For the entire month of April, Safecity is making a case for safety, especially women’s safety in our cities and communities – one of the targets of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. As a part of this worldwide effort, we are focusing on Goal 11 – ‘Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’.

Safecity (registered under Red Dot Foundation) is a platform, founded in 2012, that crowdsources personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces. This data which maybe anonymous, gets aggregated as hot spots on a map indicating trends at a local level. The idea is to make this data useful for individuals, local communities and local administration to identify factors that causes behavior that leads to violence and work on strategies for solutions.

Come join me with Safecity for a discussion on safe and sustainable cities!

I curate Safecity’s Twitter account (@pinthecreep) this week again for the third time, for an exchange of thoughts, a debate, new perspectives, and most importantly to know more about what it takes to make our cities safer for all. I discuss this with a focus on ‘Omission of women in urban planning’. I’ll also be conducting a Twitter chat concerning safety in India’s 100 smart cities on 8th April 2016 9 PM IST/11:30 PM EST. Save the date!

Sustainability @Schools

The best we can do for our Mother Earth is to leave a Generation behind 'Recharged' with Sustainability Science. Our Kids are the future, and where better to get a Sustainable and Green Living start than at the School. It is an ideal place to learn to grow Edible Gardens,create a worm farm and get instant pets or learn to create beautiful crafts from recycled stuffs. However, as the world is trying to come in terms with the ever changing paradigm of Sustainability, the schools also face certain challenges at hand. How to address Sustainability in the Curriculum ? How teachers and staffs sell 'Sustainability' to the administrators ?

Mission Sustainability @Schools should address the areas of Energy Conservation,Waste Reduction, Water Conservation,School Grounds and Transportation. The schools should have check-lists and audit mechanisms to keep their Sustainability goals in place for these respective areas.

Water Conservation

GHS Uttarahalli a School based in Bangalore has made 'Greening Experience' as a part of their Students curriculum. There teachers and students Teamed up to create a Rain Water harvesting unit that will save both Money and Water for the school. The students had a field experience of creating an Environmental unit and see it work too.
Water Usage audit must be performed on a daily basis at the school level and also to encourage students to assess their personal usage 'Water Usage' worksheets must be presented to them. More so Schools should haveWater Reduction Checklist including measures such as Regular repairs of Leaks in taps and fountains,replace toilets with Low Flow toilets,organize class level clean up drives.

School Grounds
Green School grounds contribute to the overall well being of the students and the community involved. Natural planting of trees and shrubs can diminish Noise pollution and assist in cooling classrooms. Students should be encouraged to do gardening as such exercises provides them hands on opportunity to grow food,understand benefits of vegetables and promote sustainability. The School Yard Greening checklist should involve - creating a design that responds to the schools Ecological setting, involving local gardening community for delivering lectures on greening and biodiversity, establish a maintenance plan including weeding,watering,trimming and pruning. Thus Green School grounds promote Healthy activities for the community involved.

Transportation
Walking or Cycling to Schools promote health and reduces fuel consumption.Private Organizations,NGO's can partner with schools to issueStart Up Cycling or Walking kits that involve - Road Safety Tips,Neighbourhood Maps plotting customized Maps for Walking/Cycling routes,Reflective Vests for Students/Community Volunteer to wear and so on.
Transportation Audit can be integrated with the students curriculum.Students should be encouraged to use CO2 Calculators to find out how much Emission they can reduce using Sustainable Transportation.Sustainable Transportation checklist should involve Encourage students and staffs to walk or cycle to school,Host a bike to School event,Provide incentives for Car Pools if students stay at parts far away from School.

Reduce,Reuse,Recycle
Waste Segregation should be integrated with the existing curriculum for students. They should learn the importance of Segregation and understand the value of Waste reduction. Also Students should be taught to develop their own DIY Compost. As large scale Composting program can generate revenue by the sale of Finished Compost,this money can be used to offset the cost of Recycling.

Energy Conservation
Energy generation process from Renewable resources should be promoted at Schools through Curriculum. Energy Usage calculation can be taught at various levels at Schools so that students and teachers understand the importance of Energy conservation. Energy Audit check-list should have - Energy usage for Heating or Cooling,GHG emission due to Energy usage, Energy Saver Mode for Electronic equipments, Promotion of Natural lighting usage,Energy Star rating for Equipments and so on.

Thus, Sustainable Schools Best Practices Guide must be created and promoted. Such a guide should enlist these Checklists for respective areas,so that Schools can perform Self Audit to evaluate and tabulate their Sustainability Goals. More so, to promote Sustainability within Schoolcertain steps can be taken -
> Establish a School Green Team involving both Students and Teachers
> Organize Green Schools Surveys and Events to Educate the school community about the benefits of Greening and Sustainability
> Develop short and long term goals for Sustainability
> Appoint Consulting organization or Advising Authority for enhancing Sustainability at School

Hence, creating a School wide approach to Sustainability will engage our children in the Sustainability framework and ultimately Save our Earth.

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Join me with Safecity for a discussion on Safe and Sustainable Cities

Come join me with Safecity for a discussion on safe and sustainable cities!

5 Tips to Create Sustainability at Schools

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