The Global Student Changemaker Contest

The 2024 Educated Choices Program (ECP) Global Student Changemaker Contest is officially accepting entries! Students aged 12-18 are encouraged to watch an ECP presentation and create a project showcasing how this knowledge impacts their lives and the world around them. The theme of this semester’s contest is “Creative Communication in Food-Related Education.” Get all the details to enter and share here.

The Earth Prize

The Earth Prize is an annual, global $100,000 environmental sustainability competition for students between the ages of 13 and 19, which rewards the teams whose projects have the most potential to address environmental issues. Learn more and pre-register for the 2025 competition here.

Transform Your School’s Understanding of Sustainability: It Matters to Our Health

Sustainability is often dismissed as 'just an environmental issue.' However, successful sustainability coordinators understand the value of framing it through the different aspects it impacts, such as the health and wellbeing of students and staff—topics that resonate strongly with both parents and teachers.

Research published in the The Whole School Sustainability Framework found that: “Successful [sustainable] schools understand that the overriding purpose of school operations is not to stay on time and on budget— it is to create a healthy environment for students that is conducive to learning. If this is the core purpose of school operations, healthy and sustainable practices will follow.”

So, why should we become a sustainable school? A study of green schools and universities in the United States found:

• a 41.5% improvement in the health of students and teachers (such as reduced incidence of asthma, ‘flu, respiratory problems and headaches)

• up to 15% improvement in student learning and productivity

• up to 25% improvement on test scores due to good lighting and ventilation

#6: Course Content

Schools need to integrate sustainability, regenerative concepts, and climate education into their curricula in order to equip students for changing economies, to empower them to innovate for solutions, and to foster resilience and hope. Here are some tips for getting your school to integrate sustainability into course content:

1. Show how it Improves Learning Outcomes & Workforce Preparedness

A peer-review study by Stanford and the NAEE found a positive impact as a result of environmental education in 98% of academic literature, with 90% reporting increased skills.

2. Set a Challenge

Set a term-long challenge for teachers to dedicate one lesson to a sustainability concept and provide a simple way for them to log their participation, such as an online roll-call or a shared document, to track and celebrate progress.

3. Tap into Free, Curriculum-Aligned Resources

Show how sustainability can easily be incorporated into existing subjects with the help of free, curriculum-aligned resources housed in the GSA Community like: SubjectToClimate; ClimateScience; CELF: Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation; National Geographic Education; Climate Generation.

3. Collaborate with Subject-Teachers

At Princeton Day School (NJ), Liz Cutler noticed that each of the 280 lower school students received a plastic water bottle every day, leading to tremendous waste. She asked a math teacher if she could have students calculate how many bottles the school used annually and how far they would stretch if lined up. The result—enough bottles to span six miles—sparked a school-wide conversation. The students presented their findings to the lower school faculty, leading to a decision to switch to reusable water bottles and using the taps already available around the school. Liz Cutler wrote a press release about the project and it went into the local newspaper, generating positive publicity for the school while amplifying waste awareness to the wider community!

By the numbers: In the 2023-2024 academic year, 44% of START schools integrated sustainability-related content into at least one academic subject per grade, 22% did so in two subjects per grade, and 17% included it in three or more subjects per grade.

Congratulations to these schools for launching their Whole School Sustainability journeys through START! See a map of our START schools here.

• Colegio Merici, Mexico City, Mexico

• Episcopal High School, Virginia USA

• Poughkeepsie Day School, New York USA

• Norfolk Academy, Virginia USA

• Green Farms Academy, Connecticut USA

• Lowell School, District of Columbia USA

Green Schools Alliance is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created by schools, for schools, with a mission is to connect and empower schools worldwide to lead the transition to a sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient future.

Ways to get involved:

1. Get your school to sign the Sustainability & Climate Leadership Commitment to join 8000+ schools and districts who have already answered the call to action.

2. Join the GSA Community for resources, best practices & a peer-to-peer network of school sustainability champions.

3. Use START: Sustainability Tracking, Analytics & Roadmap Tool to benchmark, plan, track and collaborate for Whole School Sustainability.