Climate protection projects at schools have the potential to make the school environment and society more sustainable: By providing relevant information and solution-oriented options, students learn how they can initiate change processes – and many successfully implemented projects already show that impressive results can be achieved. In order to establish such activities even beyond the duration of individual projects, the project "Participation as a Driver for Successful Climate Protection in Schools" aims to maintain commitment and motivation in schools. To this end, structures are to be created that are suitable for implementing climate protection in schools in the long term.
Against this background, the project, which is being implemented in collaboration with the association "Schule ein Gesicht geben" and "Büro Ö-quadrat", aims to develop approaches to change existing structures and to advise and support the participating schools. Student councils, which exist as central bodies of participation in every school, hold great potential for this: Class representatives and motivated students are the multipliers needed to promote ecological and social sustainability in schools. In order for these change processes to be fruitful and to follow the "Whole School Approach", individuals from school management, teaching staff, parent representatives, and students must collaborate. Researchers of the Wuppertal Institute will bring these people together to lay the foundations for the establishment of joint school climate councils. In such established bodies, climate protection projects can be supported and implemented with a broad consensus.