The Bermuda College and West Pembroke School were both awarded Green Flags yesterday at the second annual Eco-Schools Award Ceremony.

Meanwhile several other schools, including the Lyceum Preschool, Warwick Academy and Victor Scott Primary, were recognised for their environmental efforts with the Green Seed award.

The awards, a part of the international Eco-Schools Programme, are intended to encourage schools to become more sustainable by following a particular track, such as consumption and waste, or energy.

Jonathan Starling, the executive director of Greenrock, told the crowd that while the local Eco-School Programme started small in 2013, the number of schools involved has risen steadily.

“This year, at the second-ever Eco-Schools Awards Ceremony in Bermuda, I am pleased to note that the number of participating schools in Bermuda continues to grow, with 15 schools now participating, impacting approximately 5,000 students,” he said.

“Of these, the majority of schools are within the public system, in the preschool, primary and middle schools, but also includes the Bermuda College.

“The future of the Eco-Schools Programme in Bermuda is a bright one, and we at Greenrock are excited at the growth of this programme and look forward to seeing the numbers of Eco-Schools — and especially Green Flags — increasing. Ideally, we want to make sure every school in Bermuda is an Eco-School.”

He said that the initiative doesn’t just benefit the participants and the schools, but also the wider community, with students taking home valuable lessons about the environment.

The programme can also lead to cost savings, he said, noting the success of the West Pembroke School in reducing their energy consumption.

“As Eco-Schools, they adopt one of eight pathways at a time to ensure they don’t spread themselves too thin and successfully implement one pathway at a time. West Pembroke adopted the Energy Pathway. Through conducting an energy audit and implementing energy monitors to ensure lights were turned off when not needed, West Pembroke successfully reduced its energy usage by 15 per cent, saving $1,500 monthly from their energy bill. This is just one example of the more direct benefits of the Eco-Schools Programme, and it’s success has encouraged the Ministry to challenge all public schools to try to achieve the same savings — reducing the carbon footprint of the school system in Bermuda, while also seeing very real cost-savings allowing us to ensure money is better spent on education rather than energy bills.” Wayne Scott, the Minister of Education, also praised the students and the schools for their efforts, saying: “We know that environmental education is important because it connects us to the world around us, raising awareness of issues impacting the natural world and our social surroundings and it gives us actions we can take to protect and improve them.”