When Teaching Moves Beyond the Classroom: Celebrating India’s Green Teachers
Blog No. 0926/PI - Written by -
Ruchira Nigam, Project Coordinator, Prithvi Innovations with
Ms. Anuradha Gupta, Founder General Secretary, Prithvi Innovations
(Be a part of Green Teachers Tribe at Prithvi - Nominate yourself now- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSclF0aAqPpbeV5BtAKD3zjnnEXIMo91KYqrwSgcbryJ5ca9QQ/viewform?usp=header)
A teacher can teach a lesson on water conservation. But what happens when students begin turning off unused taps?
A teacher can explain biodiversity from a textbook. But what happens when students start documenting the species around their school?
A teacher can speak about plastic pollution. But what happens when an entire classroom begins questioning its everyday consumption?
This is where teaching becomes action.
The Prithvi Preet Prerna Samman or the Prithvi Green Teacher Awards, an initiative of Prithvi Innovations, was created around this very idea: to recognise educators who are taking environmental learning beyond awareness and turning it into participation, practice and everyday behaviour.
It Started with a Simple Question
Teachers influence far more than academic learning. They shape habits, choices and attitudes - and their influence can extend from a classroom to families and communities.
Recognising this potential, Prithvi Innovations launched the Prithvi Green Teacher Awards as a pilot initiative on Teachers’ Day, 5 September 2024. The objective was straightforward: identify and celebrate teachers who were already making environmental responsibility part of the learning experience.
The response offered an encouraging answer.
The first cohort received submissions, representing different kinds of environmental initiatives and approaches to student engagement. What stood out was not simply the variety of activities, but the ability of educators to connect environmental ideas with meaningful action.
The pilot recognised three educators:
Dr. Mohammed Yaseen, Head, Department of Science, Shekhawati Science Academy, Vidya Vihar Sr. Sec. School, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan
Ms. Chetna Verma, Teacher & Eco-club Incharge, S.D. Public School, Pitampura, Delhi
Ms. Kavita Sharan Shahi, Geography Teacher, City Montessori School, Gomtinagar Extension, Lucknow
They were recognised with Eco-Gift Hampers and Certificates at a special ceremony held on 8 March 2025 at Ravindralay, Charbagh, Lucknow, on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Unique Nature Retreat for Teachers :
Plus a very unique and innovative opportunity to build memories & spend some green time together as Prithvi’s Green Teachers Tribe, an interesting Teachers Nature Retreat Travel Gift Voucher has been added to the kitty of Awards this year for all past and future Awardees, with Prithvi Innovations supporting 60% of the travel package cost.
The idea is to explore India's precious Natural & cultural heritage in various states like Jibhi, Dhramshala, Mehghalaya, Kerala and also sensitize and imbibe Sustainable Tourism practices & help teachers to take back lessons beyond classroom in Eco Tourism and Sustainability & Climate Change.
The idea is being loved by teachers and the excitement is worth seeing as we gear up for our first Nature Retreat for Educators in Jibhi this year.
The pilot demonstrated something important:
green education does not belong to one subject, one school board or one age group. It can happen in a science laboratory, through an Eco-Club, in a school garden, during a biodiversity activity, through a waste-reduction campaign or simply through a change in the way students make everyday choices.
What Makes a Green Teacher?
The Prithvi Green Teacher Awards do not define a Green Teacher merely as someone who conducts environmental programmes.
The emphasis is on teachers who make sustainability part of everyday learning and encourage students to act.
That could mean establishing or strengthening an Eco-Club, encouraging responsible consumption, involving students in biodiversity conservation, developing innovative green-learning activities, addressing climate change or helping students adopt sustainable habits.
The distinction is important.
One plantation drive is an activity.Helping students understand why native biodiversity matters, document it, care for it and continue doing so is environmental education in action.
Similarly, a waste-segregation event may last a day. But helping students make segregation a routine at school and home represents a much deeper form of learning.
This is why the award looks beyond activity counts.
