Whole-school environmental stewardship

Every school in South Africa, a Sustainable School

That is the target. The online hub is how we get there, helping schools strengthen sustainability in teaching, learning and school life, and showing us what is actually being implemented through the year.

208sustainability projects implemented and sustained by schools
110School Environmental Management Plans assessed and moderated

Scale the Sustainable Schools model

Schools need a structure that makes environmental work part of how the school runs week to week. The hub is that structure, and it tracks what each school implements through the year.

The hub records what projects a school is running, how it is progressing with its School Environmental Management Plan (SEMP) and how teachers are engaging with the digital resources. Twenty-five years of work alongside schools sits behind that model, and the hub is what lets it reach past the schools we can visit.

That information can feed the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) growing focus on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and climate action, guided by the soon-to-be-promulgated Climate Change Act. Formal collaboration and endorsement from the DBE is what would take this national. Those conversations are underway.

Strengthen teacher capability and ESD implementation

Environmental learning lasts when teachers carry it. They are the ones still in the school when a cohort of learners moves on.

Teacher workshops strengthened the link between the Sustainable Schools model and classroom practice. Across the reporting year, teachers were supported through onboarding, SEMP development, SACE-endorsed professional development, virtual workshops and regional learning events that helped them bring ESD into lessons, school activities and learner-led action.

The programme helps schools to sustain, implement and improve what they are engaged with.

Nobanda Primary School, KwaZulu-Natal

2,435teacher training hours through workshops, onboarding and SACE-endorsed professional development
88%of teachers report an increase in confidence for ESD implementation
96%of teachers say their work feels more visible and valued

Increase the number and sustainability of school environmental projects

Projects are where the learning becomes visible, and where a school can show what it has actually changed.

Most school environmental work in South Africa begins with one committed teacher, the person who starts the recycling system or keeps the food garden alive. These eco-champions are vital, but the work cannot depend on one person alone. When that teacher changes roles or retires, the work loses momentum and learners lose continuity.

Pinelands High School and St Mary’s RC Primary School have both been part of the programme since its inception. The adjudication committee named Pinelands High School the Most Sustainable School in South Africa in 2024, and St Mary’s RC took the Western Cape title in 2025. Their recognition reflects work built over years.

Our projects have turned into a culture of the school.

St Mary’s RC Primary School

The Sustainability Stars a school earns through the gamified platform on the hub keep momentum alive by making the work visible and valued, and encourage schools to keep building on what they have started.

Across the wider network, schools are moving beyond the school gate, using projects to strengthen communities through food security, water and waste action, healthier shared space and partner support.

88,7%of schools submitted environmental management plans for assessment
85%of schools report active community involvement and benefit

This year in numbers

Financial year ended 28 February 2026.

110School Environmental Management Plans assessed and moderated
102Sustainability Stars awarded across the programme pathway
2,435teacher training hours delivered
208sustainability projects implemented and sustained by schools
44School Environmental Policies submitted, up 22 percent on last year

Milestone

The new Online Hub launched this year with a Challenge Board, live leaderboard, social feed, community page and resource library.

From the programme manager

Jocelyn Anderson

Jocelyn Anderson

This reporting year reinforced that Sustainable Schools is not only about what schools do, but about what they can keep doing. This means building systems so that sustainability becomes strong enough to outlast any one project or person.

The strongest schools were those beginning to embed sustainability into their planning, teaching, policies, learner leadership and wider school culture.

The 2025 School Environmental Management Plan assessment process, alongside the Rewards Roadshow, gave us a clearer view of where schools are progressing and where they need more support.

The next phase is about building depth, helping coordinators and partners work more intentionally with schools, so as to keep strengthening a programme that supports teachers, activates learners, connects communities and helps school-based environmental action continue long after the first project is complete.

Priorities for the year ahead

Use the Hub to make the programme simpler, stronger and more responsive.
Improve onboarding and support schools to engage with the Plan, Do, Reflect challenges.
Encourage more reflection and evidence uploads, and use that data to guide support.
Help coordinators and partners work more intentionally with each school.

With thanks to our funders

Mapula Trust, Leisure Charitable Trust, Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust, 476 Trust, Rolf-Stephan Nussbaum Foundation, Dower DCAP Advisory Fund, Table Mountain Fund and Rotary Club Newlands.

Thank you for giving schools the resources to turn sustainability learning into action.

The dream needs more than one organisation

Expanding this work means growing the partner network, so that every school on the programme has the complementary expertise and support it needs.