VIEWS & OPINION
How schools can encourage global sustainability
Comment by HARRIET IZOD-MILLER, Head of Sixth Form at Royal Hospital School
Global sustainability – the term itself is bold, all-encompassing and difficult to unpick. As an individual, especially a young person the idea of ‘saving the planet both in the here and now and for the future’ can seem all a little bit daunting. When I speak to my students this leads to a ‘what can one person really achieve?’ attitude, which in turn, stops us from taking action and allows us to procrastinate as we wait for something more digestible, passing the buck for someone else to find solutions to. In a sense, a micro version of the geopolitics we see played on the world stage. But this defeatist attitude is wrong. Schools have a unique and powerful place here. They are ideally placed to educate, inspire, lead and encourage pupil participation across all key stages and help our students discover their place in our globalised world. We can do this in three main ways:
Sustainability in the curriculum
Every subject has a part to play in encouraging global sustainability. Teachers can support students’ understanding about the importance of sustainability, help students to understand how this relates to their daily lives and how this may change and adapt their futures, whether this be exploring climate change in science or geography, debating the role of our global leaders in politics, innovating the next green entrepreneurs in business, or leading new technologies through design in DT.
65% of jobs that our current students will do in the future don’t exist yet, with an estimated 24 million jobs worldwide being created by the green economy by 2030. And this shift is rapid, in 2015 the ratio of US oil/gas jobs to green jobs was 5:1, but by 2020 this was 2:1. This rise in green jobs spans further than obvious industries such as renewables to more unexpected ones like finance, fashion, technologies and transport.
We are moving away from a world of knowledge skilled students aiming for jobs that computers can now do, the market is demanding creators, do-ers, innovators and problem solvers. This is exactly at the heart of Global Sustainability, and, as teachers, we are pioneers in motivating and equipping the next generation for these jobs we don’t even know exist yet but will be crucial in helping our world move forwards economically, socially and environmentally. What an amazing thing to be part of, and a fundamentally important role. This is no better demonstrated than with the close working relationship we have with our Alumni. Recent graduate Simone Rossouw spent the day with our students, describing her journey from geography student, geology graduate to sustainability analyst for Urban Outfitters. Inspired by the increase in micro-plastics released from the fashion industry into our water ways she now works developing sustainable solutions
from logistics, packaging to design across URBN’s business
Encouraging eco-friendly habits in school Education for the future is just one element of sustainability and schools must not lose sight of the current. Encouraging eco-friendly habits among both staff and students is of utmost importance alongside curriculum-based knowledge. The plethora of opportunities, and ‘easy wins’ that can be made within schools are ever more accessible – from recycling programs to reducing paper use through increased use of technology, schools can quickly reduce their carbon footprint by changing habits and encouraging new and more sustainable behaviours.
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This is no better done than through a student led committee. RHS has its own Eco-Committee which drives forwards initiatives and demands change from all involved in school life. Students are challenged to reduce their food waste through inter-house competitions, design Christmas decorations from recycled goods and have even designed, pitched and successfully marketed our very own RHS branded reusable water bottle, removing over 9,000 plastic bottles a year from school site. Our DT department hosted a staff upcycling workshop and Year 12 pupil Georgie Stammers launched her own air pollution campaign on cutting emissions by designing posters around key sites in school targeted at reminding parents and bus drivers to turn their engines off while waiting. Our eco-committee is an ever active group always looking for new and innovative ways to support sustainability working alongside our school Estates team, student body, staff team and parent group and has won the Suffolk Gold Carbon Charter award for the last 6 years.
Engaging local communities and fostering engagement Sustainability stretches beyond a student’s day to day reach, but a holistic joined up approach within schools and across local communities helps to deepen and develop progress. We have worked with Anglian Water in recent years on a ‘water challenge’ project with KS3, allowing students to understand the complex nature of providing water to an ever growing rural population. Our students have also followed the path of our waste working with Bolton Recycling and seeing first-hand the pathway of recycled goods and the little things we can do in our homes to make this process efficient and effective. We’ve also worked alongside a local enterprise Rubbish Walks supporting litter picks and educating people on the everyday impacts they have on our local environment. Lastly, keeping this dialogue running continues to keep this important issue at the top of departments, teachers, leaders and students’ agendas. The increased media focus on COP has helped keep a spotlight on global issues and has made its way into the co- curricular side of our students’ lives from in school to external ESU debating, parent led webinars and MUN agendas entirely focussed around global promises and the importance of having a voice in our modern world.
By raising awareness about sustainability, encouraging students to speak up and out about ideas important to them schools can become advocates for sustainability in their local communities. In a school like ours that community and spread of ideas coupled with a change of habits can stretch globally!
Schools have a central, and multi-faceted role in promoting global sustainability. Critically, we are equipping students with the ideas, the skills, and the passion to make a change both now and in the future, wherever the world of work takes them.
Our wide and varied stakeholder use across our school site means small changes can have big impacts and supporting eco-friendly habits, establishing green initiatives and raising awareness across all involved will help us to move closer towards a sustainable future. It is the responsibility of us all to create a better world for the future and where better place to start than in schools, where innovation, meets enthusiasm, a hub of enquiring minds and a wide range of people all of whom can promote, engage and inspire the next generation to be proactive and make well-informed ethical decisions about the future. At RHS we promote lifelong learning and a systems approach to thinking – connecting the environmental with the economic, social and political world. This holistic approach to global sustainability allows our students to leave RHS with the ability to question, think critically from a wide range of viewpoints and utilise a whole toolbox of skills in an ever changing world and workplace.
April 2023
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