Over 700 schools participated in Green Schools Programme; Himachal Pradesh bags the Best Green State Award
Over 100 schools across India were certified ‘green’ by New Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on February 21, 2023. Of these, 19 schools received the topmost Annual Green School Awards for their exemplary initiatives in making their campuses environment-friendly and their students environment-conscious.
The awards, given annually by CSE, are based on an exhaustive and rigorous annual audit of resource management and environment-friendly practices within the school campuses. Schools conduct the audit themselves with CSE’s help.
The programme had been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic for the last three years and resumed this year.
Himachal Pradesh bagged the Best Green State Award, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. Awards were also conferred on the most proactive teachers, the “best state” and “best district”, etc, in an award ceremony by CSE. Director General Sunita Narain handed out the awards to the winners, the non-profit said in a press release.
“The unique aspect of this programme is the opportunity that it affords schools to measure their progress year on year and improve their ranking,” said Souparno Banerjee, senior director for environment education, CSE.
Over seven hundred schools from 29 states and Union territories vied for the honours; 19 of these received the top awards and 106 were tagged as ‘green’. Four hundred thirty-six government schools, 55 government-aided schools and 216 private schools participated in the audit.
The Green Schools Programme assessed each school that undertook the audit on its resource consumption practices in six areas — water management, solid waste management, energy efficiency, air pollution control, land and biodiversity management and food systems followed.
“The vibrancy and enthusiasm with which schools, their children and teachers have joined the 2022-23 audit, the efforts they have put in, is a tribute to the promise they hold, and foretells a future that is full of hope,” said Narain.
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Over 700 school participated in Green Schools Programme. Photo: CSE
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