Together for Sustainable School

Background

To encourage young people to act for a more sustainable future, it is essential that teachers make sustainability issues an integral part of their curricula. Furthermore, non-traditional, interactive formats of education such as summer camps are a powerful tool to empower young people to take part in climate action. Working with both teachers and young people towards the same objective, the project employed a comprehensive approach on sustainability education and thus encouraged lasting change. 

Project

According to this two-fold approach, the project consisted of two main parts. The first one focussed on the teachers: the project provided them with a practical guide on how to include sustainability topics in their everyday school curriculum. Furthermore, it supported teachers in implementing the guide and adapting it for their individual work. Such training was intended for 330 teachers in Lithuania. 

The second part focused on introducing young people to climate action. The Sustainable Development Ambassadors Camp provided 60 young people from Lithuania, Cyprus, and Germany with the option to discuss sustainability issues and to develop solutions for them. This experience enabled them to initiate climate initiatives for their local communities. 

Additionally, the project trained a team of sustainable development ambassadors who in turn supported the formation of youth-led climate initiatives. The project enabled them to raise awareness on climate action through a variety of informative and interactive events in 30 schools. These events reached around 600 teachers and 2,000 students in Lithuania as well as 1,500 members of local communities in all three project countries. 

Results

• To achieve reduced carbon emissions and the rise of awareness of climate issues a methodological tool for teachers on SDG integration in the curricular was developed and tested in 27 Lithuanian schools.  
• In addition, an international youth camp in Cyprus and workshops in schools in Cyprus, Germany and Lithuania were carried out. The youth also organised 27 local climate projects in Cyprus, Germany and Lithuania. Through these key activities, the project attempted to target existing problems from two sides: by integrating information on sustainability into school curriculum and by motivating youth through non-formal learning.  An international youth conference and a Lithuanian teachers’ conference were organized to disseminate the results of the project.