Global Search for Sustainable Schools in Brazil | Desafio Escolas Sustentáveis 2020

The project was officially launched in Brazil in August 2019, with the dissemination of a call for submissions focused in inviting public Brazilian schools to submit actions plans to make their schools more sustainable, especially from pedagogical and structural perspective. The call has been spread both online (through Facebook, Instagram and Google) and through in-person roadshows, focused on training and engaging educators and students from basic education schools in five metropolitan regions of the country on the theme of sustainable lifestyles as a way to ensure (a) that the debate about sustainable lifestyles is stimulated within each school, sensitizing their teachers, students and scholar community; (b) that these schools are invited and stimulated to participate in the national search. After the submission period ended, with almost 250 submissions (five times more than originally expected), the selection process has taken place, and the advisory group and coordinating body of the global project were able to participate and help us select the 5 winner schools – one per Brazilian Region. All five schools were granted with around 7,000 US dollars (value updated due to tax rates), and the national winner was granted with additional around 17,000 dollars (value updated due to tax rates) to implement the action plans they have submitted through the call for submissions. The implementation phase was planned to occur between February and August 2020, but was extended until November 2020 by demand from the selected schools and due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All 5 selected schools have completed the implementation of their action plans, including GEE reduction measurements. However, it is important to highlight that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools had to adapt their action plans in order to maintain safety measures, especially regarding group and classroom activities. The reduction on school activities has also led to minor results in comparison to initial proposed goals (such as amount of organic waste composted, reduction on energy consumption, number of impacted students / members of the community, etc.). One virtual national meeting and one virtual international workshops were realized in 2020. Visits to the selected schools will happen in 2021.