure, cooling setup, water infrastructure etc. The principles of green buildings from recognized authorities like <a href="https://www.grihaindia.org/griha-existing-day-school" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">GRIHA for Existing Day Schools</a> should be considered.&nbsp;Schools must start opting for greener buildings, using sustainable and environmentally responsible construction material, include better and greener planning, switch over to using renewable sources of energy like Solar to produce electricity and recycle and repurpose rainwater by installing Rainwater harvesting structures on campus. These are some of the ways in which schools can implement Sustainable Infrastructure.&nbsp;<h2>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sustainability in Operations</h2>While the embodied emissions are factored in during the construction or installation phase, operational emissions occur all through the life of the building. Sustainability in terms of the operations of the school could include practices and policies that help in the reduction of waste and the utilization of resources like water and energy in the most efficient way possible. It could also include proper waste management, segregation, disposal and repurposing.&nbsp;This is where the concept of the Green School campus takes prominence.A ‘Green School’ is a resource-efficient school campus that very efficiently uses and manages their air, energy, water, food, land and other resources whilst minimizing waste, thereby providing a healthier environment for students to grow up in, as compared to a conventional school campus. At the same time, a ‘Carbon Neutral School’ is one that is not only fully aware of its Carbon footprint, the amount of carbon being emitted directly on campus, indirectly via its operations, purchased energy, and travel, but also the one that is able to completely reduce or offset its carbon emissions over time. Carbon Neutral Schools set Science Based Targets &amp; follow certain pre-ascertained protocols to manage, report and reduce their carbon footprint. &nbsp;While it is challenging for schools to achieve ‘Carbon Neutral’ Status off the bat, the start to transforming their school campus into a ‘Green School Campus’, is a more realistic and quickly achievable goal. This could, in turn, help students experience sustainability personally. Schools should consider regular checkpoints during operations to ensure that they remain sustainable in the long run. They should consider a frequent audit exercise, like the one managed by the <a href="https://www.greenschoolsprogramme.org/schools/gsp-audit/what-is-the-gsp-audit/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">Green Schools Program by CSE</a>. <h2>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sustainability Education</h2>This is not only directed towards the students but also for every other individual involved in the school system: be it parents, teachers or other members of the school staff. It is crucial that this information and education is imparted in an understandable and earnest way, emphasizing “WHY” these actions need to be followed, these changes need to be made and how it will help impact the school environment, the students and even the planet in a positive manner. This will ensure that the people involved will be more likely to stick to any changes being implemented.&nbsp;When imparted to the students, this information should be made as interactive, light and fun as possible while being factual and honest. It should complement the existing syllabus to make it easily understandable. This additionally makes teachers better equipped and the students more involved and helps kindle their interest whilst making them more responsible, building a sense of leadership and ensuring that tomorrow’s changemakers are on the right track.&nbsp;Combined with the conventional learning which can be obtained through a traditional school education, this helps students develop holistically and garner 21st century skills, as proposed by the <a href="https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">NEP</a> (National Educational Policy 2020) - in India. Schools have the opportunity to transform their campuses into ‘Living Labs’ of Sustainability. They could show students, first-hand, what it would look like if an entire environment is made completely sustainable and eco-friendly. Schools can reimagine their premises as playgrounds that provide students with the tools and setting to propagate ideas, develop and hone new essential skills, and practice sustainability.

Sustainability in a Box

Sustainability Education | ESG for Schools and Corporates | Climate Education and Footprint reduction for Schools | SME in the Climate Science Field

Sustainability learning for your students has to be effectively structured and delivered. This will ensure that the lessons are thoroughly ingrained.

4 essentials of holistic sustainability education today

We start on the premise that sustainability is a heavy subject, and we often find grown-ups struggling to understand it. So, how do we expect school students to understand it and importantly, put it into practice? If that thought crosses your mind, you may be underestimating the smartness of young minds today. We have umpteen examples of how teenage kids are voicing their opinion on social topics. In fact, they articulate it much better because they clearly know that the stakes are much higher for them and strongly relate to the importance of securing a better tomorrow for themselves. This needs to be strengthened further through an ideal mix of right techniques, a mature ecosystem and efficient mentorship for these smart young minds. School managements have a significant role to play in equipping their students with the right environment to drive behavioral changes in their formative years. During their developmental years, children’s bright, vibrant minds must be harnessed to develop a strong ecological identity.This blog outlines an ideal ecosystem for Sustainability Education at our schools today, to equip our young learners, the citizens of tomorrow with the necessary tools and knowledge to shape in them the sense of responsibility towards protecting the future of our planet. Such a holistic ecosystem for the new-age student is made up of 4 components.

