6 questions for sustainability leads before 2025

I'm pleased to share my TES article concerning the drive to appoint teachers as leaders in sustainability in schools across England. It is likely many international schools around the world will follow suit. 

The Department of Education has set a deadline for all maintained settings to have designated someone to the role by 2025. 

I work in a large international school here in Bangkok and I'm one of two Sustainability Leads driving green issues forward inside and outside of the curriculum for our primary aged-pupils. 

When my colleague left last year, I was asked to design the interview questions and sit on the panel to appoint her replacement. 

Many new sustainability leads are likely to go unpaid and be chosen as someone willing to give it a go. 

My view is that this doesn't take the area seriously enough. It is crucial for education to address sustainability, if it is to meet the needs of future generations. 

This means formal interviews seeking to identify the right person for the job and - if they can afford it - schools should be paying teachers to take on the challenge. 

The article provides senior leadership teams in a variety of settings with the questions we asked our interviewees - and explains why we asked them. 

Here are the original 10 questions, I proposed: 

1. Can you describe an educational sustainability project that you were involved in that had an impact? What went well? What were the challenges?

2. The science behind sustainability can lead to worrying conclusions. Eco-anxiety is increasingly recognised as affecting young people. What would be your approach to this with our children?

3. How do we bring sustainability into our curriculum?

4. How would you respond to a parent who doesn’t see the relevance of sustainability to their child’s education?

5. Can you describe a climate change or sustainability success story from the wider world that has inspired you recently? 

6. What sparked your passion for sustainability? (Or what personal sustainability practices do you utilize in your everyday life?)  

7. How would you motivate or inspire less enthusiastic or confident colleagues to introduce more learning about sustainability into the curriculum?

8. What support would you need if you were appointed to the role?

9. Is it important to empower children to take action on Sustainability? Why? Why not? How would you support child led change? 

10. How would you involve the whole community?

Feel free to reach out to me if you are appointing in this space or if you a potential candidate in your school - I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have! 

With plastic-eating machines, Thai communities turn a profit fighting pollution

I found the workshop down a narrow soi in Bangkok’s old town. Several large sacks of plastic bottle caps, carefully sorted by colour, were propped up by the entrance.  

Machines filled the rest of the shed, but this wasn’t a big, industrial set up. The machinery was small-scale and hand operated. Its purpose was to turn those plastic caps into something new, ensuring they would no longer head to landfill or, worse, into the ocean.  

This was the workshop of Precious Plastic Bangkok, and it was a pleasure to write this article about their work providing communities around Thailand with machines to recycle plastic into useful products that can be sold for a profit.

The extruder melts old bottle caps so they can be shaped into new products. Photo: Ewen Mcleish

During my research I took part in a plastic recycling workshop where I learned how the process works and even made my own flowerpot! It looked a bit dodgy due to my inexpert hands, but I could see how, with a bit of practice lots of different containers could be created.

Precious Plastic have equipped communities with knowledge, tools and machines to recycle plastic. I was lucky enough to interview representatives of four of these initiatives about how how the projects were unfolding in their different geographies. Everyone involved was so enthusiastic about tackling the plastic pollution crisis.

A community group works together to sort plastic bottle caps into colours.
Photo: Precious Plastic Bangkok. 

Thanks to Dominic Chakrabongse and Jisara Suwannasri, both of Precious Plastic Bangkok for all their help in writing it all up.

I received some really nice comments from them after the article was published:

"We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to you for writing a fantastic article about Precious Plastic Bangkok. Your article has helped to raise awareness about the importance of recycling and the positive impact it can have on our community and the environment. We are truly grateful for your support and for helping to spread our message."

- Jisara

"Thank you, Ewen Mcleish, for your wonderful article about Precious Plastic Bangkok. It was incredibly thoughtful of you to take the time to share our mission and the work that we do with your readers. Your article has helped to raise awareness about the importance of recycling and the positive impact it can have on our community and the environment. We are truly grateful for your support and for helping to spread our message!"

