The Most Eco-Friendly Schools | Green Schools Around the World
Summary
TLDRThis video highlights the importance of sustainable education for future generations facing climate change and environmental challenges. It showcases three schools—Green School in Bali, Copenhagen International School, and Punahou School in Hawaii—that have adapted their infrastructure and curriculum to promote eco-friendly practices. These institutions empower students to take direct action, learn from nature, and understand their impact on the environment, aiming to create a greener and more sustainable future.
Takeaways
- 🌱 The video emphasizes the importance of sustainability education for future generations facing environmental challenges like climate change, deforestation, and pollution.
- 🏫 Schools and universities have a responsibility to lead by example and empower students to take direct action for a sustainable future.
- 📚 The script provides three examples of schools adapting their infrastructure, curriculum, and mission to promote a greener education.
- 🌳 The Green School in Bali uses its natural environment to teach children about sustainability, including growing their own food and learning within the world's largest bamboo structure.
- 🧘 The Green School also incorporates mindfulness and permaculture principles, encouraging creativity, entrepreneurship, and community engagement.
- 🔆 Copenhagen's International School is designed to teach children through its architecture, with 12,000 solar panels that supply over half of the school's energy needs.
- 🌞 Students at Copenhagen's International School learn about solar energy in their math and physics classes, monitoring the school's solar panels.
- 🏝 Punahou School in Hawaii has a long history of educating students to be socially responsible and environmentally aware, with a focus on sustainability in its construction and curriculum.
- 🚫 Punahou School aims to be net zero by 2025, taking steps to reduce water and energy consumption, food waste, and carbon emissions.
- 🔄 The school promotes closed-loop waste systems, such as converting green waste into compost or electricity, and educating students on recycling and conservation.
- 🌐 Incorporating sustainable education into the curriculum is an important step for schools worldwide, regardless of their ability to adapt infrastructure.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video sponsored by the Nick Mourne Foundation?
-The main focus of the video is to highlight how schools around the world have adapted their infrastructure, curriculum, and mission to provide a greener education and promote a more sustainable lifestyle for their students.
What are the key issues that future generations are said to face according to the video?
-The key issues that future generations are said to face include climate change, deforestation, and pollution.
What is the Green School in Bali and what makes it a pioneer in education?
-The Green School in Bali is an educational institution that emphasizes the importance of sustainability. It is a pioneer because it offers children the opportunity to learn from the natural environment around them, including growing their own food and learning within the world's largest bamboo structure.
What is the significance of the Green School's location and how does it influence its educational approach?
-Located among rice paddies and three volcanoes in Bali, the Green School's location influences its educational approach by emphasizing mindfulness, permaculture, and interaction with the land and community.
How does the Green School in Bali incorporate sustainability into its physical infrastructure?
-The Green School's physical infrastructure is made of bamboo and aims to be completely off-grid in terms of energy and water consumption. It uses on-site solar panels for energy and a single underground well for water, with composting toilets to reduce water usage.
What is the Copenhagen International School's approach to integrating solar panels into its design?
-The Copenhagen International School has integrated solar panels into its design by covering its building with 12,000 solar panels that supply more than half of the school's annual energy needs. The panels are angled to mimic water reflections from the sea, making them an attractive feature of the building.
How does the Punahou School in Hawaii demonstrate its commitment to sustainability?
-The Punahou School demonstrates its commitment to sustainability through various initiatives, including green waste recycling, reducing food waste, conserving water, minimizing carbon emissions from transportation, and aiming to be net zero by 2025.
What is the Punahou School's long-term goal regarding its environmental impact?
-The Punahou School's long-term goal is to be net zero by 2025, meaning it aims to balance its energy consumption with the energy it produces or offsets, thereby having no net impact on the environment.
How do the schools featured in the video encourage students to take direct action in their own lives for the greater good?
-The schools encourage students to take direct action by providing them with opportunities to implement or come up with their own initiatives, such as community recycling programs and waste management solutions, and by incorporating environmental education into the curriculum.
What is the importance of teaching children about sustainability from a young age according to the video?
-Teaching children about sustainability from a young age is important for the future of our planet because it helps normalize sustainable practices and ensures that the next generation is equipped with the knowledge and skills to address environmental challenges.
