FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY
olds want to make saving the planet their career mission. 81% of their parents report that their Gen Alpha children have influenced their own environmentally conscious actions and consumption choices. Climate change is the second biggest issue facing the world, according to Gen Alpha students. And tellingly, 82% of Gen Alpha and 76% of Gen Z believe education plays a critically important role in leading more sustainable lives. So learning about circular products is important. Sourcing responsibly, recycling effectively and investing in growth while actively seeking to reduce our carbon footprints are all things that should be high on any learning agenda - and where possible, incorporated into other lessons in the curriculum. This is not a standalone subject. It’s everyday life.
Government targets
The UK government has legislation to meet Net Zero by 2050, with legally binding carbon budgets and restrictions on the total amount of greenhouse gases the UK can emit over a 5-year period. In the latest, Carbon Budget 6, the UK legislated to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. It is
actively encouraging schools and educational establishments to get involved with its cross- government 25 Year Environment Plan, which commits to encouraging children to be close to nature both in and out of school. The Department of Education and the entire education sector have a joint responsibility for preparing children and young people for the challenges and opportunities they will face, using the appropriate knowledge, skills and pastoral care. As the government points out, educational settings give adults the privilege to be able to engage directly with children and young people who are passionate about the natural world and want to do their best to protect it.
One of the challenges for educators and adults though, is to keep the subject of sustainability fun and interesting. This can be tricky when there are so many scary statistics around, easily accessible thanks to social media.
Visual aids
This is where visual aids come in. They go such a long way when it comes to learning – and it’s one of the reasons I liked SproutWorld pencils.
I first came across the pencils 13 years ago, when I discovered a group of MIT students who had been tasked to consider how office tools of the future might look. The concept they came up with was the plantable pencil - a pencil that contains seeds, so it can be planted and grow again once used. My job at the time was about promoting sustainability and circularity in the global textile industry and I loved the simple yet effective way this pencil communicated that. These pencils would literally be created from the earth and then they would go back into the earth to grow again. I made a deal with the MIT students to acquire the patent and all global rights, developed the concept into reality, and took it from there. We’re sold in over 80 countries and the education sector is one of the industries with which we work. This is down to the value of visual tools when it comes to communicating the importance of a circular economy. Visual aids can improve learning by up to 400% and are processed 60,000 times faster than text, according to SC Training. Using visuals can increase comprehension by 95%. They make learning more engaging and effective and help transform complex topics into simpler, more digestible pieces.
It’s no surprise then that at SproutWorld, we are seeing an increase in demand in the use of our pencils in education - there is an appetite for this kind of learning after all, just look at the boom in demand for Forest Schools, which, like SproutWorld, started their international growth from Scandinavia. We are based in Denmark but we have operations all over the world in order to carry out the right research and development and ensure we continue to supply to the businesses, schools and colleges in the right way, and create ranges that will appeal to all the different audiences in line with any existing and new regulations.
This includes Classroom packs, Christmas packs, Grow a Garden packs, Kitchen packs and Mindful packs. Colouring and standard pencils mean young people can be creative and then talk about sustainability and circularity using the visual tool of the pencils. Draw, write and create with the pencil till it is small, then plant it to watch it grow again. We can create 175,000 wooden pencils from a single tree, then each of those pencils can be planted to grow into another 175,000 trees and plants. It’s the opposite of fast fashion and the perfect visualisation of circularity. We’ve worked with organisations to support the planting of bee-friendly meadows, we’ve been part of innovation sessions, global conferences, mental health events, sporting tournaments and even worked with Obama and Branson. The beauty of a visual tool like a plantable pencil really is the simple, effective way it communicates sustainability, while providing a genuinely useful product. Sustainability has to be an ongoing lesson for young people. But it can be a lesson that is fun, interactive and interesting, using the right environment and the right tools.
December 2025
www.education-today.co.uk 39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
