This project alongside with its two end results, the memory game and the Little Green Toolkit, is our attempt to change the direction we are heading, our attempt to make a difference, and we decided that the best way to do so is to change the attitudes of the grown-ups of tomorrow, our students. In the start we had very ambitious goals: 1. To transform our schools to zero-waste schools by reducing, reusing and recycling. 2. To adopt green habits into our schools' daily lives. 3. To reduce energy consumption and implement a wiser water management at our schools. 4. To test, evaluate, adopt or adapt methods of the past and present generations for a sustainable way of life. 5. To adopt practices that preserve and restore biodiversity in urban and agricultural spaces (depending on the physical environment of each participant’s school). 6. To find methods and means to motivate and inspire learners as well as teachers to begin the path towards a more sustainable way of life. 7. To support the skills of teachers in active use and implementation of environmental topics into daily teaching. 8. To produce a toolkit on climate change and environmental education including theoretical background, innovative teaching resources and worksheets.
Our journey together started long before this project in hand, and as a matter of fact this GREEN CROSSROADS project could be seen as a continuation to the ROOTS project, in which we worked on cultural heritage and traditions. During that project we noticed that the world was, and still is changing dramatically. Winter holidays mean no skiing; Springs go by without certain bugs and plants; Summers' heatwaves and indian summers are taking over the autumns; floods and tropical style of rains are occurring frequently. All this touched us deeply and worried us a lot. And so we, a group of schools from all over Europe, felt that we had the responsibility to help our planet, the only one we’ve got, somehow. With the information and knowledge gained from past generations, we were looking ahead, at a crossroads, trying to figure out which is the right path to follow in the future. This project aimed to explore and choose the right green path and thus support the actions of a sustainable future for our planet.