Our school community is committed to the COP21 treaties and the goal agreed there of keeping global warming below 1.5°C. In order to preserve our living space and the environment in which the students will live in the future, we, the teachers, students and parents, in close cooperation with the city of Bergheim, will make the Gutenberg-Gymnasium a CO2-neutral and climate-resilient school by 2030 and reduce emissions in the areas of: Heating, electricity, travelling to and from school, catering, procurement and disposal as well as the design of the school grounds, either reducing emissions to zero or, where this is not possible, offsetting the remaining emissions. Climate neutrality, sustainability, climate resilience and increasing biodiversity are central planning principles for all school and school grounds design measures. A key component of our climate protection work is reducing the school's CO2 emissions caused by travelling, food, heating, electricity and purchases. These are to be reduced to net zero by 2030 or the remaining emissions are to be offset. We have determined how much CO2 is emitted by each school.
We are a "collaborating school" in the network of UNESCO project schools in Germany and are striving to become a recognised UNESCO project school. Accordingly, we are committed to the 17 sustainability goals of UNESCO and want to focus our teaching and school life even more strongly on these interdisciplinary goals in the future and act in accordance with them in everyday school life. Two principles should apply to all key decisions at the school: 1. the sustainable must become the normal. 2. we want to adapt our behaviour, but above all our circumstances, to the 17 goals of sustainability. The school development work is organised in the five pillars of the UNESO project schools: - Human rights and democracy education - Intercultural learning and living together in diversity - Education for sustainable development - Global citizenship education - Risks and opportunities in the digital age - World heritage education We combined the work of the ESD pillar and Global Citizenship and carried out the Erasmus+ project on the topic of "How big is your footprint - together against the climate crisis" as part of our Erasmus+ feat. greenteam working group.