The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) launched phase six of the ‘Green School’ initiative on Monday across Tata Steel’s operational locations in Jharkhand and Odisha.

The launch was announced to celebrate the achievements of the initiative over the years and pave a sustainable path for the future.

TSF is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Steel Limited and is the CSR implementing organisation while TERI is an independent, multi-dimensional research organisation with capabilities in policy research, technology development, and implementation.

Collaborating on sixth phase of the Green School Project, TERI and TSF will work towards educating and empowering young minds in the age group of 12-14 years on water, energy, forest, biodiversity, and waste management to undertake awareness and action projects at school and community levels to develop solutions enabling the creation of a sustainable environment.

The Green School Project was launched in 2017by TSF and TERI to work towards creating awareness about environmental conservation in schools through curriculum linkages, action projects, and capacity-building activities.

“In all 869 students from 45 schools joined the launch event along with 95 teachers. To commemorate the launch of the sixth phase, the students, teachers, TERI and TSF staff came together to plant 350 trees on Monday and another 475 plants will be planted over this week across locations,” said a statement issued by Tata Steel.

TERI director general Vibha Dhawan stressed the significance of initiatives such as the Green School Project in creating awareness of sustainability at the grassroots for children.

“Combining Tata group ethos along with our vision of a sustainable future, we can raise awareness among the children to create awareness on the adequate use of resources because we only have one planet.

“Once we educate the children on the adverse effects of the overuse of resources, many of our problems would be addressed at many levels,” said Dhawan.

Director, TSF Chanakya Chaudhary addressing the ceremony said, “I am glad that we are stepping up and reaching a stage for which we have been working hard over the past six-seven years. Now, we need to focus on the outcomes of the programme and ensure that more schools are adopting this replicable model to walk the road to sustainability together.”

“Sixth phase of the Green School Project will focus on creating modules for different categories of schools (early, experienced and evolved under the Green School Project) for knowledge enhancement and replication through project interventions,” further added the statement issued by Tata Steel.

Early schools refer to new entrants to the world of understanding environmental sustainability. Experienced schools have been part ofthe ongoing Green School Project for at least three years in a row.

In contrast, evolved schools consist of schools that have created a sustainable environment by addressing their energy, waste, water, forests, and biodiversity issues through their learnings from precious project activities.