The importance of teaching children about the environment
This picture dates back to the 15th of April 2008. As you can see, it was still pretty cool back then to be fully clothed in Abercrombie. My classmates and I created the beautiful board with its encouraging message, “Go green, preserve our earth”. We learned about the importance of reusing, reducing and recycling. These were pretty important values to teach to a class of 8-year-olds!
I believe schools should teach students the skills required to thrive both socially and professionally. Educational programs should adapt to our changing world, ensuring that the next generation of learners will be equipped to adapt to change, or more importantly create it! We’ve seen it happen with the rise of computer science courses for young children in preschool. Additionally, many apps such as codemonkey and scratchjr were created to teach kids the basics of coding. With the rise of technology and software companies, it’s only natural that we’re teaching kids these valuable skills.
Learning from these initiatives, shouldn’t we also teach kids about environmental sustainability? To mitigate the worst effects of climate change and adapt to a world that will be increasingly shaped by it, we need to create learning environments for the next experts in renewable energies and electric vehicles to emerge. By developing interest and skills from a young age, these individuals will be best positioned to create change within companies, or better still create their own mission-driven organisations!
I’m not saying that being exposed to environmental sustainability at a young age led me to study courses on climate change economics at university and start my career in Green Tech. In fact, I’m pretty sure there is zero causality as this exposure in primary school was brief and not sustained over the years. Ensuring that the next generation of sustainability enthusiasts and experts can emerge will require efforts to teach children about these topics over many years.
One organisation doing its part to educate children on the topic of sustainability is Amell Amatino’s Maintenant. The company was created in 2017, with the objective of sensitizing individuals to the importance of sustainability and the need for change. They work with businesses, higher education as well as children and primary schools!
When I set up the social enterprise MAINTENANT, my mission was to empower members of the community to adapt their lifestyles now for a happy future. This mission has never changed: it is in our DNA and the backbone of our company. Amell Amatino, Founder of Maintenant.
According to their 2019 Impact Report, the company has worked with 8 primary schools and 1290 children to help raise awareness on environmental challenges. Maintenant is also working to empower children to become change-makers, and they’re seeing positive results. A third of the children they interacted with declared they would work to change their behaviour. The company also has Junior Ambassadors, aged six to nine, which are already starting conversations on sustainability!
It’s so great to see that Maintenant recognises the importance of engaging people across all age groups. We’re going to need to bring together people of all ages and from all walks of life as we work jointly to fight climate change.
As individuals, we can all play a role in educating people on the subject of environmental sustainability, no matter their age. If you’re a parent, why not start conversations with your kids on the topic? Next time you read an interesting article on climate change, why not share it with your friends and family? Sometimes, all it takes is one conversation to start creating positive change.
