We started the Green School Programme with a simple idea. We wanted to develop a programme, which would help us learn. Not just the idea but the practice of making change ‘work’. We believe that it is always best to learn by doing. It is always best to do by learning. It is this simple idea we converted into the Green School Programme. The manual provided the tasks for schools to begin the rating of their performance. Each step provided the criterion; its weightage and the method by which we could learn how green we were and how green we could be.

Over the last seven years, the idea has gathered momentum. More and more schools across India are using the manual to be a part of this learning exercise. They have learnt that what they know is not enough to protect the environment and what they preach is often not easy to practice. But they have also learnt the rationale of what they should do to make a difference in the world.

We have now produced Green Schools Programme - How green is my neighbourhood? manual. With this manual the idea is to enable the schools extend their learning from the controlled environment of the schools to the real life environment outside, in their neighbourhood.

We know that young people can make a difference if they can distinguish between the different shades of green – believing but not practicing and practicing but not making a difference. We hope that our idea will work. We hope you will be engaged with us in being the change we believe in.

This year we are offering this programme to select few schools who have successfully brought green change on their campus using the How green is my school? manual. If your institution is keen to undertake this programme please contact me for details on ashish@cseindia.org by email or 0 9871702439 by phone. You can also contact my colleague Ms. Ajanta Sikdar on ajanta@cseindia.org or 0 9873926822.