Sustainable Education from Around the World

How important is education for saving the planet? This video will show you the different methods that are being used from around the world to educate people, from green tourism to green schools and even ski slopes on top of clean energy plants. So let's get right into it. Getting people engaged with sustainability is key to saving this planet. Creating major tourist attractions which educate people on sustainability is one of the best ways we can get people involved. The gardens by the bay do exactly this. Here there are two main conservatories which are amongst the largest climate controlled glasshouses in the world. They showcase plants from environments which are most likely to be affected by climate change. One dome being tropical, the other mediterranean. We left the busy city of Singapore and entered into the tropical dome called the cloud forest. Once inside, people are connected right away with nature. Designs like this change the way people think towards the environment and make them have a much greater respect for its beauty. Dotted around the cloud forest are information plaques, educating people on the climate change effects. As you enter inside the waterfall rock, you are taken on a journey through the changes that humans have made to the earth. You see the devastating effects that humans are having, but you also see the solutions that can be made and how everyone can make a difference. We can also learn from the design of the dome itself. Special glass allows optimal lighting for the plants but reduces a substantial amount As you leave the domes, the education continues into the surrounding gardens, where more information plaques teach the public on different sustainable factors. The supertrees within the gardens incorporate technologies such as photovoltaics to harvest energy for the evening light show. Overall, Singapore sets an example and shows the rest of the world what modern tourist attractions should aim to achieve. Moving on to Copenhagen now, where they believe that education on sustainability can be done by engaging the public directly with the energy sector. This has been achieved by placing a ski slope on top of the cleanest waste-to-energy power plant in the world. We took the glass lift to the top, which showed us inside the factory where 440,000 tonnes of waste is being converted into clean energy annually. Once you reach the summit, you see the toxin-free steam being released, and the very start of one of the world's largest artificial ski slopes. Creating a sustainable future doesn't have to be limiting, it can actually make our lives more enjoyable, as this building has shown. The architect, Bjarke Ingels, hopes that this project will inspire those across the world. Elsewhere in Copenhagen is the international school, where the children are learning from the building itself. It is covered in 12,000 solar panels, which supply more than half the school's energy needs. The school children monitor and learn about the solar panels in their maths and physics lessons. Teaching children from a young age that sustainability is normal is incredibly important for the future of our planet. Over in Bali, Indonesia, a green school is becoming a role model for sustainable education. Here, the children are learning about design through the use of the world's most sustainable material, bamboo. We went to Bali to check out this material. It was fascinating to see how fast the bamboo could grow, and how it could be used in a variety of ways, but more of that to come in a separate video. Now back to green school, where the founder, John Hardy, explains why this material is so important. If you plant bamboo today, in just five years, you'll have all the bamboo you need for the rest of your life to build all the buildings you ever want to need, and that's why we chose bamboo to make green school. The school is a natural learning environment, where the children learn about topics such as renewable energy and crop growth. All of this is done to try and empower the children, and encourage them to make a difference to our future. By living sustainably, we learn how to solve problems. We turn used cooking oil into fuel. We grow our own food. We experiment. We innovate. We're building a model for the future. We can make a difference. Education is our ally. The future of our planet is now. We are the future. Thank you for listening. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and join How We Save Earth. Next week I'll show you how the smartest buildings in the world are saving the planet, so you won't want to miss it.