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17 schools win EAD’s Green Awards

The academic year has concluded with the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi’s (EAD) ceremony celebrating the achievements of the winning schools from this year’s Sustainable Schools Initiative (SSI).

A total of 17 government and private schools were awarded for their achievements towards promoting environmental sustainability in their schools and communities under EAD’s flagship education programmes.

The winners were honoured at the annual Sustainable Schools Awards Ceremony, held to mark World Environment Day. It was attended by Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary-General of the EAD; Hamad Al Dhaheri, Executive Director of Private Schools of the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec); and Oliver Broad, Vice-President, Communications and External Affairs for BP Middle East .

The initiative, which the EAD introduced in 2009 and is conducted in collaboration with the Adec and with sponsorship from BP, aims to empower schools, teachers and their students to make a positive environmental impact. To assist schools in making this impact, the EAD provides them with workshops and resource materials to assess their environmental impact and address it through a Green school audit management system, support to establish ‘Eco Clubs’, provision of teacher training, exposing students to experiential learning through hands-on educational field trips.

This academic session saw a total of 120 schools from the emirate register for the Sustainable Schools Initiative – a rise of 360 per cent since the first edition was launched back in 2009.

Secretary-General of the EAD Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak said: “Thanks to the support of our partners and the hard work of the schools and students involved, the Sustainable Schools Initiative continues to grow from strength to strength. We are proud of the success it has witnessed in such a short period of time. This education initiative is helping to reduce schools’ ecological footprints and just as important, it is changing behaviour in communities and among a new generation that will be responsible for the future of our environmental and social welfare.”

Around 21,268 students were exposed to the uniqueness of the emirate’s environment through 401 ‘hands on’ field trips undertaken by SSI schools this year. Schools that excelled in exposing a maximum number of students and in integrating these trips into their curriculum were declared as Best Outdoor Field Educators.