What is the video's suggestion for schools that may not have the budget to adapt their infrastructure entirely?
-The video suggests that even if budgets do not allow for complete infrastructure adaptation, incorporating sustainable education into the curriculum is an achievable and cost-effective way to promote eco-friendly practices among students.
Outlines
🌿 Green Education Pioneers
This paragraph introduces the concept of green education and its importance for future generations. It highlights the Green School in Bali, which was founded in 2008 and emphasizes sustainability. The school, inspired by John and Cynthia Hardy, encourages students to learn from the natural environment, grow their own food, and interact with the land and community. The school's infrastructure is designed to be off-grid, with energy coming from solar panels and water from a well. Students are taught about their environmental impact and participate in initiatives to offset their carbon footprint.
🏫 Sustainable School Infrastructures
The second paragraph discusses the integration of sustainable practices into school infrastructures, using Copenhagen's International School as an example. The school building, designed with a block shape inspired by shipping containers, is covered in solar panels that supply over half of the school's energy needs. Students learn about these systems in their math and physics classes. The paragraph also mentions global efforts to make solar panels more attractive, such as Elon Musk's solar roof tiles. It then shifts to Punahou School in Hawaii, which has been focusing on sustainability for over two decades, aiming to be net zero by 2025, and incorporates green waste recycling and other eco-friendly practices into its curriculum.
🌱 Promoting Eco-Friendly Education
The final paragraph stresses the urgency of adopting eco-friendly teaching methods in schools for the benefit of our planet. It acknowledges that budget constraints may limit infrastructure changes but argues that incorporating sustainable education into the curriculum is feasible and cost-effective. The paragraph calls for the support of school boards and governments to make environmental education a fundamental part of children's learning experiences. It concludes with a call to action for viewers to engage with the content and anticipates the next video in the series.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Sustainability
💡Education
💡Curriculum
💡Green School
💡Permaculture
💡Mindfulness
💡Off-Grid
💡Copenhagen International School
💡Punahou School
💡Net Zero
💡Eco-friendly
Highlights
Children are the future, and education is the foundation of society, with an evolving curriculum shaping each generation's knowledge, skills, and values.
Schools and universities have an obligation to lead by example in educating students about sustainability amidst pressing global issues like climate change.
The Green School in Bali serves as a pioneer in sustainable education, teaching children about the importance of living in harmony with the environment.
Founded by John and Cynthia Hardy, the Green School offers hands-on learning experiences with the natural environment, including growing and eating their own food.
Students at the Green School learn within the world's largest bamboo structure, emphasizing mindfulness and permaculture principles.
The school encourages students to take weekly initiatives, such as community recycling programs and waste management solutions.
A daily one-minute silence at 2pm is practiced at the Green School to foster introspection and healthy development among students and teachers.
The Green School's buildings are designed to be off-grid, with energy use supplemented by on-site solar panels and water conservation measures.
Students are taught about their individual environmental impact and participate in planting bamboo shoots to offset their carbon footprint.
Copenhagen International School's building is designed to teach students about sustainability, with its block shape inspired by shipping containers and solar panels mimicking water reflections.
The school's 12,000 solar panels supply over half of its annual energy needs, integrating renewable energy education into maths and physics lessons.
Efforts are being made globally to make solar panels an attractive architectural feature, as seen at Copenhagen's International School.
Punahou School in Hawaii has been shaping socially responsible and ethically aware citizens for over 180 years, with a strong focus on environmental stewardship.
Punahou School aims to be net zero by 2025, with extensive steps taken to reduce water and energy consumption, and minimize waste.
The school incorporates green waste recycling and composting, converting waste into valuable resources like compost or electricity.
Punahou School's curriculum includes education on recycling, water conservation, reducing food waste, and promoting sustainable transportation.
Incorporating sustainable education into school curriculums is crucial for fostering a generation that values and practices environmental responsibility.
While infrastructure adaptation may be budget-constrained, integrating environmental education into the curriculum is an achievable and impactful initiative.
Encouraging school boards and governments to prioritize environmental education is essential for a sustainable future.
