Students at HSG launch climate education for St.Gallen vocational school students

Caption: The climate staircase (left) and the solar installation on the HSG sports hall are two projects that HSG students have realised - now they are launching the "Climate Education" format for young people in St.Gallen.

Five HSG Master's students are organizing a climate education afternoon to teach St.Gallen's vocational school students about climate change and sustainable solutions. On 25 June, around 70 young people will meet with lecturers, student associations and startups in SQUARE to discuss climate-related topics in depth. 

"We want to give young people an understanding of the causes of climate change and how to combat it," says HSG Master's student Tobias Lehmann. He and four other Master's students have organized a climate education afternoon for vocational school students from St.Gallen.

Around 70 young people from the St.Gallen Vocational and Further Education Center (BZGS) will participate in the event at HSG's SQUARE on 25 June. They are apprentices from the social and healthcare professions. At HSG, they will spend an afternoon discussing topics relating to climate change with lecturers, student organizations and startups from HSG. 

Students campaign for solar panels

HSG students Annalena Bacher, Cédric Jahn Jiaxin Ji, Tobias Lehmann and Marie Leithold launched the project as part of the Master's Certificate in Managing Climate Solutions (MaCS). In this degree course, students implement practical projects that have a concrete impact at HSG and in the region. Examples of this include the solar panels on the roof of the HSG sports hall, which was inaugurated in fall 2023, or the climate staircase. In the latter, a staircase to HSG was redesigned in the colours of a diagram illustrating climate change.

The idea for climate education arose from the realization that although there is a lot of information about climate change, this knowledge is not yet sufficiently widespread. "In addition, myths about climate change are widespread in social media, which young people refer to frequently," says HSG student Lehmann. Her initiative also wants to offer young people a critical perspective. "At the end of the afternoon, we will give the young people a handout summary with facts and sources that they can use in their everyday lives."

Exchange with startups and student associations

Three school classes are expected at SQUARE for this afternoon. The program begins with an introduction to climate science by the five students. Julia Gisler, a doctoral student at HSG's Institute of Marketing and Customer Understanding, will then give an interactive lecture on sustainable consumer behaviour and green marketing. This will be followed by a kind of marketplace at which HSG student associations and startups from the field of sustainability will present their work in small groups. The Oikos St.Gallen association and the voluntary student sustainability consultancy Student Impact will also be there. 

"With the climate education initiative, the students are making an important contribution to providing young people with a broader knowledge of effective climate solutions," says Dr. Nina Schneider about the program. She supervised the students and is also the program manager of the MaCS certificate.

"The topics on this afternoon are relevant and forward-looking," adds Oliver Sutter, Head of General Education at the BZGS. The HSG students' initiative offers BZGS students an excellent opportunity for a critical exchange and in-depth discussion. Sutter: "In the age of digitalization and artificial intelligence, critical thinking is of central importance, which is why we are increasingly promoting it."