UAE schools need to embrace sustainable development in its entirety

Considering the amount of time, children and school employees spend in a school building, it is critical for the entire school community to drive towards ‘green schools’ to align with the UAE sustainability vision, said Charles Blaschke, Managing Director, Taka Solutions.

“Being green is not limited to saving energy; rather, it involves many other practices, such as improving the acoustics of classrooms, switching to LED lights, using low-VOC paints and ensuring good indoor air quality (IAQ),” Blaschke said.

Highlighting the primary challenge to achieving the state of green, Blaschke added that there seems to be a gap between the stakeholders of the school and what the country’s green agenda truly means, and how it needs to be accomplished. Therefore, he said, it is of paramount importance that all the stakeholders of schools must work in a tandem relationship to accomplish the green agenda for the schools. These stakeholders include school owners, operators, students, parents and government representatives.

Of the 1,200 schools operating in the UAE, he said, there are not many green schools. However, this provides an opportunity to make schools green. Achieving green schools would result in enhanced student productivity and decreased absenteeism.