Schools for climate neutrality – Vision Workshops in Minsk Mazowiecki and in Zamość, Poland

Creating a vision on where to go is very helpful for starting the path towards becoming a climate-neutral school. This way, the school community agrees on what this might involve and which measures they want to start with to make it possible.

In order to do so, the participating schools conduct their own vision workshops. These project day(s) bring together different stakeholders from the school community such as teaching staff, school and facility management, students from different grades, possibly parents and other stakeholders e.g. from the municipality. With their various insights and perspectives, they discuss which concrete goals they want to focus on to save greenhouse gas emissions and raise awareness. As a result, they are equipped with a roadmap to their climate-neutral school that states individual steps over the next years. Following this, they can plan each climate action in an organized manner, spreading responsibility across several shoulders.

Students and teachers from the Mikolaj Kopernik Primary School No. 1 and the Jozef Wybicki Primary School No. 5 in Minsk Mazowiecki joined efforts with parents, representatives of local institutions and experts to create an action plan to bring each school closer to achieving climate neutrality. The Orląt Lwowskich Primary School No. 8 and Primary School No. 10 with Integrated Branches in Zamość did the same. Their vision workshop was even attended by over 60 people, who had the opportunity to learn more about climate neutrality through interactive methods and exercises and to gather new ideas for climate-neutral actions in the school community by working together in small groups.

The schools analyzed their carbon footprint before the workshop to use it as a starting point for generating ideas. Knowing where they stand helps to identify the biggest levers and determine the targeted state in a better way. All participants showed a lot of commitment and discussed numerous interesting suggestions of taking action in five thematic areas:

• Energy efficiency and emission reduction in the school building
• Schoolyard and water resources
• Mobility and travel
• Consumption – food, waste and supplies
• Educational activities – building good habits

Some example ideas that came up:

• initiating a green roof on the school
• setting up a biogas plant next to the school
• marking switches/taps/trash bins with pictograms to remind the users of good habits
• setting up a school compost pile
• collecting and using rainwater on school grounds
• building a modern bike shed
• creating an app that would reward environmental activities and behaviors
• setting up student energy patrols
• regularly (e.g. monthly) celebrating a car free day
• …

It is worth noting that the schools are already taking climate actions, too – at SP No. 10, students initiated a zone of silence and sensory garden, and SP No. 8 installed photovoltaic panels and a heat pump.

After developing concrete ideas, the participants voted on the ones they perceive as most impactful to save emissions, which could be prioritized. However, the vote also included selecting their favorite measures to pick up on this motivation.

Of course, schools should be supported in implementing their vision of a climate-neutral school. The workshop offered the chance to invite and connect with stakeholders that could be able to support, such as local organizations and especially the municipality. The roadmaps prepared during the workshop will work as a guide for their journey towards climate neutrality.

Overall, coming together for a vision workshop can motivate participants to be more involved in taking climate action, to demand changes supported by their local governments and to transform their school and school environment.