The Green Pack celebrates its 10th Anniversary
By Nathan Johnson
"In all of its ten years of existence, the Green Pack's major corporate sponsor hasn't in any way interfered with project content or implementation strategy," says Kliment Mindjov from the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), who has been involved with the Green Pack from the very beginning. "Not even once. That's very rare."
This 'rare' sponsor to which Mindjov refers is Toyota, but then again, as far as projects are considered, the Green Pack is something of a rara avis in itself.
Taking shape
In 2000, the REC approached Toyota with a proposal for a multimedia environmental education programme designed specifically for the CEE region and for children between the ages of 11 and 15. Toyota's Environmental Activities Support Programme, also established in 2000, not only agreed to get behind a pilot version of the Green Pack, but has continued to provide ongoing support over the years.
Drawing first from the strength of its pioneering innovation, and aided over time by the project's success and widespread acclaim, the Green Pack has enabled thousands of teachers to reach hundreds of thousands of students over its decade-long existence. Toyota sponsorship was critical in launching the pilot Green Pack in Poland, as was funding for subsequent national versions for Hungary and Bulgaria (2002 and 2003), the Czech Republic and Slovakia (2003-2004), and various regions in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg and Komi). In addition to Toyota, significant support for Green Pack Russia came from Finland, while Norway and Sweden contributed grants for the Komi project.
Several parallel Green Pack programmes have been developed and implemented with generous support from other donors: Albania (Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Azerbaijan (OSCE and British Petroleum), Turkey (Bosch, EC Life Third Countries Programme, and the Italian Ministry of the Environment, Land and Sea), and FYR Macedonia (Austrian Development Agency). More recently the Green Pack has made inroads into the Western Balkans Region - i.e. Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo (as defined by UNSCR 1244) with further support from the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
"The Green Pack is very important for increasing global awareness of environmental issues," says Bulent Sogukbulak, a teacher in Izmir-Menemen, Turkey. "I want to thank REC Turkey for their pleasing efforts in this project, and also Bosch Home Appliances for their financial help."
At present, a regional Green Pack is being developed for Ukraine with OSCE support, while Chevron, UNESCO, UNDP, the GEF Small Grant Programme and OSCE are focusing on Green Pack development for the Central Asian region, with particular focus on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Back to basics
The Green Pack is more than just a set of teaching and learning materials. It is a comprehensive approach that contains three primary developmental components for each project module: feasibility studies, country-specific course development, and product dissemination and teacher training. All of this comprises an approach towards long-term capacity building for knowledge and skills-transfer enabling sustainable development, and which also follows three main principles of Green Pack implementation.
"The Green Pack and Green Pack Junior toolkits focused on sustainable development education clearly respond to the needs and interests of our primary and secondary school students, and prepares them for future environmental challenges," says REC Bulgaria project manager Vesselin Drobenov.
First, during the Green Pack feasibility phase, REC experts analyse local challenges of the beneficiary country, as well as existing school resources.This is done in tandem with national, regional and local experts to build project ownership and to develop a strong base of local experts through which future projects can be developed. An assessment of the quality and availability of computer equipment, project software and networking technology plays an important part in deciding which format of the final product (CD-ROM, printed material or a combination of the two) will achieve the best results.
The next step is to tailor Green Pack materials to specific needs of the beneficiary country. This involves, first of all, convening a national working group (NWG), comprising experts from national institutions, universities and educational centres, to evaluate various Green Pack components to help define and format the toolkit layout. Local expertise is brought in to incorporate specific case studies for inclusion in the teaching materials. The NWG also decides the exact age group(s) to be targeted. The next step is to translate the set of selected materials - both those most successful elsewhere and those of highest relevance to the target country - into local languages. Finally, after obtaining ministerial approval, production of the entire run of Green Pack materials (typically, several thousand copies) begins.
Lastly, once the Green Pack is produced and shipped, it's time for local partners to take over. First to take place is a training-of-trainers seminar. These trainers consist of local experts in education and envieonment who gain knowledge through the seminar on how to effectively train teachers how to use Green Pack materials. These trainers then travel throughout the country training teachers how to navigate through the extensive amount of Green Pack materials, and to provide teachers witht the knowledge necessary to teach them. Trainers and local partners then distribute the toolkits to schools and begin training teachers. All master copies of the Green Pack are granted free of charge to the NWG, which can henceforward continue to improve or upgrade the educational kit and produce new editions as it deems necessary.
