As it would be impossible and ineffective to try to transform all the schools from an outside perspective, the IBU will provide guidance and an introduction to practical skills to the interested parties so they may go out and transform their own schools and communities.

The students will learn hands on practical skills and will be asked to implement these skills in the real world as part of the program. Thus either their school yards or their personal homes or backyards or neighbors and friends backyard will serve as the grounds for experimentation and implementation. Students will be learning by doing and it will teach students how to take the knowledge back to their community. They will learn how to involve the community and the family and spur overall debate on these important issues of sustainability even in households where sustainability may not be the typical topic of conversation. Moreover, the environmental practices around the neighborhoods will provide direct benefit to the communities as a whole as well as the households that participate. A household may benefit greatly by letting students transform their yard into a mini sustainable farm and by using a gray water system to help sustain it. It is obvious that some costs are involved in such programs, and if the schools have no funding for it, it is conceivable that it will be part of the student’s job to raise the small capital to implement the initiatives.
The intent is that the IBU classes will give students and teachers enough curiosity, skill and enthusiasm that they will take the lessons learned and continue to implement them in their own environment.
Taking an environmental leadership role in school will also give the students from mostly underprivileged households of the neighborhood an edge in the future, as green jobs may become one of the largest growing sectors in the job market.

University Programs:

IBU is looking to establish relationships with a range of university faculties. Such faculties include urban planning, policy, sociology, sustainable agriculture, social economics and more.
With this interdisciplinary exchange, the IBU and its think tank aim to establish and disseminate a broader understanding of urbanism in the context of sustainability.

Sustainability Forum:

This portion of the educational program will focus on adult education and be open to all. Similar to the student program, hands on classes and workshops will be taught by local and traveling teachers. Participants will engage in backyard and community initiatives, helping to transform the city block by block and yard by yard.

Education is a key IBU program. Clearly, the destructive course of human settlements can only be changed with a massive shift in consciousness.
Education is the foundation of implementation and it needs to be as broad inclusive as possible. Until people have an understanding not only of the current environmental, social and economic problems but also a comprehension of possible solutions and confidence in their execution, change cannot happen. This is why education is the key instrument for change.

In order to serve a cross section of demographics and age groups, the IBU is setting up different educational programs. Some of these will work with local pre-schools, schools and universities and some will be housed on an IBU facility and operate independently. These will be open to all people and offer workshops, classes, lectures, film screenings, discussion forums and more.

K-12 Programs:

Inner city schools, especially those in low income neighborhoods, have been classified as some of the most underperforming schools in the country. Although the standardized test ratings in themselves are a topic for debate, the fact is that local schools would benefit from an influx in student performance.
Extending the classroom beyond the physical school building into the surrounding green space has proven to be extremely beneficial for students and teachers. Research has shown that green schoolyards and outdoor learning can provide substantial academic, developmental and social benefits to students even in the core academic subjects unrelated to sustainability.

A study conducted in 2000 by the National Environmental Education & Training Foundation found that integrating environment-based education into academic programs improves reading, math, science, and social studies test scores and that classroom discipline problems decline. These findings are consistent with the State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER) study – Closing the Achievement Gap: Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning, by Dr. Gerald Lieberman and Linda Hoody. In addition to bolstering students’ performance on standardized measures of academic achievement across all disciplines environment-based education programs were demonstrated to reduce discipline and classroom management problems, increase engagement and enthusiasm for learning, and increase students’ pride in and ownership of their accomplishments (SEER, 1998).

“Gardening teaches self-esteem.”   
—-Tony Recasner from the Edible Schoolyard in New Orleans—-

Beyond the improvements in standardized academic achievements, introducing eco-literacy in the public school environment will bring broad benefits to the students and to our culture at large. Public schools are probably the greatest institution of democracy and one of the most important vehicles for passing on values and worldviews to our next generations. Therefore, it is time to engage public schools in a vision for a more sustainable future for all.

The point of IBU’s K-12 program is to give interested schools, teachers and students a framework to build their own programs. As a spearhead program “The Edible Schoolyard” in Berekley has demonstrated at the MLK public school, it takes many years and a crew of committed teachers, students and visionaries to transform a school. But it is possible and the benefits are enormous.

IBU is collaborating with other eco-educational non-profits for joint programs as well as educational material. For K-12 education, IBU advocates the Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability curriculum developed by the center for eco-literacy.