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Greenstar Announces Green Schools Sponsorship

Green-Schools Background Info

Green-Schools is run by An Taisce in co-operation with Local Authorities throughout Ireland and is sponsored by a number of private sector companies, namely, Greenstar, Ireland’s leading integrated waste management company, Coca Cola Bottlers Ireland Ltd. and The Wrigley Company Ltd. Green-Schools is an initiative of FEE - Foundation for Environmental Education and is referred to internationally as Eco-Schools. At present there are 28 countries operating the programme in Europe and beyond. Green-Schools is now in its eighth year in Ireland.

There are currently 1822 schools registered for the programme, this represents over 45% of all primary, secondary, and special schools in Ireland. In this school year 154 schools have already signed up for the programme, making this year look like it will be the most successful to date. 435 schools have achieved the Green-Flag, awarded in recognition of their efforts in working towards a sustainable lifestyle.

Green-Schools is both a programme and an award scheme. The award is given to schools that successfully complete the Seven Steps of the programme. Green-Schools is a themed programme, with litter and waste being the first theme that schools work on, and when a school is awarded it Green Flag, they move on to the energy theme. The Water theme is introduced when a school renews its Green Flag for the second time. Other themes that will be introduced in the future include transport, healthy living, and biodiversity.
Green-Schools is designed to make environmental awareness and action an intrinsic part of the life and ethos of a school for all its pupils. It is a flexible programme and different schools will find different routes to achieving Green-Schools status. Green-Schools does not aim to reward specific environmental improvement projects such as making a pond or developing a wildlife area.

Green-Schools is a long-term programme; the award is renewed every two years.

Green-Schools offers schools:

• an opportunity to make environmental issues from the curriculum, influence the life of the school and its impact on the environment
• an opportunity to help develop children’s decision-making skills
• curriculum material and ideas for projects and events
• access to a network of support agencies
• links with other schools in Ireland, Europe and beyond
• a prestigious award
• opportunities for local and national publicity
• potential for financial savings.
• Create links with other schools in Ireland and abroad

The aim of the green-schools project is to move from environmental awareness in the curriculum to environmental action in the school and wider community.

Green-Schools Research Highlights

Schools that have just started the Green-Schools programme are on average sending ~ 53g of waste per person per day to landfill. For schools that are half way through the programme the average is ~ 37g per person per day, while within awarded Green-Schools the average ~ 29g per person per day. However, some Green-Schools are producing as little as 2g per person per day.

When Irish primary school students from schools that have completed the Green-Schools programme are compared with students from primary schools that have never undertaken the programme for their levels of environmental awareness, behaviour, opinion leadership and a number of related topics the following results are apparent.

• Awareness levels about environmental issues among both types of students are very similar.
• When it comes to positive behaviour towards the environment, students within the awarded Green-Schools are less likely to drop less litter while being more likely to participate in local environment projects, conserve water, energy and think about the environment when making a purchase.
• Green-Schools students discuss the environment and associated issues in more settings, more often. Discussion within the classroom setting is particularly high among Green-Schools students. Furthermore, Green-Schools students generally encourage others to be environmentally friendly more than their Non-Green School counterparts. In essence the Green-Schools students are better environmental opinion leaders.
• Green-Schools students feel that environmental problems are an urgent problem whereas Non-Green-Schools students consider these to be more of a problem for the future.
• Green-School students identify teachers as the main source of information on the environment. Among Non-Green-Schools students television and radio is the main source of this information.
• Recycling levels of glass, paper/cardboard and aluminium along with levels of home composting are higher within the homes of Green-Schools students than within the homes of Non-Green-Schools students.
• 91% of students within Non-Green-Schools felt that they could do something about the state of the environment. This number was even higher among Green-Schools students at 96%.
• The main environmental concern indicated by both Green-Schools and Non-Green-Schools students was litter. This was followed among Green-Schools students by the lack of an environmentally friendly culture in Ireland and among Non-Green-Schools students by the lack of recycling facilities in Ireland.
• The current work has revealed a moderate positive relationship between behaviour towards the environment and opinion leadership (discussion and encouragement) among both Green-Schools and Non-Green-Schools students.
• The current study indicates that awareness levels do not directly impact behaviour towards the environment.
  

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