#wecoeur 4 the future!

Background

Following the 2015 approval of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda, and the increasing climate warming reality, in 2018, the Sacré Cœur Gymnasium, Vienna, chose to focus some of its extra curriculum activities on Goal 13, Climate Action.

Objectives

• Reduce the use of plastic in the school premises.
• Improve school waste management.

Activities

• Avoid use of plastic bottles:
  • Installed a juice bar where students’ bottles could be refilled (companies were contacted for estimates).
  • Awareness raising activities: the 4A class visited a school in England and inspired their hosts to avoid using plastic bottles in their school premises.
• Waste management
  • Cleaning of school garden: the 4A class of 26 students cleaned the Gymnasium garden. 
  • Waste separation: Teachers checked on the waste separation of their classes. Each class has three bins to separate waste (paper, plastic bottles and the rest) and students have to make sure they separate their garbage correctly. Students get points for how clean the class is and for how well they separate waste. At the end of the school year, classes can win the internal school prize. The waste is collected by the municipality.  
• Environmental awareness raising activities:
  • Sustainability workshops among students: teachers or external people run these worshops.
    • The physics teachers run experiments on global warming. 
    • The art teacher runs recycling lessons and shows students how to make their own deodorant, etc.
    • External consultants are invited to run workshops on sustainability and consumption. Workshops lasted for 2 hours and were paid for by the parents association).
  • Dissemination of the gymnasium environmental care in social networks with the hashtag # WeCœur.

Results

• Collected 4 kilograms of waste from the school garden. The waste was gathered in bins in the garden and then collected by the municipality. 
• The 4A class of the Gymnasium Sacré Cœur Vienna won the St Georg Education Award  in the student category of the Main Association of Catholic Parents' Associations in Austria (HVKEV).
• Students became inspired to fight climate change. 

People being served : Agents of transformation (Educators)

Age group : Children 0-17

Number of participants : mai-50

Project status : Ongoing

Society presence : Austria|Central Europe

Focus of the project : Planet

JPIC Imperative : Care for Our Common Home

UN Sustainable Development Goals : 13 Climate Action, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, 17 Partnerships for the Goals, 4 Quality Education