EcoMe

Wellant College Amersfoort

In 2007 One Planet developed the concept EcoMe. This is a program for CO² and Footprint reduction aimed at VMBO schoolchildren and their families. The children are asked to take a neutral measurement of their home situation regarding energy consumption, water consumption, mobility, nutrition, etc. For the next three months they then perform practical tasks to reduce the Footprint and CO² emission of their family.

This concept was developed along with Wellant College Amersfoort and the pilot project will take place here. A successful pilot project would mean the programs could be rolled out to the other 26 Wellant Colleges in the Netherlands. It is partly a friendly competition amongst the school classes to see which class could realise the largest measured average reduction in Footprint within three to four months, and who could produce the best percentages. A jury selects the winners and the children stand to win beautiful prizes.

Aims

1. Regarding pupils (and indirectly also their teachers and parents):

To teach them the importance and cause of climate change and the exhaustion of natural resources, and the measurableness of their own contribution to that by means of the mondial Footprint.

To let them see and discover what they themselves can do in actual practice to reduce their own emission of CO2 and Footprint, and that of their parents and the school.

To let them learn by means of projects and participation with other pupils in a mutual goal, and then to let them present the results and share these with one another.

2. To develop a series of lessons, based on the pilot project at the Wellant College Amersfoort, that:

Could be distributed to the rest of the 26 Wellant Colleges in the Netherlands (Wellant is the biggest educational institution in the Netherlands for 12-16 year olds with ca. 55% of the market).

Could be used as a subdivision of the annual school curriculum.

Could serve as a starting point for projects at other school levels: elementry school, HAVO, VWO complementing all existing syllabuses about climate change and Footprint.

The University of Utrecht wishes to measure the educational effect of the project EcoMe. Other partners have signed declarations of their intent to participate and Wellant also wishes to invest many hours into the project. Investors as well as subsidies are still needed for this project. Parties who would like to assist or businesses that would like to have their names associated with these programs are welcome to contact us.

Contact:
paul.heistein@oneplanet.org