Let’s Go Zero Carbon Fund winner Eco-Schools has today launched ‘The Playground’ – an innovative online tool which giving pupils a voice in their school’s decarbonisation journey.
Fully funded through a grant from Let’s Go Zero, The Playground is freely available to all UK schools. It empowers staff and students to understand their carbon footprint and take action to reduce it.
Building on Eco-School’s Count Your Carbon calculator, The Playground marks the next phase of its development – a completely new section of the website which will gamify carbon cutting actions live on screen, in real time.
It enables teaching staff to explore the school’s carbon footprint with pupils, before giving them an active role in reducing emissions by applying hypothetical changes to their most recent carbon footprint calculation, such as adapting school policies, actions and infrastructure.
Keep Britain Tidy’s Chief Executive Allison Ogden-Newton OBE said: “We hope the launch of The Playground will inspire a deeper understanding of a school’s carbon footprint and how to reduce it, improving pupil’s climate literacy.
“Along with knowledge and insight from Let’s Go Zero’s Climate Action Advisors, we hope The Playground will help schools to build pupil voices into their Climate Action Plans.”
The Playground will cover six key areas of a school’s operations, allowing pupils to model the impact of a variety of actions, from introducing more plant-based meals, to reducing water usage, and encouraging more people to walk or wheel to school.
It can also be used as a teaching resource to help pupils discuss how schools can be more climate-conscious and inspire schools, teachers and students to think more about what they can do to reduce emissions.
Head of Let’s Go Zero Alex Green said: “The Playground is a brilliant example of how we can put the power to tackle climate change into the hands of students. At Let’s Go Zero, we believe schools are at the heart of creating a zero carbon future, and this tool helps make that future feel tangible and achievable. By giving pupils and teachers the tools to understand and reduce their carbon footprints together, The Playground supports climate literacy, wellbeing, and whole-school engagement – all while helping schools take real steps toward a more sustainable future.”
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