Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net

Is your school engaged in green and eco-friendly activities?

All public and private elementary, high school, and colleges are encouraged to join the National Search for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Schools.

The competition is the response of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to Republic Act 9512, which is a law promoting environmental awareness through education.

“With their efforts recognized, we can encourage students, faculty and school administrators to adopt and promote eco-friendly practices in their schools, homes and communities,” DENR Secretary Jose Lito Atienza said.

Interested schools are required to submit a brief description of their environmental project in line with the theme, “Sustainable and Eco-friendly Initiatives.” Only one entry per school will be accepted.

Elen Basug, Chief of Environmental Education and Information Division of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), said that participating schools should first download an official entry form from EMB’s website. Entries can be supported by documents, such as memoranda, school policies, photos of activities, videos, published articles, certificates, among others.

For those joining the elementary and high school category, three copies of the documents should be submitted to DepEd division offices. For the tertiary level, entries shall be accepted by the EMB regional office.

Winning schools in the national level shall receive P 50,000 (1st prize), P 40,000 (2nd prize), and P30,000 (3rd prize) with plaques of recognition. On the other hand, finalists in the regional level shall be given certificates of recognition and a P 5,000 cash prize.

The winning entries will be displayed during the national awarding ceremonies in November 2009.

The DENR launched this initiative along with the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education and Smart Communications.

Entries should be submitted on or before April 30, 2009.

For online submission, entries should be in JPEG format with a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi), a minimum size of 1536 x 2048 pixels, and a maximum file size of 1MB and should be sent to ecofriendlyschools@gmail.com.