- Dominic

Check out the full article here on Bangkok Coconuts!

Going Green: 8 ways we're acting on the government's sustainability strategy

I earn my bread and butter as a primary teacher at an international school here in Bangkok. Alongside helping youngsters learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, I lead the school's approach to sustainability. 

I was interested to find out that the UK government published a policy paper on sustainability, climate change and education in 2022. Given that British international schools, including my own, make a show of keeping up to date with the latest policy developments in the UK, I wondered what the ideas proposed would look like in my setting. 

Writing the piece also gave me the chance to read the paper closely and explore how schools can implement the ideas inside. I selected eight areas, explained them, then described how we're trying to meet them or what hurdles are getting in the way. 

The points I identified in the strategy were:

1. Bringing nature onto school grounds. 

2. Appointing sustainability leads in every school. 

3. Providing carbon literacy training for staff. 

4. Improving buildings to respond to climate change and reduce emissions. 

5. The educational opportunities that flow from any improvements implemented. 

6. Where in the curriculum should this learning be placed? 

7. How to handle political debate about environmental issues in the classroom. 

8. Celebrating the success of the young people involved. 

Full details of all of these can be found in my article published by TES Magazine here. 

One thing to note, I wanted to make the point (which comes through in the strategy) that retrofitting school buildings to become more climate friendly and reduce emissions can actually provide learning opportunities for pupils. Educators can use climate friendly adaptations like installing solar panels or heat pumps to create real life lessons. Giving children the chance to see how climate solutions are actually put into practice. I wish this had come across more clearly in the published article. 

Thai fishers step up to clear seas strangled by deadly ghost nets.

A Samut Prakan fisherman organising his nets after a night at sea. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish/Coconuts

It was really wonderful to get to write this story for Coconuts. To research the piece, I visited the Ko Tor fishing community (less than an hour from Bangkok) and met the inspirational and hard working Khun Pen. 

Her story intertwines with that of the sea, an ever-diminishing bounty blamed not only on climate change but also practices closer to home – industrial pollution, poorly designed nets, harmful abandoned gear – and innovative attempts to address them.

Originally, the aim of my trip was to find out about the 'Net Free Seas' fishing net recycling project, but Khun Pen told me how things had changed dramatically in her 3 decades at sea.  She's witnessed dolphins, crab, mackerel and others fall in numbers since she first went fishing. This seemed like a greater story.

I decided to document Khun Pen's view of the decline and how it effected her, and by implication similar artisanal fisher folk throughout Thailand. At the same time, her recognition that abandoned fishing nets floating aimlessly at sea are a problem she can do something about is a source of hope. 

I'm grateful to Rahul Mehrotra, a post-doctoral researcher at Chulalongkorn University and program director at the gulf-based Aow Thai Marine Ecology Center who explained the problems caused by discarded fishing gear and how researchers have little idea about the extent of the damage. 

This black tipped-reef shark died trapped in an abandoned net at Shark Bay on Koh Tao 

Photo: Kirsty Magson

"The Environmental Justice Foundation's Net Free Seas Project aims to connect small-scale fishing communities with recyclers, creating a supply chain that turns discarded fishing nets into homeware products for sale to consumers,” project coordinator Salisa Traipipitsiriwat told me. 

Khun Pen is heavily involved in the project purchasing the used and damaged nets from fellow fishers and selling them on to Cirplas Tech, the recycling company. After cleaning and processing, the resulting pellets are turned into lifestyle and homeware items by Qualy Design. 

Duanpen Jaengpracham, aka Khun Pen, stands with used fishing nets ready for recycling. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish / Coconuts

I was pleased to be able to interview and include Thosaphol Suppametheekulwat who owns both Qualy Design and Cirplas Tech.  This ensured the article painted a picture of the whole project. 

Carver table lamps made from recycled fishing nets by Qualy Design

Photo: Qualy Design

Thanks go to Salisa Traipipitsiriwat for arranging my trip to the fishing community, introducing me to Khun Pen and helping with translation for the article. 

Please click here to read the full story.