Over the next 50 years, our world will face a range of complex challenges. New technologies and the priority to develop greener economies and accelerate the sustainability agenda require a shift in how we engage and excite children through self-exploration in Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). By taking a different approach to how we encourage learning in STEAM and sustainability, we can prepare our children to be at the forefront of global innovation, and take important steps to accelerate social, scientific, and technological change.

To solve the world’s greatest problems, our planet not only needs millions of scientists, engineers, and technologists but also a large-scale attitudinal change to accelerate the adoption of sustainable behavior. Our challenge is not finding these future talents. Our challenge is how we connect them to knowledge, each other, their communities, and their environment; motivating them to learn on their terms in a way that is fun, exciting, and fulfilling.

To meet these challenges, Green Schools Alliance has developed an innovative tracking tool for schools to achieve their sustainability goals. We’ve also partnered with Tribal Planet to create an engagement program for students to get involved in sustainability beyond the classroom. These initiatives rely on your support to come to life and impact millions of children around the world.
 
 

Sustainability Tracking and Roadmap Tool


Our community expressed a need for a flexible and scalable platform that supports high-level reporting on a range of metrics (e.g.: energy and water efficiency, food waste, air quality, curriculum) that simultaneously connects schools with their district administration to share and analyze that information to support sustainability goals. As a result of thousands of hours of effort from developers, local and global community members, researchers, collaborators, innovators, movers, and shakers, we have answered that need through the development of START.

START is a sustainability tracking and roadmap tool that schools use to assess, identify, and track actions to meet their whole-school sustainability goals. This interactive online, multi-level system enables tracking of a comprehensive range of sustainability actions. START offers beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels for schools to assess their current actions and establish a baseline for where they are on their sustainability journey. START’s rating system helps schools understand the cost, difficulty, and impact of each action and which to implement to reach their next goal.

START is the simple solution for tracking sustainability progress. Coordinators answer yes or no questions about actions taken by the school and students, and receive guidance to get to the next level with support from resources, success stories and how-to materials.
 

HOW TO SUPPORT START

Your support for the development and implementation of START, powered by the principles of Whole School Sustainability, gives educators worldwide the opportunity to enact meaningful change in their communities. Your contribution is the driving force that allows us to provide this essential tool that schools need to achieve sustainable success. Custom sponsorship branding is available. Contact Arlae Castellanos at arlae@greenschoolsalliance.org


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Global Youth Engagement and Impact Program


The Alliance is expanding its student engagement opportunities through the development of the Global Youth Engagement and Impact Program (GYEIP) to:
  • accelerate the engagement of young people and drive action on the topics of STEAM and sustainability.
  • combine the digital world driven by mobile devices and computers with hands-on, in-person leadership training and development.

The framework for the GYEIP is anchored in local boots-on-the-ground action while being supported and scaled with digital tools. Live events, leadership training, and classroom curricula foster face-to-face interaction while the digital solutions provide connection, access, and scalability; building capacity for global youth leadership development. GYEIP also combines various programs and services the Alliance already provides to schools and districts worldwide.

The Alliance will launch a new component of the GYEIP to provide a fun and innovative digital solution to engage children in the United States and around the world with exciting content on the topics of STEAM and sustainability, which encourages them to take action through their medium of choice - the Smartphone. To deliver the digital component, the Alliance is partnering with Tribal Planet, a leading social impact technology company, to localize and deploy Tribal Planet’s mobile platform and partner ecosystem, Citizen Earth.

Citizen Earth, designed for individual student digital action and engagement, will incentivise children through a point system that allows them to not only reward themselves, but also support their education, transition to employment, and give back to causes they’re passionate about.
 

HOW TO SUPPORT GYEIP

The Alliance is seeking ‘seed funding’ in 2018 to cover the initial cost the first phase of the project – to build out the Alliance’s presence on the existing Citizen Earth application and execute the pilot. Through the duration of the pilot, the Alliance and Tribal Planet will engage major corporations across the United States to secure sponsorship deals to fund the roll-out and operation. Contact Katy Perry at kperry@greenschoolsalliance.org


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