Performance of newly implemented Environmental Management Systems in primary schools in South Africa |
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Authors: | Luc Hens Torsten Wiedemann Schalk Raath Riana Stone Paul Renders Eric Craenhals |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Human Ecology, University of Brussels, Laarbeeklaan 103, 1090 Brussels, Belgium;2. Museum Park Enviro Centre, Posbus 413, Pretoria 0001, South Africa;3. Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria 0001, South Africa;4. Department LNE, Flemish Government, Koning Albert II-laan 20 bus 8, 1000 Brussels, Belgium |
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Abstract: | Quantitative results from Environmental Management Systems (EMS) at primary schools have rarely been examined in literature. This paper presents the monitoring results of environmental care in 39 primary schools in Northern South Africa. During 2 years, after the EMS was implemented in the curriculum and in the school's management, the progress of environmental performances of the participating schools has been measured, by means of detailed questionnaires, related to four environmental aspects: water, waste, energy and greening. At the beginning of the project, 50% of the schools performed well on water-related environmental actions. Two years later it was 76%. For waste-related activities the improvement was even stronger: from 50% to 100%. The environmental performances of the schools improved also for greening-related actions, from 50% at the start of the project to 64% two years later. Only energy-related activities did not improve significantly with only 24% of all schools performing well at the end of the survey period.In general, the introduction of an EMS succeeded in an improvement of the overall environmental performances of the schools, but cost-intensive activities were less successful than others. |
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