Sekolah Ciputra is now an Eco School – the only one in Surabaya and one of only four in the whole of Indonesia. As an Eco School we will be striving to practice sustainable behaviour and ensure that everything we do today is making the world a better place.  We will be spending the next two years working towards the Green Flag Award which is internationally recognised and most prestigious. 

We will begin working on a 7 Step Process which involves conducting a Sustainability Audit and writing an Action Plan for areas of the school that we feel need change.  All of this is student driven and we are incredibly proud of the fact that we have 140 students who have nominated to work with us on the Eco School Committee. The establishment of an Eco School Committee is the first step in the Eco School process.  These are students from PYP1 – Grade 12 so this will truly be a continuum initiative.  We will have a core Eco School Committee of 20 students from PYP 4 – Gr 12 and then we will have eight sub-committees who will work on conducting the Sustainability Audit which is the second step.  These audits will take place in Terms 2 & 3 and the sub committees will also begin working on activities and events related to their areas which include: Litter, waste, energy, school grounds, transport, food, water and sanitation and biodiversity and nature.  The Junior Eco School committee comprising of PYP 1 – 3 students will begin working on ideas to feed up to the core committee so everyone’s voice will be heard.

Parents will also be invited to join the Eco School committee meetings as advisors and mentors so if you have a specific interest or passion for any one of those areas listed above, we would love to hear from you.

In Term 4, the survey data will be used to determine a number of areas in which we feel we could improve and an Action Plan will be written by the students for the 2023/24 academic year.

This is just the beginning and we really hope you are ready to come on this journey with us and to make some significant changes to your own lives in order to make the world a better place for our children.

We are also happy to announce that we have once again partnered with Bye Bye Plastic Bags in order to bring some interesting, engaging and purposeful activities to our students. We are working with BBPB to move closer to eradicating the dreaded plastic bag from all our shops in Surabaya.

We were privileged to be invited to host the screening of Bigger than Us at the beginning of this term and it was a wonderful experience for all who attended. Melati Riyanto Wijsen, the founder of BBPB and Youthtopia joined us after the screening for some Q & A with our guests and it was truly inspirational. This was our first Sustainability event of the year and it was a great movie about young changemakers all over the world.

So as you can see – big changes are coming!  Stay tuned and help us to empower our students to help us make the world a better place.

Christine Stayte

Sustainability and Service Committee