Teaching green skills: why the planet can't wait

I have worked in education for 20 years, and for most of that time, sustainability has been more than just a curriculum topic for me. I grew up watching the natural landscape around me change: rivers running lower, summers growing hotter, familiar species disappearing. I realised that schools could help pupils understand and prepare for climate change through knowledge, curiosity and action.

Making sustainability part of geography lessons

Geography is, at its core, the study of relationships – between people and places, between human activity and natural systems, between local decisions and global consequences. Teaching geography means sustainability is not an add-on; it is woven into everything I do.

We often talk about preparing pupils for the future, but the environmental issues we face are not future problems but current ones. To become part of the solution, children need to understand the systems that sustain life on Earth. For me, teaching sustainability is about helping my pupils feel empowered to think critically and act locally, and not anxious because of climate crises.

Exploring how volcanic activity is influenced by climate change in geography lessons.

Teaching sustainability in schools: the real challenges

Pupils genuinely care about the environment, so motivating them is not an issue. However, other challenges arise:

• One challenge is helping pupils move from concern to understanding, and from understanding to action. Abstract concepts like climate systems, land use change or biodiversity loss can feel distant even in a geography lesson.
• Another challenge is that sustainability is cross-disciplinary, and our school system is still largely organised by subjects. Connecting geography with science, technology, art and civic engagement in a meaningful way requires deliberate design – and a lot of collaboration with colleagues.

Pupils as scientists: working with real environmental data

The most powerful shift I have seen is when pupils stop simply learning about sustainability and start creating knowledge themselves as citizen scientists.

Citizen science is at the heart of the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) programme, where I work both as a teacher and as a teacher trainer. Through this programme, my pupils collect real environmental data – measuring temperature, observing phenology, monitoring land cover; and this is how they contribute to a global scientific database.

For a geography teacher, using a citizen science approach is very effective. Pupils go beyond reading maps and studying landscapes – they are actively documenting how those landscapes are changing. I remember one pupil saying, after submitting her vegetation data, ‘So scientists are actually going to use this?’ That moment of realisation that she was a scientist too is one I often return to.

Pupils engaging with citizen science by collecting real environmental data as part of the GLOBE programme.

Exploring environmental issues across borders with eTwinning

eTwinning gives my pupils something textbooks cannot: the chance to connect with peers from other countries facing the same environmental questions in different geographical contexts.

For example, our current eTwinning project Urban Heat Islands: A Tale of Two Cities shows how geography education can come alive. Pupils compare data across borders and build both scientific thinking and European citizenship by:

• measuring and comparing urban heat patterns in Osijek, Croatia and their partner city, using real meteorological methods and GLOBE protocols
• analysing how the geography of a city (e.g. building density, green spaces, proximity to water) shapes local temperatures, making climate science tangible and local.

eTwinning has also given me a professional community that I truly value. It is where I find colleagues who share the belief that education can help address the climate crisis.

Pupils learn about sustainability through online exchange as part of an eTwinning project.

Using Erasmus+ projects for sustainability education

Alongside eTwinning, I have led and taken part in several Erasmus+ projects that have strengthened my work on sustainability and geography education.

• Geoparks as Educational Agents introduced pupils to geology and local landscapes as living classrooms, connecting learning to real-life surroundings.
• Digital Trace of Cultural Heritage connected sustainability with identity and place, showing pupils that caring for the environment and caring for culture are closely linked.
• Our newest project, Eco Skills for Tomorrow (2025-2027), focuses on building the practical competences young people will need in a rapidly changing world, such as ecological literacy and green entrepreneurship.

My tips for fellow geography teachers

• Go outside and start local. A schoolyard, a nearby park, a river – these are geography lessons waiting to happen. Measure something real, even something small.
• Connect with eTwinning and find a partner school: the moment your pupils discuss their local environment with peers from another country, the world opens up.
• Use GLOBE if you can – the citizen science approach helps build pupil agency.