Classroom Learning Experiential Learning Project-based Learning Digital Learning

<h2>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Classroom Learning</h2>Some schools have already taken a lead and are teaching their students about the significance of climate change and global warming. The significance of getting young minds to think about these serious changes in the environment has been noted by the United Nations too. <a href="https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">The World’s Largest Lesson</a>&nbsp;initiative by the UN helps students learn about this subject in the classroom environment through appealing infographics, comic strips, quizzes, video content and poster designs. It appreciates that kids learn better through these techniques than monologue delivery in a classroom setup.It must be emphasised that such learning cannot be sporadic and through one-time interventions. It is important to seamlessly blend it with the core curriculum learning and deliver it in a planned, phased manner throughout the academic year. While Sustainability Education may not be a mandate in the education boards’ curriculum, it is significant from an all-round student development perspective. It is significant that students understand the implications of the individual actions they practice and see around them, through interactive engagement.&nbsp;<h2>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Experiential Learning</h2>This is a known learning approach in most schools. When it comes to Climate Education, it has been observed that Experiential Learning is a powerful complement to the classroom learning approach. It can take many avatars and here are a few examples for you to consider for your school students depending on their age bracket - Farm Visits, Playful Learning, Nature Walks, Hands-on Composting, Field visit to a recycling center, Experiencing a zero-waste store etc. The common theme with each of these experiential learning approaches is that they ensure that the young minds get a very hands-on experience with various facets of sustainability and nature.Experiential learning techniques can also be leveraged to develop mentorship skills within students, especially among the high school students. These age-appropriate experiences help students develop a greater awareness of the world around them. Further, with appropriate support system at schools these students are well-prepared to ideate and shape ideas that could develop into tomorrow’s solutions.&nbsp;<h2>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Project-based Learning</h2>This component within the sustainability education ecosystem is one of the most engaging one. It supports the other components that take an academic year approach to learning, with projects that engage students for shorter durations, with a specific purpose. The variety of such projects could be fairly wide and each project would provide ample opportunities for teachers and students to explore the subject together.At Quest conducted a summer program based on the project-based learning principles. The program was called Summer Naturally, and had the objective to educate students on SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) in an extremely explorative way. The results across students between Class 5 – Class 10, demonstrated how effective this learning technique is.Schools that are aiming for <a href="https://atquest.in/GreenWall/Blogs/3-building-blocks-for-a-carbon-neutral-school-campus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">Green Campus or Carbon Neutral Campus</a>, would be executing multiple projects in their campuses related to Solar Energy, Water Management, Green Zones, Waste Management etc. It is during the execution of these projects that the schools should consider involving students and teachers as volunteers/observers.&nbsp;<h2>4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Digital Learning</h2>In this age of modern education, tech-based methods are commonplace. The students find it easier to learn through digital channels, if they are structured well. Schools must explore ways to leverage digital learning for Sustainability education. This could be achieved in multiple ways.Firstly, engaging learning content can be easily rendered through the digital channel for a better understanding. Such content helps students appreciate the facets of the planet that they would not be exposed to, in their daily lives. It is this overall understanding of the world that shapes them into informed changemakers of tomorrow.Further, digital learning methods can also be leveraged to help the students track their own sustainability actions. It is well understood that the sustainability journey is a very long one and it always helps an individual to keep track of the journey timeline over days, weeks, months and years. A sustainability journal for each student, along with planned interventions like classroom learning, experiential learning and project-based learning, will keep them enthused and excited about how far they have come.Finally, technology can be leveraged to build a sense of community and camaraderie among students. They should have constant visibility into how far they have come together as a group. Recognizing and rewarding journey milestones, could be an encouraging factor. One must explore gamification techniques, through digital badges, leader boards, peer-group analysis etc to make sustainability fun for the students.&nbsp;With a 360 degree approach to Sustainability education, you are assured of your students picking up the most relevant life and learning skills effortlessly. Each individual has multiple interconnected avenues to explore the subject and depending on his/her interest, an appropriate journey shall be taken. Schools can plan the role of an ideal enabler and with a structured approach like the one detailed above, the learning will be natural and organic.

How would you define Sustainability? This one question can be answered in different ways. So, how do you get your students started on this topic.

6 ways to get your students started with sustainability

&nbsp;“The ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs”, is the definition of Sustainability provided by the UN, and the one most commonly used to introduce the concept of Sustainability and Sustainable development in today’s day.Sustainability is three pronged; with Environmental, Social &amp; Economic dimensions. All three stress upon the fact that all resources, be it monetary or planetary, can and will be depleted linearly with their continued usage and must be used in a responsible and conscious manner.&nbsp;The usage of terms like “Sustainability” and “Sustainable Development Goals” have increased manifold over the past decade, mostly owing to the recent realization and awareness associated with resource depletion and environmental degradation, both byproducts of the Industrial revolution and the population explosion that accompanied it. People today are much more aware and choose to be more eco-friendly. International Organizations and Governments have also been promoting the introduction of sustainability into the daily proceedings of organizations and into the lives of every individual, by increasing the visibility and underlining the importance of the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">17 United Nations SDGs</a>. <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">The Paris Agreement</a>, an international treaty which aims to limit the increase in global temperatures, has strengthened the accountability of countries to reduce their emissions and adopt greener practices.The decade from 2021-2030 is called the ‘Decade of Action’. Immediate climate action needs to be undertaken in this period to address global warming urgently. Alongside these, initiatives should also be taken to help build foundational behavioral changes amongst the people. We must educate and encourage all individuals to make conscious choices today, mitigate the ill-effects of the past, and ensure a livable planet for the future.

