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The vital message that living well needn’t cost the earth is being sent out to young people by energy and sustainability specialists Inteb.
Tom Kelly, chief operating officer at the Birkenhead headquartered organisation, has been taking the green agenda into the classroom at local primary schools, showing how actions by the youth of today can make a difference to the world for future generations.
Brackenwood Primary School in Bebington and St Winifrede’s Catholic Primary in Neston both have a strong commitment to environmental issues and invited Tom along to help show their Year 6 and Year 5 pupils how working together is key to protecting the environment.
He said, “The environment and how sustainability and renewable energy issues can create a healthier and more prosperous future for us all are important topics for discussion, particularly at primary school level – they are major factors in fighting climate change.
“That’s why an understanding of these matters from an early age is so important. It starts with an awareness of the environmental problems facing our planet which can then lead to positive action, when they get a bit older, in creating their own eco-friendly lifestyles that will bring about change.
“Teaching children now about sustainable living is all about doing more with less. It’s explaining to them, in terms they can easily understand, how businesses, communities and individuals can all work together to reduce their energy usage yet at the same time become economically secure and profitable.”
At Brackenwood, Tom spoke to Year 6 pupils about sustainability in business, local examples of sustainability in practice and about what they can do themselves to have an impact – like using less plastic, recycling, eating less meat and walking or cycling rather than being driven to school.
Year 5 pupils from St Winifrede’s discussed issues about sustainability with him as part of a special geography topic about climate change and pollution.
Afterwards, Tom said, “It’s a great pleasure to be part of a growing awareness at our local primary schools of the need to explain to the very young the importance of what they can do, by simple everyday actions, to help the planet.
“With the guidance of their parents and teachers, they are the ones who will grow up with a true sense of how their environmental choices can make a difference, that they can live well without costing the earth.”
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