The Orląt Lwowskich Primary School No. 8 and Primary School No. 10 with Integrated Branches in Zamość involved students, teachers and guests - including parents and representatives of local institutions - to jointly develop on 15 and 16 of November a roadmap to achieve the goal of climate neutrality in schools in 2045. The event was attended by over 60 people, who had the opportunity to learn more about climate neutrality through interactive methods and exercises and to gather new ideas for climate-neutral actions in the school community by working together in small groups.
The start of the workshop was preceded by a sensory walk of SP no. 10 students, and within SP no. 8 the development of a mock-up model of the school of the future and a short performance reflecting on people's attitude towards nature. After exercises and tasks activating participants with the use of creative methods, the time had come for the introduction to the topic of climate change consequences, presentation of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and a framework of feasible actions that, if implemented, would reduce each school's carbon footprint analysed earlier.
The phase of generating ideas and creating a vision for the future of a climate-neutral school was very dynamic and successful. All participants showed a lot of commitment and came up with many interesting solutions in the proposed 5 areas:
- Energy saving in the school building - energy efficiency and emission reduction in the school building
- Schoolyard and water resources
- Mobility and travel
- Consumption - food, waste and supplies
- Educational activities – building good habits
Some of the most interesting ideas turned out to be: initiating a green roof on the school, setting up a biogas plant next to the school, marking switches/taps/trash bins with pictograms to remind the users about good habits, setting up a school compost pile, and a series of educational activities for students and parents.
In the next phase, the ideas were placed on a timeline to plan their implementation in the appropriate chronology. The workshop encouraged participants to take individual, small-scale climate actions and transform their immediate environment in line with sustainable development principles. In the end, after the presentation of the developed actions, a vote was taken to identify priority actions that schools can take in the near future. Each school will later on prepare a detailed Action Plan indicating the next steps, sources of funding, stakeholders and collaborators involved, etc.
It is worth noting that schools are already taking climate actions - SP No. 10 presented initiated by students zone of silence and sensory garden, and SP No. 8 the installed photovoltaic panels and a heat pump. Nevertheless, the students showed great interest in being active in the area of climate and environmental protection and a willingness to take the next steps toward energy self-sufficiency for the school.
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The workshop was organised as part of the project Visions 2045 - Schools Initiating Action for Climate Neutrality in Cities, funded by the European Climate Initiative - EUKI programme and the European Climate Pact funded by the European Commission.
The Visions2045 project aims to assist schools in their journey towards climate neutrality. The European Climate Pact, initiated by the European Commission, is part of the European Green Deal and helps the European Union achieve its goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
