How to choose a healthy, eco-friendly childcare centre

The early years have been recognized as a “natural starting point” for education for sustainability. ECEfS is a newly emerging area and Australian educators, teacher educators, and researchers are leaders in this field. Indeed, there is a growing list of exemplary kindergartens, child care centres, preschools, and preps across the country engaged in EfS focusing on a range of topics that include, for example, water education, reducing energy use, recycling, growing gardens, and cleaning up parks and creeks. Some centres focus more on the social dimensions of sustainability – strengthening Indigenous communities, working with the elderly, supporting the unemployed, fostering gender equality in their communities, being more socially inclusive. There is mounting evidence that early lessons in sustainability help reshape adult sustainability actions in homes, schools and communities.