Eco-School Project:  eco-sustainability, perseverance and awareness

We are proud to present the Eco-School Project! It is an initiative born within H-FARM International School, which has always had as its primary objective the promotion of eco-sustainability and the fight against food waste. A comprehensive project, directly coordinated by the science and chemistry teacher, Vincenzo Rosario La Franca Pitarresi. He truly desired to obtain both  a complete and an engaging initiative for the entire school community.

H-FARM International School, thanks to Eco-School, has seized the opportunity to focus on food waste and also to emphasise climate change and plastic pollution. The entire project is enriched by significant collaborations: with the BioDesign Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organisation committed to promoting the relationship between humans, technology, production, and the environment through research and implementation of sustainable solutions that generate economic growth; with Arpav, the regional agency for environmental prevention and protection of the Veneto region; and with Sesa Este, a company involved in waste collection, transformation, and valorization in the Paduan area.

Eco-School has channelled all the students’ desire to participate into a calendar full of green events, which manifest in multiple activities:

• making class-made batik using completely natural and non-polluting coloured powders (M2 and M3 classes, MYP);
• creating digital posters promoting the fight against food waste (M2 and M3 classes, MYP);
• composing a rap song, arranged and produced by the students themselves, with lyrics focused on the school’s green nature (M2 and M3 classes, MYP).
• producing a documentary titled “Feeding the Bin: a Documentary on Food Waste” by three MYP students;
• a visit by younger students to the Contarina waste collection service, a “door-to-door” system that is part of the environmental services of the Treviso province. Through this interesting field trip, students had the opportunity to witness firsthand the collection and disposal of waste that they themselves differentiate day by day during their school life (Y2, PYP);
• the school’s collaboration with WWF, through which a group of students were able to participate personally in tree planting;
• an activity dedicated to cleaning up the Certosa Island, which is cleaned and cared for every Sunday by students who have joined the initiative.

In addition to the various activities aimed at combating food waste and safeguarding the ecosystem, an environmental survey was conducted within the school community. A questionnaire was administered to all students to highlight their level of awareness regarding key environmental issues, such as the inevitable climate change in which we find ourselves immersed.

Finally, what values does Eco-School intend to convey to us? Certainly perseverance, on the part of all those who live on campus every day and who have always been committed to raising awareness among young people on important issues such as waste sorting, respect for the surrounding environment, and active engagement in the fight against food waste. An initiative of this “nature”, in the true sense of the word, only serves to highlight the breadth and solidity of these principles, as well as the desire to continue sharing them. The goal is to apply them, day by day, by using school boundaries not as a limit, but as a means of positive and proactive values.