New online tool for schools to gamify decarbonisation

Keep Britain Tidy’s Eco-Schools programme is endeavouring to transform climate education and provoking action across the UK’s educational estates with its innovative new online tool, ‘The Playground.”

The Playground follows last year’s initiative, Count Your Carbon, which was a free comprehensive carbon calculator website designed for schools, colleges, and nurseries, and this year’s scheme will also encourage young people to engage with their carbon footprint.

The Playground aims to gamify carbon cutting actions live on screen as they happen, which will allow teaching staff to explore the school’s carbon footprint with pupils, before giving them an active role in reducing emissions by applying hypothetical changes to their most recent carbon footprint calculation, such as adapting school polices, actions, and infrastructure. 

The programme will allow staff and pupils to be able to see the potential impact of their actions, and at the end of the process the pupils can take part in a vote, communicating to their school leaders there they think action should be prioritised. 

The Playground, developed with funding from Let’s Go Zero, has aligned its release with Earth Day (22nd April), and will cover six key areas of a school’s operations. This allows pupils to model the impact of a variety of actions, from introducing more plant-based meals, to reducing water usage, and encouraging more people to walk or wheel to school.

Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive Allison Ogden-NEwton OBE said: “We hope the launch of The Playground will inspire a deeper understanding of a school’s carbon footprint and how to reduce it, improving pupil’s climate literacy.

“The Playground isn’t just a bout crunching numbers; it’s a platform designed to empower climate-conscious decision-making for generations to come.

“Along with knowledge and insight from Let’s Go Zero’s Climate Action Advisors, we hope The Playground will. Help schools to build pupil voices into their Climate Action Plans.”