Building blocks
Product flexibility and multi-medium design are certainly keys to the Green Pack's success, but what gives real meaning to this success is the programme's transformative potential. Instead of placing a premium on a rote accumulation of knowledge, the Green Pack stresses the formation of new values in students and encourages new models of behaviour, both at home and within society as a whole. Instead of teachers playing an exclusively didactic role in the classroom, Green Pack students are encouraged to take part in discussion, play various roles and take decisions. When students bring the discussion home to their parents, there's a good chance that broader levels of discussion will eventually reach local community stakeholders interested in exploring ways to achieve sustainable development. This is a belief shared by REC Executive Director Marta Szigeti Bonifert: "Children can certainly become ambassadors of sustainable development in society."
Linked levels of cooperation have been part of the REC's product development strategy from the beginning. The Green Pack has been developed with four key levels of cooperation: national (authorities responsible for economic, social and environmental development), professional (institutions, organisations, universities and NGOs with expertise in sustainable development), individual (educators, scientists, politicians and decision makers involved at any level of practical implementation of sustainable development), and international (political, business and not-for-profit organisations promoting sustainable development worldwide).
Using this methodology, local partners are actively encouraged to adapt and upgrade the Green Pack, take charge of training programmes and produce subsequent editions.
Nuts and bolts
To really understand how the Green Pack works, one must at the very least have an idea of the tools involved. The Green Pack's various components (teachers' handbook with lesson plans and fact sheets for students, film collection with animated and educational clips, interactive CD-ROM with extensive information on various environmental topics, and dilemma game. Together, these tools emphasise the formation of new values and establishing new models of behaviour, both at home and in society.
"Films and CD-ROMs allow new possibilities for communication, and they obviously have an influence on the way the world is perceived," says Jacek Schindler from Association Eko Idea in Wroclaw, Poland.
The Green Pack's 22 topics are broken down into five chapters: Environmental Components (air, water, soil, biodiversity); Threats to the Environment (urbanisation, noise, waste, chemicals); Human Activities and Impacts (energy, transport, industry, agriculture, forestry, tourism); Global Challenges (climate change, ozone depletion, acidification, issues affecting seas and oceans ; Values (ethics and values related to consumerism, human health and the environment, citizens' rights, responsibility for the Earth's future). Each of the main Green Pack components adheres to this topical structure.
The core element of the teachers' handbook, intended primarily for European teachers and students, is the lesson plans, which are designed for use with the other Green Pack components. One or more scenarios are provided for each topic lesson, and prior to the start of any related activity, teachers can find fact sheets and schemata at the end of each lesson plan for photocopying and distribution. Recommended films and video clips are included at the end of the handbook.
Designed especially for teachers and educators working in environmental protection and sustainable development, the Green Pack CD-ROM also covers each of the 22 main topics with general information, an outline of challenges and solutions to each problem, case studies, and tips of how to get involved. With a wealth of texts, illustrations, photos, maps, tests and video clips, the CD-ROM also provides links throughout to national and international website. The lesson plans, identical to those in the handbook, are presented in PDF format and may be downloaded for the classroom.
The Green Pack's supplementary video component, available in videocassette, CVD or DVD formats, contains approximately 180 minutes worth of selected video clips, educational films and documentaries. At the end of the handbook, teachers can identify which video materials are relevant for each of the 22 topic areas.
Finally, the Green Pack includes a specially created Dilemma Game for each topic, based on 22 case studies. Each study presents a situation and any number of possible choices for dealing with the problem. Positive and negative aspects are provided for each response, and the 'dilemma' derives from negotiating a world in which choices are not simply black or white. In working through such dilemmas, students and teachers engage in the kind of in-depth discussion generates the ability to appreciate problems on multiple levels, to understand and respect differing opinions, and to build consensus.
"These 'green lessons' show that everyone has something important to learn, that everyone must take responsible decisions, and that everyone can learn more about themselves by studying the world outside," says Tatyana Miteva from the Earth Forever Association in Svishtove, Bulgaria.
For more information on this important educational tool, and available online in several languages, please visit the Green Pack website.
