What's the connection?

The Sviva Israel non-profit organization collaborates with the Beit Shemesh Municipality and the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the management of an educational program in the city's elementary schools called "The Ecologic Connection." In the program's first phase, students learn the meaning of the term "ecologic footprint" and receive tools that help them measure their own personal effects on the environment.

Their ecologic footprints are assessed with the help of a questionnaire granting points for daily activities. Students are asked whether they arrive at school on foot or in a car or bus, and how many products they buy each day. They are also asked about what they do with empty plastic bottles and whether they switch off the lights before leaving a room. Each child's overall score reflects his ecologic footprint. While this certainly does not constitute a precise measurement, it does help children grasp their relationship with the environment.

Later, students learn about the principles of recycling and reusing materials, before creating projects that reduce their ecologic footprints. In addition, students compare their own ecological footprints to those of students at other schools.