SURREY TOP IN ENGLAND FOR ECO SCHOOLS AWARDS
Surrey County Council is celebrating another environmental education success, with Surrey retaining the highest number of Eco-Schools Green Flag awards in England for the fourth consecutive year.
More than 200 Surrey schools take part in the Eco–Schools programme, with 105 achieving Green Flag status, the scheme’s highest accreditation. This reflects the efforts of around 55,500 young people, including 1,900 pupil eco-leaders driving sustainability projects in their schools.
Eco–Schools is the world’s largest schools programme, empowering young people to take action on environmental issues. Led by pupils, the programme helps embed sustainability across school life, enriches learning, and inspires whole school communities to make a positive difference for the environment.
Projects delivered by Surrey schools include promoting meat-free and sustainable food choices, creating wildlife-friendly spaces, having ‘plastic-free lunches’, monitoring energy use, and improving active travel facilities.
Over the past year, participating schools have:
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Diverted 362,452kg of waste from landfill
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Saved 61,107kWh of electricity
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Saved 152,223kWh of gas
These achievements demonstrate the significant contribution Surrey’s schools and young people are making towards a greener, more sustainable future.
Marisa Heath, Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning, said: “This incredible achievement is a testament to the hard work and commitment within our school communities. We have been behind the Eco–Schools initiative for 13 years and continue to encourage schools to embrace what it has to offer and inspire the future generation to put sustainability and the environment at the heart of what they do.
“Over the last 12 months we have also invested over £120,000 through grant funding to support schools to be more climate resilient. The relentless heatwave we endured this summer is evidence of the impact of climate change, and helping schools to make adjustments no matter how big or small can really improve the learning of our young people.”
