Hannah Gray visited some schools in Peterborough to see how they are passing on the green message.

JILL FOSTER from Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT) is in no doubt that we need to encourage our children to be green.

"The children are the people who are going to be living in the world in the future," she said.

"We need them to take on board what they need to do to help the environment. As adults we are all very aware of what the issues are, we all know there are carbon emissions and the issues to do with plastic bags.

"We need the children to know not just what the issues are but what they can do to change them. If they are aware in school of what they need to do then hopefully when they leave school that will just be how they carry on."

Jill is PECT's sustainable development education coordinator, and is involved in encouraging schools in the area to be more environmentally aware, and is currently involved in three schemes.

The first is Greener Futures (www.greenerfutures.com), which has been running for six years.

This is a popular website which includes a questionnaire to help young people see how green their lifestyle is – from healthy eating to what they do with their spare time. In school, classes are able to see results for the whole group and even their school.

There are also games on the site, which reinforce the sustainable living message.

A recent addition to this section is a game like the popular SimCity, which enables youngsters to look after characters and the environment in a post- apocalyptic world.

The second project run by PECT is Greener Schools, a website for teachers (www.greenerschools.co.uk) which allows them to find environmental educational resources. It also has a calendar of green events on it and a new grant finder section.

PECT also supports schools taking part in the Eco-School scheme (www.eco-schools.org.uk). This is an international award, which is administered by ENCAMS in the UK, and aims to help schools work towards government targets for sustainability by involving pupils in looking at the school environment.

Schools work towards gaining one of three awards – Bronze, Silver and the prestigious Green Flag award, which symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity.

Jill said many schools in Peterborough are keen to be teaching the environmental message.

"The schools that I work closely with are hugely enthusiastic and desperate to do as much as they can. Even the schools that I can't work with at the moment, they all want to be involved and to start to do things," she said.

For more information on PECT, visit www.pect.net.

Next pages: Case studies - The Voyager School, Abbostmeade Community Primary School and Jack Hunt School.