Welcome back to all of our Green-Schools! The Green-Schools programme has now entered into its 14th year in Ireland! There are currently 3502 schools registered on the Green-Schools programme and this number is always increasing. Since September 2010 an additional 86 schools have joined the programme. Schools are working hard on the themes of Litter and Waste, Energy, Water, Travel, Biodiversity, Global Citizenship and Climate Change. October was a busy month for Green-Schools Ireland with teaching training seminars, project launches, awards, school visits, workshops and lots more! During September and October, 52 seminars have been carried out all over the country by An Taisce staff, providing teachers with information and practical tips for implementing each of the themes of the Green-Schools programme in their school. These seminars were held in conjunction with Local Authorities and were very well attended by both new schools and existing schools of the programme. On the 1st October 2010, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, TD joined pupils from St. Mary's BNS, Rathfarnham to launch this year's An Taisce Green-Schools Energy Project sponsored by ESB Independent Energy. This project aims to increase student's awareness of the importance of energy effeciency and encourages primary school students to collaborate with local businesses to devise creative ways in which the business can conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions. St. Mary's is the 2,000th school in Ireland to be awarded the prestigous Green Flag and they have chosen to partner with local business RTÉ to see how the state broadcaster can be more energy efficient. The 10th Repak Awards Ceremony was held at the new Convention Centre is Spencer Dock on the 7th October, 2010. The Recycling School of the Year Award went to Midleton CBS in Co. Cork and the two runners-up were Inchicore National School, Dublin 8 and Brierhill National School, Co. Galway. The Award, organised by Repak, in association with An Taisce's Green-Schools programme is designed to award a school that has gone to extra lengths to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. All schools that achieve Green-Flag status for Litter and Waste for the previous school year are entered into the competiton. Congratulations to this year's winners and runners-up! On October 26th, 2010 HSBC and the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) launched the second year of a three-year global programme, backed by a financial committment from HSBC of US$2.5 million, which teaches 5-18-year-olds about protecting the environment through FEE's International Eco-Schools (known as Green-Schools in Ireland). To launch this year of the programme, pupils from St. Mary's Star of the Sea NS, Sandymount, Dublin, Ireland and students from two schools in the United Arab Emirates informed schools from all over the world about what they have been doing to successfully tackle Climate Change, through the Eco-Schools programme, by way of a live vidoe conference! The HSBC Eco-Schools Climate Initiative will see HSBC staff in 18 counteries connect with schoolsto address a variety of environmental themes ranging from energy, transport, and waste to water and biodiversity in relation to climate change. Counteries currently involved are Brazil, China, England, France, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malta, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Wales. The Green-Schools Travel team were also very busy during October! Nineteen Travel teacher training seminars took place around the country in association with Local Authorities. The Travel team also hosted a training day for the Beauty and the Bike initiative with the BodyShop in Galway and Limerick. On the ground, the Travel team have been carrying out school visits conducting travel surveys, working with students and teachers to establish COW and WOW days and holding workshops for cycle training, sustainable travel games, climate change, traffic surveys and lots more! This year also marked the introduction of Biodiversity as a Green-Schools theme. As 2010 is Year of Biodiversity, it is a great time to launch this theme! There are currently 230 schools working on the Biodiversity theme around the country, implementing steps to maintain and enhance the biodiversity that surrounds us. Biodiversity seminars will be conducted nationwide during November. Wishing all Green-Schools the best of luck with their programme this school year!