Connecting parents and students through green living activities

Attracting nearly 50,000 students and nearly 5,000 teachers and lecturers to participate in the program "Garbage-free schools and beyond", the ZHub group has contributed to changing habits and forming a lifestyle of reducing waste.

Reducing environmental pollution, reducing waste generation, promoting a circular economy , avoiding overexploitation of natural resources and protecting biodiversity are the goals that sustainable environmental education aims for. However, many schools need advice and support to apply zero-waste lifestyle practices but do not know how to sustain the educational program.

The "ZHub Zero Waste School and Beyond" (ZHub) program was founded by GreenHub Green Development Support Center in 2021. The program originated from the idea of ​​wanting to practiceeducation to change habits, raise awareness of students, students, and the community about environmental protection, limit the use of disposable plastic products, encourage reuse and use of environmentally friendly materials, and form a lifestyle of reducing waste. After 4 years of establishment, ZHub's network has 7 core schools and 150 schools in 6 provinces and cities participating.

Program Coordinator To Thi Hoang Linh said that the program aims to educate students and their families about green lifestyles; promote businesses to participate in social responsibility; encourage green tourism businesses to share green values. The ZHub program coordinates with schools to assess the current situation and needs of each school, then designs capacity building activities for students and teachers; builds a Material Recovery (MRF) model to minimize the amount of waste going to landfills. At the same time, it aims at community activities to increase the level of dissemination, connection between students and parents, and raise awareness of the community around the school.

Typically, in 2024, ZHub collaborated with To Hien Thanh Primary School (Can Tho City) to organize the program "Experience - Zero Waste Day", with the participation of more than 500 students and parents. At the event, parents and students learned about types of waste through practicing waste classification and recycling, and exchanged recyclables for environmentally friendly gifts. These experiential learning initiatives equip students with the necessary skills to deal with environmental pollution and form a waste-reducing lifestyle. "The group hopes that, through small actions such as not using plastic straws, bringing personal water bottles instead of using plastic cups, etc., they can contribute to protecting the environment for future generations," Hoang Linh shared.

With the support of teachers and parents, environmental education activities have been promoted by schools in a sustainable manner. From this program, not only students but also teachers and their families have more awareness about reducing waste generation in daily consumption behavior. From there, students, teachers and students become propagandists for their families and the community about the practice of waste classification at source.