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We are a Green School

At The Bridge, we prioritize energy conservation, reduce our carbon emissions, embrace vegetarian diets, and support local businesses. We practice waste segregation, avoid disposable utensils, and champion eco-friendly lifestyles. We’re proud to be among the Green Standard Schools, a collective of institutions deeply committed to environmental responsibility.
The Bridge Green 7 Green Standard Schools

Green Ambassador

As you may know, in 2020 we officially joined and became a member of the prestigious EAQUALS – the British organization of accredited language teaching organisations and schools. Today, we would like to take this one step further and join the “green” community, as we strongly believe that our mission and commitment to the public goes beyond teaching.
Though our school has lived by the “green rules” for years now, this is our official commitment to the public to make this effort, on paper for everybody to read. