A ‘Green Schooling’ Action Plan to Address the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals

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The sustainable development goals (SDGs) were adopted by all the United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to dissolve the issues of poverty, preserve & protect the planet, and to ensure humans enjoy peace and prosperity by the year 2030. The 17 SDG’s acknowledge the fact that action in one area will affect the outcome in other, and that the balance between social, economic and environmental sustainability must be maintained in the course of development.

In the light of this global sustainability mission, some active philanthropists and social workers are fully committed to achieving these goals. One such individual is Mr. Pradip Burman, who has envisioned a completely green school by 2021, perhaps Asia’s first. The great news is that the school is already in the making in the scenic green city of Coorg, Karnataka, India.

At The Economic Times SDGs Summit 2019, Mr. Pradip Burman stated “What are we doing for the future? I think the question here is on education, on which my trust is setting up the school which is called World Environment School. Now from a young age, if all the aspects of sustainability is run into the school curriculum, then that will be a big help for children to turn out to be the leaders of hitting the SDG goals and that’s one of the things my trust is doing. I think the education we are looking at is how to make green schools by water, renewable energy, etc. These are some of the things we are doing in green schools, but to get to a different curriculum altogether, we are also developing a curriculum for the schools which makes it relevant in today’s world to train leaders for the future”.

World Environment School (WESc) can be defined as an institution that provides the mandatory classroom education but increases the overall proposition to a holistic education & development of the student. Students will learn and live in a campus which is eco-friendly, energy saving and is also a live example of what we refer to as biodegradable. Students will learn about minor to major aspects of sustainable attitude & an eco-friendly lifestyle. This is exactly what our future generation should adapt to.

The campus is plastic free and the curriculum involves pastoral care. The icing on the cake is the location, WESc is being built in between the green city of Coorg. A city which is filled with lush green mountains and hence has clean fresh air. As Wesc is an open air campus, students will be able to fully enjoy a healthy clean atmosphere. The state of their health and development will not undergo any compromise. Similarly, in future these children would not compromise having anything less than a clean eco-friendly planet to live on.