Sustainability
Environmental Sustainability is represented across Kopila Valley Sewa Samaj’s core programs and as one of our foundational values. We aim to embed a culture of sustainability in the way we work, live, and teach. To us, sustainability means doing our part to appreciate, preserve and restore our environment so future generations may continue to flourish. Our sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality.
Our sustainability programming takes many forms. It is creating a generation of environmentally-conscientious youth through our environmental education and place-based pedagogy. It’s working with organic farmers to ensure our students, staff, and community have access to organic, locally grown foods. It’s mindfully procuring from local vendors when possible. We actively reduce, reuse, recycle on our green campus which uses renewable solar energy and water conservation techniques, and much more.
Educating the Next Generation
At Kopila Valley School, we weave environmental education into the classroom in all grades and subject areas. Our environmental education program emphasizes the necessity of ensuring that young people become environmentally active and responsible citizens. A key characteristic of the environmental education program is an emphasis on outdoor learning. Taking our students out of the classroom not only offers a unique context for learning but also provides experiential learning opportunities that foster connections to local places and helps students develop a greater understanding of ecosystems.
In the classroom, we are continuing to utilize and evolve a cross-curricular approach to integrate sustainability and place-based pedagogy in different subject areas. Also we are developing an environmental studies curriculum that includes gardening and outdoor learning programs. We are mindful in operating an environmentally friendly school campus that is itself a daily teaching tool for our students.
Students teach and learn about the sustainability on campusOur Mission
Environmental sustainability is represented across BlinkNow’s core programs and as one of our foundational values. We aim to embed a culture of sustainability in the way we work, live, and teach. To us, sustainability means doing our part to appreciate, preserve and restore our environment so future generations may continue to flourish. Our sustainable practices support ecological, human, and economic health and vitality. We are constantly working to meet the current needs of our community in Surkhet, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. We recognize how these issues are interconnected and will continue to minimize our organization’s own impact on the environment while instilling best practices in our students, staff, and the surrounding community.
History of Sustainability at Kopila
Traditional Nepali communities are inherently sustainable. From construction methods and materials to sourcing and consumption, rural Nepali communities contributed minimally to global climate change. Yet they are greatly impacted by the effects of global warming. When we started BlinkNow and established Kopila Valley School, we drew inspiration from local low-impact building designs to construct our humble bamboo school made from local materials.
As part of our efforts to operate more sustainably, we started looking at where our food came from. We found that the vast majority was being sourced from India. Unable to track the practices that were used to grow this food, wanting to keep the money in the local economy, and seeing the potential for educational experiences for the students, we started searching for local options. In 2018 we established a Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) that trained local farmers to cultivate organic produce used in our school lunch program.
In 2019, we opened the doors to our new campus, launching our next evolution of commitment to sustainable resource consumption. Our green campus is built using rammed earth from local materials and runs on solar energy. We capture and conserve rain water through rainwater harvesting and greywater processing wetlands. Our school farm has become an important space for integrating environmental topics into the classroom while regenerating soil used for animal husbandry and farming to improve soil composition.
In 2020 we formed an internal environmental education committee and an external alliance of environmental organizations to deepen our commitment to education for sustainability ethos within and outside our school. These groups will assist in preparation for our first annual sustainability summit.
After a key hire and many international workshops, in 2021 we plan to further our environmental studies classes by integrating outdoor learning opportunities, a school-wide gardening curriculum, and an increased emphasis on including place-based activities across all subjects and grades.
Our Green Campus
The campus operates primarily on renewable energy and integrates resource preservation and sustainability into the design, allowing us to use our campus as an educational tool for our students and the community. The main features of our green campus include:
Kopila Valley Farm
Our school farm is used as an experiential teaching platform for our students and a place to promote best farming practices in the community. We ensure all students learn to connect with their food and understand their food choices.
We operate our farm using regenerative agriculture techniques to neutralize the effect that we cause by farming the land while rebuilding the topsoil health at the same time. To reduce topsoil erosion, we integrate practices like agroforestry, biochar, nitrogen-fixing plants, crop rotation, integrated pest management, and chemical-free fertilizing.
Rammed Earth Walls
The buildings on campus were made using rammed earth walls, a technique used in Nepal for centuries which is known for its thermal mass properties and earthquake reduction. We were able to avoid brickyards and source with local materials, most of which come from within a 30-kilometer radius of our project site. The heavy walls are reinforced to provide earthquake resistance and are effective in maintaining warmer temperatures in winter and cooler temperatures in summer while allowing sufficient natural daylight and fresh air in every classroom.
Water Use
The water used on our campus comes from the 1.6 meters of rainfall which is harvested and stored in a 300,000-liter cistern located under the cafeteria. Before use, this water undergoes three different biological and physical filtration processes to ensure that it is safe for all potable uses.
The school drainage system is designed to capture most of the rainwater to recharge the groundwater system using permeable pavement and structuring the drainage flow into the gardens. A robust system of plant and tree roots stabilizes slopes, stores water, increases the organic matter of soil, and prevents erosion.
Our wastewater is recycled twice. Water from the sinks called greywater flushes the toilets. Then water from toilets is filtered again to irrigate plants. Finally, solids are converted in a pressurized tank into biogas fuel for cooking and in our science lab for the bunsen burners.
Drinking water comes from our harvested rainwater, which passes through two biosand filters that perform both biological and physical filtration to eliminate 99 percent of bacteria and pathogens. This water is then safe for hand washing and dishwashing stations. Additional treatment through screen filter, 0.01-micron ultrafilter, and carbon filter makes the water purified for drinking.
Solar on Campus
With 300 days of sun a year, it's no doubt that we love solar energy at Kopila. Our solar panels generate enough energy to keep our school running all day for our students and staff. Not only do we use solar power, but the students get to use data from our panels to learn about energy generation and needs. We even make cookies in the science lab with our DIY solar ovens!
Landscape & Composting
Our landscaping on our school campus has been designed to maximize the use of our outdoor spaces. Deciduous trees have been chosen for most of our gathering spaces. They provide shade during the hot seasons of the year, but shed their leaves during the winter and allow sunshine to come through. This campus features over 100 species of trees. Forty of these are fruit trees for our students’ consumption.
All our leftover food from lunch is 100% composted. Our compost refertilizes the soil or feeds the farm animals in the community.
*2 “Assessment of soil erosion in the Nepalese Himalaya”. Land Husbandry, volume 2, no. 1, 1997. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd, pp.59-80