Green school (KA5030)

The project is creating a Green school model as a school addressing global environmental problems in the local community by education and practical youth-led action.
The schools will get a model of practical involvement of youth in environmental action. The Green school model, formulated as a result of summarizing and developing experiences of the best Karelian educators, will be tested in 6 pilot schools (3 in Finland and 3 in Karelia Republic) and disseminated inside and outside the region.
The Green school model will include the following changes in the school and in the local community:
1) The school itself becomes a model of environmentally-friendly organization: thanks to education, improvement of facilities and student-led actions the school will reduce the generated ecological harm, apply modern policies of energy and water saving, recycling. Each pilot school will reach measurable economy of natural resources used, and it means the finance economy as well.
2) The teachers responsible for environmental education use modern teaching methods which are creating connections between personal action of a student and global environmental challenges. The students are actively involved in the environmental research and action. The project will produce a special tool – Ecocase (Экочемодан): it’s a suitcase with instructions and special tools for assessment of environmental problems of a building. For example, a thermal imager will help students to find the places in school where the thermal energy is lost and then fix the problems found. The Ecocase is a practical tool which will be tested, produced and then disseminated to a high number of schools accompanied with the educational methods. It will lead to significant changes in the educational system by making it more corresponding to modern environmental standards.
3) The students are motivated to bring modern environmental knowledge to their families and improve their households together with parents. The environmental impact from using green technologies in the households will be measurable and significant for the local communities.
4) The schools bring modern environmental knowledge to the local institutions: organizations and businesses. The student teams will conduct environmental assessment of the local organizations using the Ecocase and develop reports containing the found problems, proposed solutions and their cost-effectiveness. Promotion of green technologies at the enterprises and social institutions will be a notable contribution to sustainable development.

The Green school model will be developed in 6 pilot schools, which are the most motivated and most prepared for such work. Planning seminars for the teachers will be organized together with experts in environmental education. The Ecocase will be developed, produced in initial version and delivered to pilot schools. The “green teams” – student volunteers groups – will be formed in each pilot school.
The pilot schools are working according to the Green school model during the project period and contribute to it by own experiences and action. Their work starts with the international training program for “green teams” in Nurmes, Petrozavodsk and Oulu Cities. The students will pass practical training in green technologies and apply new methods in their schools and communities.
The schools will research and improve the school facilities using the Ecocase, organize annual “Green week” information campaign in their local communities, evaluate the ecological and economic impact of their action. Green schools will be actively working in their communities, promoting environmental improvements in the households, community organizations and businesses.
On the final stage of the project new methods will be disseminated. The Ecocase will be produced in the final version. Methodical brochure describing the Green school model will be prepared. Dissemination seminars in Republic of Karelia, North Karelia and Oulu region will present the project experience to the teachers and school managers interested in environmental education.

The project budget is 449 646 euros, the grant amount is 404 000 euros.

See details in the project presentation

Project news

Lead Partner - Karelian Education Development Fund (Petrozavodsk City, Russia)

The mission of Karelian Education Development Fund is to promote new and efficient approaches to education of children and youth in the Republic of Karelia, to improve the efficiency of educational programs within fields of education and culture via cooperation with educational institutions, as well as administrative bodies. The Fund implements socially-oriented projects, renders administrative and expert support to education stakeholders, manages fundraising and charity activities.
The Fund was founded in 2000 and since then has implemented over 35 projects in the field of education in partnership with national and international organizations, recieving funding from national and international funding instruments.

KEDF has implemented several large-scaled international projects and is well-familiar with the requirements and procedures of Karelia CBC Programme. It has enough resources to ensure timely and proper inplementation of the project as Lead Partner in administrative, financial and organizational respects. The Fund has a wide cooperation network to ensure dissemination of project results throughout educational and cultural institutions of the Republic of Karelia, as well as ensuring participation of stakeholders in project activities. The staff is qualified and capable of planning and implementing the project, organizing communication and visibility of project results, and reporting.
KEDF has implemented 3 projects within Karelia ENPI CBC Program in 2012-2014: Lead partner in "Matka.ru" and "Museum for family", as well as a partner in "Addressing challenging health inequalities of children and youth between two Karelias".

