Who are we?
Green Academy is an initiative spearheaded by UNESCO. The goal is to provide feasible infrastructure reforms to enable green urbanization in Africa.
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Our mission is to contribute to the fundament of a green and sustainable society in Africa by constructing and proliferating UNESCO Green Academies across the continent. Green Academies serve as a societal node from which knowledge and experience about the Sustainable Development Goals can proliferate through their respective communities, enabling students to be the architects and leaders of a green and sustainable future.
Utilizing the experience we are gathering at our two pilot projects in Yayu and the Selam School in Addis Ababa, we will be able to scale our efforts to multiple locations in Ethiopia and from there later to the continent.
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Catalyse sustainable and green development of the African continent.
Read more about us, our history and our collaboration with UNESCO on the Quest4Action website.
To realise this vision, Green Academy schools are being implemented based on the following five pillars:
Rainwater harvesting and utilisation
Waste management including grey and black water recycling
Clean Energy supply applications
Biomass production (in form of a school garden for food, fuel, or amenity purposes)
A youth club as the underlying essential capacity building element and to empower youth for action.
The project run by the Green Academy Africa Team will implement a Green Academy in the Yayu Preparatory school with the generous help of the Ministry of Science and technology Ethiopia. Starting with the installation of Rainwater harvesting capabilities, to give 1000 students access to water on campus. Once implemented the school will meet all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the UN. Furthermore, with schools being a focal point of any community, the new Green Academy serves as a learning platform for the members of the community to empower themselves to become more green and sustainable citizens.
“We want to provide environmental knowledge and climate-resilience tools related to infrastructure to communities who do not have access to these resources. By engaging environmental youth groups, their participation will encourage social and ecological thinking which among students which feeds back to their communities. Closely integrated with the local communities, Green Academy will foster sustainable resource use and transform existing buildings into resilient structures, at lower costs but with far longer lifetimes. Lastly, it is extremely important to us to be critical and take our time to evaluate and fact check our actions, sources and partners.”
