Environment assisted by schools

Pupils at Gaelscoil Dara and St James’ National School are now flying green flags above their schools because of the achievement.

The students are working under the An Taisce Green Schools Programme, with the children developing their own knowledge of environmental issues and relaying aspects of what they have learnt to the wider community.

This includes issues such as conserving energy and water, as well as potentially walking or cycling to locations rather than taking the car or bus.

And the efforts of the children seem to be having an effect, with a recent survey from the Green Home programme finding that people’s awareness of environmental topics has increased to 65%, from 59% in May.

Dorothy Stewart, of the An Taisce education unit, said: “Continuous monitoring of the programme through the use of surveys has shown a positive shift in environmental behaviour among participating households.”

Further findings of the survey included that 8% more people are remembering to turn off unused lights.