How would Schools Introduce Sustainability Education to students seamlessly?&nbsp;<h2>1. Provide Resources for Self-exploration</h2>Sustainable living is being constantly brought-up during conversations in today’s day and age. However, it needs to be recognized that not many children (and adults too) understand what it truly means, both in the theoretical sense and in terms of their future. The best way to introduce students to the concept of sustainability and to ensure that they truly understand its significance is by encouraging them to explore it themselves, rewarding and fueling their curiosity while providing them with tools and content to pique their interest. This could range from sharing short stories, video clips or even podcasts that could be of interest to them.&nbsp;<h2>2. Make Sustainability Fun!</h2>It is essential for students to understand the looming threat that climate change poses to their future, whilst also having the necessary guidance to know what should be done at their end to mitigate it and how they can do it. However, it is very crucial that this sustainability education is provided to students in a light and interactive manner. They must be provided with the confidence that they have the necessary information to act themselves rather than be filled with dread at the idea of saving the planet. Sustainability should be introduced to them in an easily digestible and fun way so they will be more inclined to imbibe it easily and effortlessly into their lives. This could be done by rewarding their actions and conscious behavior through gamification, apps, or simply giving them the opportunity to witness how their changes impact the bigger picture.&nbsp;<h2>3. Project-based learning</h2>It is a well- established fact that students learn and understand better when presented with visual aids, activities, projects and hands-on learning approaches. Schools can take advantage of these techniques to help impart sustainability education to students and to ensure that the lessons they are being taught drive home. At Quest conducted a Summer Program for students of classes 5-10 called <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6938497605064617984" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">Summer, Naturally! 2022</a> which aimed to introduce and educate students on the importance of SDG#12, ‘Responsible Production &amp; Consumption’ and it wound up being an enormous success. We received testimony from multiple teachers stating that the students remained much more responsive and interactive through the length of the program and participated with unwavering enthusiasm.Moreover, project and activity-based learning tends to add an element of fun to the doom and gloom that generally surrounds the topics of climate change and environmental degradation!&nbsp;<h2>4. Guidance based on Learning inclination</h2>It is very natural for different children to have different subject-based interests. It is the duty of the adults to impart sufficient knowledge and to enable kids to grow their understanding in whichever area of interest they desire to. To ensure that all young learners are processing and understanding what they are taught regarding sustainability in schools, it is paramount that schools and teachers keep track of all students and their developments &amp; achievements. This additionally provides staff the opportunity to identify which subjects are student-favorites and which subjects need to be taught using a different approach. &nbsp;<h2>5. Ensure a 360° understanding of Sustainability</h2>Sustainability is multi-faceted and an introduction of the concept to young minds should always be holistic. This could range from gardening, waste management, travel, shopping choices, biodiversity, energy consumption, waste management, healthy eating etc. Each of these subjects is equally significant and should not be left out. Any Sustainability lessons must also consider the 3 obvious physical spaces where every student spends their day – school, home and outdoors.Sustainability education must also be imparted in a holistic manner, utilizing traditional modes of teaching inside the classrooms in addition to activity and project based or experiential learning outside the classroom. You could read our blog on ‘<a href="https://atquest.in/GreenWall/Blogs/4-essentials-of-holistic-sustainability-education-today" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">4 essentials of holistic sustainability education today</a>’ to understand more. &nbsp;<h2>6. Demonstrate behavior for students to mimic</h2>Schools should start setting examples for students and ensuring their campuses are as sustainable as they possibly can be to help act as a living lab showcasing sustainability to their students. Staff could introduce concepts related to minimalism and the 4Rs in their classrooms, Schools could opt for electric modes of transport and utilize renewable energy sources to power their operations. Additionally, you could check out our blog-post on ‘<a href="https://atquest.in/GreenWall/Blogs/3-building-blocks-for-a-carbon-neutral-school-campus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">How to make School campuses Carbon Neutral</a>’.&nbsp;The Educational System today is nothing like what it was a decade ago. Learning is aimed to be made more inclusive and holistic, including a multitude of skills outside of what is being taught in the classroom. This is endorsed by the <a href="https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204);">National Education Policy of 2020</a> in India.&nbsp;Children, unlike full-grown adults, have a totally different perspective and are definitely more in-touch with the natural world. It is up to us to provide them with more opportunities to observe and act accordingly. We need to emphasize their role in climate change mitigation, in a positive and non-threatening manner. But we need them to realize that their future rests on everyone’s daily actions, in the present. We must enable them to develop their ecological identity strongly during their growth years. Where better to do this than at schools - a place where young curious minds spend a majority of their time and are most impressionable?