The imperative for international schools to take action on climate change now

In the middle of the last academic year, in full COVID swing, I found an email in my inbox from Mike Johnston (Assistant Superintendent at the Frankfurt International School). I was one of several recipients of this email whose subject stated “Sustainability Policies”. I was pleasantly surprised (and quite honored) to know that the recipients of this email were highly regarded heads of schools across the world. The content was simple and to the point: Did anyone have an example to share related to such policies? What resulted was a short thread which paved the road to a journey that has yet to see its end. The essence of the thread was that, for all our success in being high-caliber and extremely successful educational institutions, we had little to show in terms of sustainability-related policies, and we’d love to know more. 

I decided to take a shot at this newfound ‘good company’ and took the opportunity to throw out a question that has been nagging me for a while: Why aren’t international schools making more tangible steps - as institutions - toward a more regenerative and sustainable present and future?  My hunch has to do with the fact that we don’t view ourselves as being the epicenter of climate change, that our emissions can’t possibly compete with those of factories, industrial systems, global transport and other more commonly seen images related to pollution, emissions and unsustainability. We’re also not experts in the field of sustainability as a scientific discipline, and so it might seem a bit difficult to ‘relate’ as they say.

The email thread, after a bit of back and forth, led to an invitation to pursue the idea of climate change and international schools. I reached out to d’Arcy Lunn (Group Head of Sustainability & Global Citizenship at Education in Motion) and Claire Psillides (previously UWCSEA East and now American School in Japan) regarding climate action from schools knowing their previous experience in the field, the standing of their schools as leaders in sustainability and their personal passion for the subject. This article serves, potentially, as the opening chapter of an ongoing (and perhaps never-ending) open conversation to the world and to our school administrators who we invite to be, as I like to say, the example we talk about in our classrooms.

The climate crisis: a quick background check

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that humanity has affected the planet during our lifetimes. The glass Coca Cola bottles that I used to return for a small refund as a small child are nowhere to be seen in most parts of the world. The fish that frequented the spots where I used to swim are largely gone now. And our apartment in Athens, Greece, which used to be a ‘normal’ apartment simply using open windows in the summer to bring in the coolness of the night, is now one of few dwellings without an air conditioner, leading to annual complaints of “it’s sooooo hot”. Nearly all peer-reviewed scientific research indicates that our planet is one in peril and that we, the educated ones who steamed ahead with the innovations of yesterday and the present, apparently didn’t think much of the potential unintended consequences of our innovations, leading to where we find ourselves today. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded, time and time again, that we’re beyond the point of being able to turn the tide on warming temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions. (Source: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/). NASA, the very same program that first landed humans on the Moon, provides a wealth of information on the research on the subject to support the same, seemingly inevitable conclusion (source: https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/).

International schools as leaders in their communities: role models for good education

For most of the eight billion humans, there is little argument about humanity’s role in the warming of the planet and the repercussions that it is expected to have. There is consensus, for example, that rising water levels are about to make entire (small) island nations literally disappear, leading some (e.g. Vanuatu) to reach out to other countries to discuss the inevitability of climate emigration to places that stand a bit higher in the coastal height comparison.

For international schools, the thought of actually engaging actively in this area is a relatively new development. Education and schooling have, on many occasions, been content to teach about something but not consider the learning itself to be a direct contributor to global change. For parents of a more traditional “education-will-bring-opportunities-to-my-children” perspective, the academic focus of schooling is the one outcome they want for their children before adulthood. The dual focus on academic learning and assessments that will provide the biggest benefit to the competitive nature of university placement is at the top of the priority list. The role of schools, in other words, is to teach. But teach what, exactly? And how? And what of the learning?

It’s not (only) little Suzie’s/Ahmed’s/Yu Na’s job to save the planet: the imperative for institutional leadership

Often sustainability (as with healthy food choices in the cafeteria) becomes one of “those things” that schools like to have students “make decisions” about. They will wait, for example, for students to recognize the problem, then decide to do something about it (perhaps through an eco-club of sorts) and then, if it’s something that can be applauded and supported without much effort or budget, it might make its way to a new expectation, behaviour or, at the very least, public relations highlight. It’s quite like serving junk food in cafeterias while asking students to make the right choice of food because we’ve covered healthy food choices in health. It’s looked upon as a way to develop an ethos, perhaps, or as a way to develop student initiative and behavioural change. The problem with this approach - though it certainly does place students at the center (as it should) - is that students often lack the leverage required to make meaningful change, especially when faced with administrative structures that either don’t recognize the need for an institutional ‘culture shift’, or that might view sustainable change to be beyond the scope of their work and calling.

But as with the increased recognition that social-emotional learning is an important component to personal and collective growth, so too is the imperative for schools to engage with their communities - not just the students - in becoming the examples they teach their students about. The connections between sustainability related conversations and wellness, for example, are expanding, as are the obvious connections between DEIJ (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice) and the climate crisis. After all, as we keep those air conditioners on, communities in the most marginalized of places are where the pressure is felt the most. As such, addressing climate change at the school level is not simply about being “eco” but about doing what is right for the world, and about helping those who need it the most; those who meet the crisis head on without the resources to provide them with the Band-Aids we might have available in international schools.

For anyone who is familiar with the Sustainable Development Goals (or Global Goals) these seemingly independent issues are, in fact, obviously connected. After all, a global community with inherent inequalities cannot be sustainable. If there is no health, how can we expect economic opportunity? If there are no resources available how can we expect communities to feel safe and be productive?  In short, it’s all related. And a change in one area will, by definition, create a ripple effect in others.

