Blyth Academy helps Globeducate lead way in sustainability education with Eco Schools commitment

Our Blyth Academy schools are fulfilling a group-wide commitment made by Globeducate in 2019 that all schools in the group would become Eco-Schools. Despite challenges raised by the pandemic, almost half of Globeducate schools are now Certified Eco Schools including all Blyth Academy campuses.

We are proud to announce that our Burlington, Etobicoke and Lawrence Park campuses reached Gold Certification this year through campus initiatives that included working towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. At the same time, students were involved in unique learning opportunities through Globeducate’s  partnership with WWF, one of the key charities involved in helping to shape the United Nations SDGs.

EcoSchools is a program that allows institutions to track multiple metrics to help make decisions towards a more eco-friendly future. It is a gentle reminder that being eco-conscious does not happen overnight, and that greener habits take time to foster. The EcoSchools program assesses what a school is currently doing, and through a series of questions and prompts, gets schools to evaluate their practices and host eco-events like "The Great Gulp (everyone is encouraged to drink tap water)", "Turn off electronics", "Learn outside for a class period", "Nature walks", "waste management", "GOOS bins (encourage the use paper that is still Good-On-One-Side", "Earth Hour", and much more.  

Senior Campus Admissions Manager, Sarah Black said: “Our school was able to attain gold certification primarily through our rooftop beehive.  The beehive is a great learning tool for our students, as well as a supplier of pollination for our community. Our school also encourages waste management, as there are garbage and recycling bins with appropriate imagery to ensure students dispose of their waste in the proper bin. We've also conducted a 'no-waste-lunch', where students had to keep their waste for a day, and they can later go home and reflect on the amount of waste generated for only one meal! We have also scored many points by renting garden space, and students have shown their green thumb by taking over planting, and maintenance.”

Pramod Kumar Sharma, Senior Director of Education, Foundation for Environmental Education and EcoSchools Global Programme Coordinator until 2022, said: “EcoSchools engage young people in positive action projects (handprints) in their school and community through the transformative seven steps to acquire valuable skills in problem-solving. The purpose is to make a difference now and continue to do the same in their communities and workplaces.

“I congratulate the schools for the progress they have made on this journey and achieved the Green Flag. The work does not stop with the label but becomes more engrossing to inspire generations that keep the flag flying high!”

Monica Fontán, Assistant Education Director for Globeducate, supports the international and bilingual schools group´s EcoSchools coordinators and said, “Since we embarked on our EcoSchools journey in 2019, our schools have been confronted with many challenges posed by the pandemic.

“As we simply could not fail to continue to find ways to participate in this programme, our Eco-Councils met regularly online and they continued to evaluate and plan so that as soon as school campuses reopened, they were able to put their codes and action plans into action. The students and their Eco-Schools Coordinators should be very proud of their achievements and commitment to date.”

Read more here about the Globeducate commitment to Eco-Schools.