From Mission LiFE to Everyday Behaviour
The Award places particular emphasis on the Seven Themes of Mission LiFE & SDGs, while giving additional attention to climate change and biodiversity. The themes include saving energy and water, reducing single-use plastic, adopting sustainable food systems, sustainable mobility, responsible consumption and production, and healthy lifestyles.
These themes provide a practical lens through which teachers can connect sustainability with daily life.
A school garden can become a lesson in food systems and biodiversity.
A seed bank can become a lesson in local plant diversity.
A Save food-waste campaign can become a lesson in responsible consumption.
An Eco-Club can become a space where students move from discussing environmental problems to designing solutions.
And a climate-awareness activity can become meaningful when students are encouraged to examine what they themselves can change.
The Award Looks for Change, Not Just Activity
Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of the Prithvi Green Teacher Awards is its evaluation approach.
The award is not based merely on the number of activities conducted.
The jury looks at whether teachers have successfully translated environmental awareness into student participation and everyday green behaviour over time.
This brings several questions to the centre:
Did it excite ,engage & enablee the students to explore Nature, to question the habits, behavior and attitude towards Natural & cultural heritage, to look for answers & to embrace pro-planet choices in their daily life?
How many students participated?
Did their habits change?
Was the initiative sustained?
What was its environmental or social impact?
Could another teacher or school replicate it?
These questions shift the conversation from “What did the teacher organise?” to “What did the students experience, learn and change?”
That shift is crucial.
Because the ultimate measure of environmental education is not how many posters were made or events were conducted. It is whether learning begins to influence choices.
Green Work Has Many Forms
There is no single formula for becoming a Green Teacher.
The award recognises a broad range of initiatives - from waste segregation, recycling and upcycling to water conservation, energy efficiency, sustainable food practices, school gardens, biodiversity documentation, seed conservation, citizen science and climate action. Environmental art, innovation, sustainable mobility and student-led outreach can also become powerful tools for learning.
This diversity matters because every institution has a different context.
A teacher in a primary school may introduce children to seeds, gardens and responsible consumption.
A middle-school teacher may build a student-led Eco-Club.
A senior-secondary teacher may connect climate science with local action.
A university educator may involve students in environmental research, citizen science or community outreach.
The common thread is not the activity.
It is the teacher’s ability to turn environmental learning into meaningful action.
What the 2026 Cohort #2 Brings ??
Building on the pilot, the Prithvi Green Teacher Awards 2026 expands the recognition framework across educational levels, with categories covering primary, middle and senior-secondary teachers as well as higher-education educators.
Eligible educators are expected to demonstrate sustained green work undertaken from 1 September 2023 to the date of submission, supported by evidence of their contribution and outcomes.
And evidence matters.
Photographs, reports, certificates, campaign material, digital links, videos and - where possible - quantitative information such as students reached, waste reduced, trees planted or campaigns conducted help demonstrate the journey behind the initiative.
This makes the award more than a recognition exercise. It creates an opportunity to document practices that other educators can learn from and replicate.
From Individual Teachers to a Green Teacher Community
The larger ambition of the Prithvi Green Teacher Awards is perhaps best captured in the idea of moving “from award to movement.”
Recognition can celebrate one teacher. A network can influence many more.
Prithvi Innovations envisions the awards evolving into a growing community of educators committed to environmental action, with possibilities for knowledge-sharing, mentorship, case studies, regional recognition and documentation of inspiring practices.
Imagine a teacher discovering a simple water-conservation activity developed by another school and adapting it for their own students.
Imagine an Eco-Club learning from another Eco-Club.
Imagine successful classroom practices being documented not as isolated success stories, but as models that others can reproduce.
That is where recognition acquires a larger purpose.
The Green Teacher Is Also a Catalyst
Environmental education does not end when the bell rings.
A student who learns to conserve water may carry that habit home.
A child who understands biodiversity may begin noticing species in their neighbourhood.
A teenager involved in a waste audit may start questioning consumption pattern
A student-led Eco-Club may influence an entire school.
The teacher, in each of these situations, becomes more than an instructor.
The teacher becomes a catalyst.
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