It’s also important to recognize the increasing stress that many of our students feel, commonly known as climate anxiety. It’s bad enough that our children - those perhaps least able to address the issues we are throwing at them - are asked to look at the overwhelming evidence that their life is headed in the wrong direction. That is only exacerbated by schools that feel that our children (alone) have to address the issues that we cover in classes. There’s a reason why youth the world over, when allowed, engage in climate marches demanding a change to the educational paradigm and to prioritize the very things that schools might find difficult to address in practice. Posters in hallways won’t cut it. It’s because we ask them to think about the enormity of the problem and then ask them - what, sixth graders? - to find solutions when it is obvious that the adults in the room have not prioritized the very issue being discussed. This dynamic offers an interesting and multifaceted ‘day of reckoning’ for international education. When do we move, as institutions cultivating the leaders of tomorrow (and, increasingly, of today), from communities focused purely on teaching in an academic manner to institutions that lead through action - the combined action of both students and adults?  When do we say “enough is enough'' and think about how our own behaviors - from bussing to flights, to cutting down forests to build our campuses - can be altered in the name of the very same bright future that we talk about in our classrooms?  When do we make the connection between what we say and what we do?  In the past decade, it seems that more schools are making those exact connections. And that matters.

A silver lining, perhaps?

I like to speak of opportunities to those I work with. Opportunities to be the example in the world that we teach our students about. Opportunities to generate a tangible positive difference in the world without the need to fly halfway around the world for a week that would invariably result in the carbon emissions we often hope to curtail. The sheer extent of ambiguity in all things sustainability allows us to, literally, pick our battles based on our own specific contexts. For some of us, it’ll be focusing on reducing our energy use, and for others it could be a journey to net zero. And broader still, it could be a chance to focus on water, procurement or anything that makes sense to your particular school.

What better, for example, than for students to study the benefits of solar energy by engaging with their own campus, not merely with the single solar panel placed for educational purposes but with a systematic, triple-bottom-line approach to operations?  What better way to engage students in the social inequalities than to have an introspective deliberation of how, exactly, to support those members of their respective communities by bridging the typical gaps found in such, usually exclusive, communities?  In the words of my friend Michael Johnson, the answer is almost always, ‘it depends'. How do we support the members of our communities with the least opportunities? How do we engage our students in restructuring systems to support such opportunities for those who won’t normally have access to those things that we do have access to?  How do we ensure that our wallet is where our mouth is when it comes to minimizing environmental impact?  The list of opportunities is endless because there is just simply so much low-hanging fruit!

We all have a role to play…

Thankfully one no longer needs to reach too far to find examples of schools moving in the right direction. Schools are engaging with corporate, NGO and public partners to create learning spaces where sustainability is a key element to learning. Yet more schools are prioritizing sustainability in their operations and their learning. The more developed ones are able to make connections to the curriculum explicitly and take it that one step further… to bridging the natural divide that exists between what is learned in the classroom and what is done within the community.

The truth is that there is no singular approach to prioritizing sustainability. There are simply too many parameters involved and the dynamics - not to mention the mental models - are varied and sometimes in antithesis of a sustainable world for the planet and its people. This is both an opportunity and a challenge. It’s a challenge because there is no ‘cookie cutter’ opportunity to ‘become more sustainable’. And anyway, sustainability is not a destination, necessarily, but more of a journey. But simultaneously it’s an opportunity for schools who really want to engage in community-based, authentic, contextual learning (and action) to do just that. Involve the kids!  Explore the opportunities (did someone say inquiry and PBL?!) Try things out (innovation, anyone?). Put the work not entirely in the hands of our children, but also in the hands of our parents, our educators, our staff, and our wider community (did someone say authentic collaboration?!) Learn from others who have tried new things as well - we all know that the learnings from failure are just as important as the learnings from success! And, perhaps more importantly, engage in action for the wider and narrower good (service learning)! 

If we want students to truly be leaders in their communities, to really engage with the world around them, to support growth in areas of collaboration, analysis, project-based learning, and authentic engagement in relevant ways, then the schools themselves need examples of sustainable community mindsets. This need not mean that the school is 100% sustainable, but rather that it is engaging - transparently and purposefully - in the necessary changes needed to become the examples they teach about. What a wonderful world if we were able to say, “I work at a school that is the example of sustainability that I teach my students about”. And what a better time to start, than right now?

Examples of first (or not so first) shots

Thankfully the past decade has seen a massive growth in schools that have adopted the idea of service learning, sustainability and/or global citizenship (sometimes in unison). One need not look too far these days to find examples of different ways schools are trying to “walk the talk”. Below please find a few great things that are already underway:

• Education in Motion ESG Report
• Harbour School Education for Sustainable Development Report
• International School of Beijing Sustainability Impact Report

In all things sustainability, this conversation is one that will continue to grow as schools embrace the importance of climate action for themselves. It requires the sharing of information, collective capacity building and recurring attempts of innovation. In there, somewhere, will be a need for connection and sharing, and I invite anyone and everyone to reach out as we continue to build the momentum for a more beautiful world we all envision moving forwards. 

I would love to connect with other educators in this space, and learn more about the initiatives you and your school are putting in place to help create a more sustainable environment – please leave a comment below!

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