All over the world, children and young people are demanding knowledge and action on climate change. CONCITO Climate Embassy’s vision and main effort is to develop a “green spine” in the school curriculum for all grade levels, and thereby educate green generations in the future at a national scale.
The Climate Embassy consists of a secretariat that develops teaching material and educational courses about climate change and sustainability. The Climate Embassy includes a huge network of young voluntary Climate Ambassadors, who visit schools around the country teaching and facilitating workshops on topics such as:
- Resources, reuse and circular economy
- Sustainable energy and transportation
- Sustainable food
- Sustainable behaviour
- UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
The teaching activities are addressing primary, lower secondary, as well as higher secondary education. The activities range from school visits in form of lectures, workshops, practical exercises and guided local green tours over digital, case-oriented and interactive teaching material at our digital platform (with over 1M visits).
The Climate Embassy aims to develop current, coherent education in climate change and environmental sustainability with the mission of developing and facilitating a ‘green spine’ among the future generations.
In 2015 The Climate Embassy was awarded ’Best Practice’ by UN’s environmental program One Planet Network (UNEP), regarding sustainable production and consumption in the category of sustainable education and lifestyle.
Values and approach
The Climate Embassy operates through a youth-to-youth method, approaching education of children in a pupil-oriented manner. We believe that young educators can inspire as role models and foster identification and empowerment, and that voluntary teaching relies on a passion for the sustainability agenda, which is essential for the learning process.
Being a think tank, we create nuanced evidence-based education that is party-political neutral and invites to dialogue, discussion, critical reflection, and individual as well as collective decision-making.
We believe in the positive side of the story and want to give hope among young people by motivating and empowering to action through case-based and solution-oriented education that focuses on tangible, local, and relatable initiatives, concrete innovative solutions and hands on experiences.
Acknowledging that a range of different skills is needed in order to make possible a sustainable transition, The Climate Embassy combines a focus on dialogue and discussion with practice-oriented learning, and values active participation, learning by doing, and physical and bodily learning through creativity and getting one’s hands dirty.
Projects:
The Green Spine
In December 2018, The Climate Embassy was granted funding to develop a green curriculum for the Danish municipal primary and lower secondary education. Over the next five years, the program aims to collect the best project based and practical oriented teaching projects within the themes, Nature, Food and Health and Climate, Energy and Resources, and to support teachers and municipalities’ work with similar initiatives within natural science subjects. The program aims to strengthen the coherence between the many educational approaches and projects to support the education of the future green generations.
The project is executed in partnership with the Danish association ‘Haver til Maver’ [Eatable Gardens] and includes collaboration with 15 Danish municipalities on how a green curriculum can be implemented into a local school context. The project runs from 2019 to 2023.
Read more about
The Green Spine (in Danish)
Haver til Maver (in Danish)
GRO SELV - Make It Grow
GRO SELV is a community of young people experimenting with sustainability in everyday life through tangible and in practice projects. In GRO SELV we explore the opportunities for greener behaviour and low-emission-luxury within the tracks: DWELL - EAT - EXPLORE. Together we seek new ideas and arrange and carry out workshops and events all over Denmark, where we recycle, upcycle, and experiment with season-based adventures - from bicycle holidays to composting systems and cider made of surplus apples from local suppliers. In GRO SELV a network of creative people plant ideas, green initiatives flourish, a bank of ideas grows, and more sustainable culture take root. Every project thrives to be replicable wherever, while also being affordable and accessible for everyone. GRO SELV’s digital platforms - GROSELV.dk, Facebook and Instagram - are an exhibition, tool, and meeting point, where events, ideas, project guides, pictures etc. are shared for everyone to see. Come join GRO SELV exploring tomorrow’s projects.
Vinterakademi - Winter Academy
The Winter Academy is addressing students and graduates who have an interest or professional knowledge on sustainability and construction. The academy is a week full of presentations, workshops and case-visits, where participants with different academic backgrounds can work on the development of news concepts for a more climate-friendly and sustainable construction and building industry.
During the academy, participants will discuss the green transition of construction in practice together with stakeholders and experts from the building industry. CONCITO’s Climate Embassy and NCC have hosted Winter Academy since 2015 and every year the Winter Academy have a specific theme, which forms the focus of the content within the field of climate, sustainability and building/construction.
The main goals of Winter Academy are:
- To inspire and educate young professionals towards a best-practice, where climate and sustainability is the prerequisite in work with optimization, energy-efficiency, and transformation of the existing buildings.
- To create awareness about materials, resources and sustainable solutions and give hands – on tools and examples of how to work with climate and sustainability in practice
- To increase the participants interdisciplinary collaboration skills and the awareness of their own role and possibilities of action
- To communicate knowledge on tangible climate and sustainable solutions through cases, visits and workshops where the participants get introduced to specific tools and methods and where they can follow the path from vision to solution
- To contribute to a necessary political, technical and social debate on the green transition of the construction industry and provide a dialogue platform and meeting space for young and upcoming professionals and the industry.
The Winter Academy is organized by CONCITO´s Climate Embassy in collaboration with NCC and with financial support by GI (Grundejernes Investeringsfond).
