Sustainable Initiatives
GEMS Global Ambassadors’ Society (GGA) is a global collaborative community, founded in the year 2021 and has student and teacher ambassadors from 50 schools across 15 countries. A large number of participating schools are from the GEMS Education network.
The Society’s core mission is to spread awareness, take concerted action and provide innovative solutions toward achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) by 2030 in a grassroots attempt to transform the world. The movement aims to empower student agency towards the SDGs through a wide range of collaborative community projects in partnership with the twinning schools locally and internationally.
A few of the recently undertaken sustainable initiatives by GEMS Legacy School under GGA include:
Plogging
Plogging is an organized activity that started in Sweden around 2016 and gained momentum globally to address the growing concern about plastic pollution. Plogging has emerged from a combination of two Swedish verbs, plocka upp (pick up) and jogga (jog) which gives the new Swedish verb plogga. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting, and stretching to the main act of cleaning a public environment.
Walk for Water
Globally, about 1.7 billion people lack access to basic sanitation services, and 771 million people lack access to safe drinking water. The absence of these necessities is not only inconvenient — it is lethal. Every day, more than 800 children under 5 die from diseases like diarrhoea that are linked to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation or poor hygiene. In protracted conflicts, children under 5 are more than 20 times more likely to die from diarrheal disease linked to unsafe WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) than violence in conflict.
Sustainable Recipes
The world’s food system is responsible for about one-quarter of the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that humans generate each year. The UAE currently imports approximately 87 per cent of its total food supply – but aquaculture and hydroponic farming could help build a more sustainable future, all while facilitating fresher, better-tasting dishes.
Students from GEMS schools work collaboratively to develop GHGE-reduced, nutritionally adequate, and affordable recipes that not only deliver on taste but also have a sustainability edge. This selection of recipes is designed to excite and inspire as they have a low carbon footprint and enable a culture of mindful eating.
Mr Angus Mackay - Director of Division for Planet
STREAMability
The GEMS Global Ambassadors’ Program has under its umbrella a unique program called ‘STREAMability’ that aims to catalyze independent learning, hands-on innovation, and collaborative leadership, and create a restorative mindset towards a research-driven sustainable future. Teams of students with varying cognitive abilities work together to find imaginative and innovative solutions to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030.
The objectives of STREAMability are:
- Inclusion - To mobilize and provide an opportunity for pre-adolescents to collaborate in an inclusive environment
- Research - To introduce students to an elementary view of research and appreciate its importance in the process of independent learning
- Collaboration- To provide a collaborative platform for students to present without the anxieties associated with competition
- Innovation – To embed innovation skills in students by building future fluencies through STREAM-embedded learning
Climate Diaries
The ‘Climate Diaries’ is a collection of stories written by children aged 11 to 15 years and is a unique offering of thoughts and ideas to create more sustainable societies. Students and staff from GEMS schools collaborated with young minds across schools in the UAE, India, Australia, and the UK to create and publish a compilation of climate stories written by children for children around the world.
The ‘Climate Diaries’ unfold student reflections, illustrations, and thoughts on the importance of climate literacy and climate actions as we strive to achieve the goal of a sustainable future. The narratives based in different contexts and countries around the world offer a kaleidoscopic view of the environment and the challenges it faces.
More To Explore
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Education for Sustainable Development means including key sustainable development issues in teaching and learning; for example, climate change, disaster risk reduction, biodiversity, poverty reduction, and sustainable consumption.
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Explore current sustainability events taking place.
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