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Updated: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 | Printer Friendly Version | |

WHAT COLOUR SHOULD OUR SCHOOLS BE? EIS SAYS “GREEN”

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has urged the Scottish Government to ensure that all new schools are environmentally sound, and to encourage all schools to work towards Eco-School status. The EIS has also called for the Scottish Government's flagship school-building programme, the Scottish Futures Trust, to ensure that its long-awaited new school building programme delivers quality, environmentally sound, new schools which will be suited to the educational requirements of tomorrow's teachers and pupils.

Speaking from Edinburgh, EIS General Secretary Ronnie Smith said, “Many schools are already active in promoting environmental awareness amongst pupils, but there is a great deal more that can be done at both local authority and governmental level to make our schools greener and more environmentally-sound. It is essential that, whenever a school is rebuilt or refurbished, that proper steps are taken to ensure that the facilities are as ecologically sound as possible. Once the Scottish Futures Trust finally starts to deliver much-needed new school buildings, it must place a great degree of emphasis on constructing modern buildings which are well suited to modern learning and teaching methods, but which are also extremely environmentally friendly.”

Mr Smith added, “The building or refurbishment of schools is an ideal time to take advantage of environmentally-sound advances in engineering, technology and construction. Since many of our existing schools were built, there have been huge advances in terms of more efficient heating and ventilation systems, better natural insulation for maintaining comfortable temperatures without the need for mechanical assistance, and other advances such as improvements in water and energy efficiency, as well as the development of highly-efficient solar panels, wind turbines and heat sinks for the generation and storage of cleaner energy. These are the types of advances that we should be looking to integrate into as many school buildings as possible.”

Mr Smith continued, “Many schools are working very hard towards Eco-schools status, and doing all that they can in terms of recycling, enhancing their biodiversity, growing more of their own food using organic methods to cut down on food miles and environmental impact, and encouraging less polluting and healthier methods of transport such as walking or cycling to and from school. One current standard-bearer for Eco-schools is Portobello High School, which has achieved a remarkable amount in working to become more environmentally sound – so much so that it is the first secondary school in Scotland to be awarded permanent Eco-school Green Flag status, the highest award under the international Eco-school programme. There are over 900 schools in Scotland which have received at least one Green Flag, which is a great achievement, but we need to do much more to encourage the thousands of other schools across the country to work towards similar goals.”

Mr Smith went on to add, “The EIS itself is working towards become more environmentally friendly by limiting the amount of paper it uses, by printing on paper stock from sustainable sources using more environmentally-friendly printing machines, and with mailings sent in envelopes from sustainable sources or in bio-degradable mail wraps. We are also currently reviewing how we communicate with teachers and lecturers, and working on redeveloping our website and electronic communications in the hope of promoting more online communications which should reduce further our reliance on paper-based communication in the future. We know that teacher and lecturers, as well as pupils and students, are well aware of environmentally and ecological issues. By offering improved support to education institutions, we hope that learners and teachers, local authorities and the Scottish Government can continue to deliver more environmentally-sound, greener schools which will benefit us all and the world we live in for years to come.”

For further information, please contact Brian Cooper,

e-mail: bcooper@eis.org.uk