Environmental Educators Get Fresh Ideas

Study exchange tour in Japan sets the stage for hands-on environmental learning

In March 2009, the Education for Sustainable Development program conducted its second multi-national exchange, as ISC partners from the U.S. and China visited Nishinomiya, Japan. Highlighting the cultural and demographic similarities between Nishinomiya and many communities in China’s Guangdong province, this second study tour was aimed at broadening the vision of what Chinese participants could accomplish in their own communities.

ISC’s partner in Nishinomiya, Learning and Ecological Activities for Children (LEAF), has worked closely with city government, schools, businesses, and nonprofits to transform the city into a recognized model of environmentalism in Japan, and graciously hosted the exchange.

The study tour focused on how to successfully implement school-based environmental programs, and integrate them into broader community participation in energy efficiency. Ultimately, the educators from all three countries hope to create a common framework that communities can use to involve students in hands-on environmental and energy efficiency projects, inspire their older peers to do the same, and win support from the community at large.

Included in the exchange were a number of learning activities that will help them reach that goal:

• Participants attended a meeting of an eco-community—one of 20 in Nishinomiya—to discuss how the community’s teachers, government and community leaders, and environmental organizations have all worked cooperatively to cultivate an environmental ethic in their city.
• The group visited exhibitions that showcased student projects and provided examples of how to tangibly convey environmental issues to the community.
• They toured a sustainable farm to learn about how highlighting local sustainability can support classroom learning.
• Finally, they joined an inspriring kindergarten class to observe environmental education in action.

The Chinese delegation, in particular, was amazed by how these education and outreach efforts in Nishinomiya have combined to create a city whose citizens, from all walks of life, have made a community-wide commitment to environmental stewardship. Education programs support this clean community, weaving sustainability messages into all aspects of the residents’ daily lives. The community, in turn, then supports the programs.

Among the best examples of this community/educational partnership is Nishinomiya’s EcoCard program, in which students of any age can become “Earth Rangers” by participating in environmental education activities at businesses, municipal facilities, museums, and community organizations around the city. They then receive a stamp in a special EcoCard passport.

Already, lessons learned from the Japan study tour have translated into tangible results in ISC’s pilot community of Doumen, China. In a program modeled after the EcoCard, for example, students can now become “Green Guardians” by completing and documenting various energy efficiency projects in their homes and neighborhoods. Also in Doumen, an evening educational workshop in November 2009 featured an exhibition of students’ environmental projects, as well as other games and activities aimed at engaging the community as a whole in practicing sustainability.

No less important is the network of sustainability educators, established during the first exchange to China in December 2008, that can now share effective resources and best practices, help each other through obstacles, and work together to address environmental challenges at a community level.

The study exchange included participants from ISC China, Shelburne Farms in Vermont, and South China Normal University in Guangdong. A third exchange, hosted by Shelburne Farms in September 2009, reunited participants in Vermont to continue building their cooperative relationships, and to learn about the connections between sustainable business practices, environmental education, and sustainable development.