Gobar Times Green Schools Award

The Gobar Times Green Schools Award is a platform to acknowledge and reward schools which have  adopted the most innovative and effective practices to manage natural resources within their own premises.

Conceptualised by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), it is conducted at the national level every year, with schools from across India participating in the annual awards ceremony. 

What is the Green Schools Award? 

The award is based on an audit of the school’s environmental practices, carried out by its own students, following a set of guidelines specified by CSE in the Green Schools Programme (GSP) manual (2007 edition). The aim of the award is not merely to rate, but to encourage and support schools to build up an environmentally aware, active and skilled community of teachers, students and parents.

Beginning this year (2009), the National Green Corps – State nodal offices will be conducting the Gobar Times Green School awards at the state level, where only schools of that state will be eligible for participation. The winners will then be nominated for the National awards that will be organised by CSE in February, 2010.

States conducting their own awards ceremony have laid down the information necessary for participation from schools in form of Information sheets. Click on the name of the state your school is located in to download Information sheet applicable to your school. Schools belonging to other states/UTs can download ‘All other states and UTs’ Information sheet.

What are the categories of Awards?

Green School Awards (Top 20): Awards (Certificate and Trophy) for the schools with the best environmental practices in India (all the 5 chapters) ranking 1 to 20 would be given out at the national awards ceremony. The schools that apply for Green Schools Awards are not eligible to apply in the Best managers section.

Best Managers: Water, Air, land, Energy, Waste. Top ranking school in each chapter i.e. water, air, land, energy and waste will be awarded (Certificate and Memento) at a formal ceremony.

Biradari (Community) award: This award (Certificate and Memento) will be given to school, which has most effectively engaged the community/civil society in environmental awareness or action.

Please note: You will have to submit a seperate report to compete for this segment.

Rank certificates: All the schools that successfully submit the Green Schools Report will be eligible for the ‘Certificate’ colour coded Green, Yellow and Red to depict their performance. The colour codes are:

Green..............70% and above 

Yellow..............50% to 70%

Orange ...........35% to 50% 

Red....................0% to 35%

How to Apply?

Register for the Green Schools Programme immediately.

- Get a copy of the Green Schools Programme manual* (2007 edition) and use it to audit your school for any or all of the five chapters i.e. water, air land, energy and waste.

- The Green Schools Programme (GSP) manual is a booklet, which helps a school to assess its environmental performance. It has instructions for preparing a Green School’s Report. To order write into Mr. Raja by post or by Email: raja@cseindia. Send Demand Draft or Cheque of Rs.125/- (add Rs.15/- postage charges for outstation requirement) drawn in favour of ‘Centre for Science and Environment’ along with your mail. 

- Prepare the Green Schools Report as per the guidelines given in this sheet.

- Send the Green Schools Report to us at the address given at the end of the information sheet. Last date for receipt of entries is 01 January 2010. 

 

Preparing the Green Schools Report: 

Green School’s Report is prepared after the environmental audit of the school is conducted using the Green Schools Programme manual (2007 Edition). The audit should be conducted anytime during the year for which the Awards are announced. The record of the process of the audit and its result has to be presented as Green Schools report.      

Data collection process – A note on the process of data collection i.e. who all where involved and how did they go about collecting information has to given before each task. A note on the assessed environmental practices at school along with special mention to interesting work not covered by the Green Schools Programme manual is also welcome. Students involvement in the task will get special points. Please attach photographs in support of their involvement.

Calculation of points – Though Green Schools Programme is based on self-assessment, auditors should award points to their school only as per procedure, formulae and weightages given in the Green Schools Programme manual (2007 edition).

Format – Please file the audit report along with support documents in the sequence of tasks and chapters given in the manual to facilitate assessment. Please do not fill the manual with data and send it to us. Photocopy relevant pages from the manual and prepare a separate report. File all the documents in one folder and courier or mail the same to us at the address given below. Soft copies on a CD in protected packs are also welcome

Preparing Biradari (Community Award) Report:

If your school is working with a community on any environmental issues write a brief report:

Mention the theme.

• Mention number of students and teachers involved in the project.
• Does your school management cooperate/contribute in the efforts?
• Why did you start work with the particular community on the particular theme?
• Describe activities you have done so far in chronological order.
• In what ways has the community benefited out of your work?
• Give contact details of the project coordinator and the community.

What will happen after application?

The Environment Education team at CSE will go through each and every report and shortlist the some schools for on-site and telephonic assessment.

The Green Schools Report of short-listed schools will be verified and best schools will be identified for the awards.

The results will be made public only at the Green School Awards ceremony to be conducted in Delhi in February, 2010.

All the schools that had applied for the awards will be given rank certificates according to their scores.

 Assessment Criteria:

Green School Awards (Top 20): 500 points for self assessment by school as per Green Schools Programme manual and 50 points for assessment by CSE.

Best Managers: 100 points for self assessment by school as per Green Schools Programme manual and 10 points for assessment by CSE.

 

Rank certificates: 

Green.............70% to 100%

Yellow............50% to 69.9%

Orange ..........35% to 49.9%

Red...................0% to 34.9%

Biradari Award: Issues relevance, student involvement and community engagement.

Important Dates: 

Last date for registration - 30 September 2009

Last date to submit Green Schools Report - 01 January 2010

On-site visits or telephonic interviews by CSE - 07–22 January 2010

Green School Awards ceremony - February 2010

 

Note: If any data (in the Green Schools Report or for the on-site report) is found to be incorrect, fake or fabricated, and the school is not able to justify the discrepancy, five points will be deducted from the total score. The penalty will be at CSE's discretion.

CONTACT US:

For any queries regarding the Green Schools Award contact Sumita Dasgupta, Ashish Shah or Mariam Jafri.

Ashish Shah, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Delhi  

Mobile: 9871702439 

Email: ashish@cseindia.org

 

GOBAR TIMES GREEN SCHOOLS PROGRAMME

Environment Education Unit, 

Centre for Science and Environment,

41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area,New Delhi – 110062

Tel: 91-11-29955124, 29956110 (Extension: 219)

E-mail: eeu@cseindia.org, cse@cseindia.org