Partner 1 - Hyvärilä Youth and Holiday Centre (City of Nurmes, Finland)

Hyvärilä Youth and Holiday Centre is one of 10 Finnish national youth centres that are financed and overseen by Finland´s Ministry of Education and Culture. Hyvärilä is focusing on providing educational programs, youth camps, social youth work and events for local, regional and international youth. The Karelian nature with its tree-covered hills, the proximity of wilderness at the eastern border and the Karelian culture are seen as the strength of the centre. As a youth centre, we are obliged to develop our activities in accordance with the ideas of sustainable development and to keep a Quality Handbook.  The location along lake Pielinen provides comfortable, all-purpose lodging alternatives as well as auxiliary buildings like a sports hall. Hyvärilä is also a notable event, holiday and sports resort situated in Bomba area thatr promotes Karelian cultural heritage. 

International youth work has been in Hyvärilä´s agenda for over 10 years. The expertise on leading and participating Erasmus+ EU programme funded youth exchanges is strong. Hyvärilä also has previous experience of partnering in Karelia ENPI CBC funded cooperations and being an active partner in other projects with Russian cooperatives. 

Partner 2 - State institution "Resource center for supplementary education development" (Petrozavodsk City, Russia)

The partner is a regional center for children supplementary education working under administration of the RK Ministry of Education. The center is a well-known and experienced actor in environmental education. Acting as a regional resource center the partner helps schools in Karelia to create a strong system of education for sustainable development. The partner formed network of schools interested in modern environmental education in all the districts of Karelia Republic.
In 2012-2014 Ecology and biology center was a partner in ENPI Matka.ru project. Now it administrates the Matkachi youth center created as a result of the project.
The center has partnerships with the Science Academy department, Petrozavodsk State University, RK Ministry of natural resources, environmental and youth NGOs. The partner has high level specialists and methodical resources for the project content development.

The Partner is a lead expert organization in youth environmental education in Republic of Karelia. Created in the year 1950, the regional ecology and biology center is managing educational programs in the sphere of environment during 67 years. Kim Andreev, the famous Karelian educator and scientist who worked in the center for a long period, was a founder of the innovative educational models such as Youth Forest Academy, which was the first in the Soviet Union. The center is named by Kim Andreev and develops the best traditions of innovative education.
Specialists of the center provide resources for schools, kindergatens, afterschool centers to educate young generation as people understanding their responsibility for Karelia as a region with a unique nature and contributing to sustainable development process.
The regional educational projects of Ecology and biology center are very popular amoung young people and educators. Activites of the center are regularly covered by mass-media.

In the years 2012-2014 the center was a partner in ENPI Matka.ru project. It was responsible for creating the Matkachi youth center, and the task was implemented in spite of strict deadlines and many difficulties. Now the center is actively used for outdoor educational programs.
Director of the center Svetlana Nachinova has experience in EU project since the year 2002. Working in the city administration of Petrozavodsk during the years 2000-2010 as a director of Youth department, she was a Russian director in 2 EU projects.
In 2002-2004 Svetlana Nachinova was a Russian director in the Karelian Youth Netwrok project of Tacis CBC programme. The project connected youth organizations from North Karelia and Republic of Karelia using the Internet platform.
In 2007-2008 Svetlana Nachinova was a Russian director in the Youth House Karelia project implemented within the Euregio Karelia Neighborhood Programme. The project supported development of informal methods of environmental education, such as youth environmental camps and cultural events. Youth organizations in North Karelia and Republic of Karelia exchanged the best practices of environmental education and implemented new methods and models in their work. Youth visit center was opened nearby Petrozavodsk, and during last 10 years it was used for lowcost outdoor programs of youth organizations.

Denis Rogatkin, project manager (Russia): denis.rogatkin@yandex.ru

Phone +7911 4365155

Ekaterina Sysoeva, project coordinator (Finland): 

tel. +358 50 570 8634, ekaterina.sysoeva@nurmes.fi