Transcripts
this video was sponsored by the nick
mourne foundation
it's often said that children are the
future and the education is the
foundation of a society
but over time school curriculums have
continually changed
giving every generation a new set of
knowledge skills and values
which they use to guide their lives
today with climate change deforestation
and pollution
leading the pack of issues that future
generations have to face
schools and universities have an
obligation to lead by example
and to educate and empower their
students to take direct action in their
own lives for the greater good
in this video we're going to be
providing three examples of how schools
around the world have adapted their
infrastructure
curriculum and mission to guiding their
students toward having a greener
education
and living a more sustainable life
[Music]
opened in 2008 with only 90 students and
located amongst the rice paddies and
three volcanoes of bali
the green school has served as a pioneer
in educating children
on the importance of sustainability
first imagined by john and cynthia hardy
in 2006
the school offers children the
opportunity to learn from the natural
environment around them
eating food that they have grown
themselves learning within the domes of
the world's largest bamboo structure
and being encouraged to physically
interact with the land and the community
around them
located about half an hour outside ubud
the green school emphasizes the
principles of mindfulness and
permaculture to encourage children
toward creativity and entrepreneurship
each week students have a day out away
from the school with their class to
travel around bali and implement or come
up with their own initiatives that can
range from community recycling programs
to waste management solutions similarly
each day at 2pm teachers and students
alike stop whatever they are doing and
remain silent for one minute
this encourages teachers and students of
all ages to have a moment of silence and
introspection
essential to healthy development the
physical buildings themselves all made
of bamboo
aim to be completely off-grid in regards
to energy and water consumption
energy use within the buildings is low
to begin with but about 30
of the remaining energy that the
building does use comes from on-site
solar panels
similarly the school's water consumption
stays quite low
with composting toilets and uses only
that which comes from a single
underground well discovered during
construction
students are also taught about their
individual impact on the environment
and plant bamboo shoots to offset their
carbon footprint
in copenhagen the international school
has been designed so that children can
learn from the building itself
the building's block shape was inspired
by the nearby shipping containers
and the solar panels have been
purposefully angled to mimic a water
reflection from the sea
the 25 000 square meter school building
is copenhagen's largest school
accommodating 1 200 students and 280
employees
it is covered in 12 000 solar panels
which supply more than half of the
school's annual energy needs
and which the students monitor and learn
about in their maths and physics lessons
across the world efforts are being made
to make solar panels appear less like
obtrusive add-ons
and more like attractive aspects of the
building for example
elon musk's efforts in creating subtle
solar roof tiles
at copenhagen's international school the
panels are not just a value-added
feature
but are the star attraction
located on the island of oahu hawaii
punahou school has been forming its
students into socially responsible
ethically aware and engaged citizens for
over 180 years
the school educating children from ages
4 to 18
sits on 76 acres of lush hawaiian land
heavily influencing the construction and
curriculum of the school
over the last two decades punahou has
taken and continues to take
extensive steps to keep in mind water
and energy consumption
food and resource waste natural lighting
use and air quality so as to not impact
the surrounding area with its day-to-day
operations
and aims to be net zero by 2025.
alongside the buildings being
constructed with sustainability and the
surrounding environment in mind
punahou makes sure that its positive
impact on the earth extends beyond the
classroom
green waste recycling is one such step
towards having a closed-loop waste
system
where the groundskeepers at punahou turn
green waste like grass clippings
leaves and tree branches into compost or
are even converted
into electricity off campus at h-power a
waste to electricity facility
on oahu other initiatives that have been
tied into the school's curriculum
include educating students on the
importance of recycling and conserving
water
reducing food waste and carbon emitting
transportation use
recycling and reducing paper waste and
energy conservation
teaching children from a young age that
sustainability is normal
is incredibly important for the future
of our planet we desperately need more
schools to adopt these eco-friendly ways
of teaching
budgets may not always allow for schools
to adapt their infrastructure entirely
however incorporating sustainable
education into the curriculum is not an
expensive or difficult adaptation
in order to do this we must encourage
school boards and governments to make
environmental education an
integral part of our children's learning
experience
thank you for watching this episode
please hit the like button if you
enjoyed this video
and we'll see you in the next one
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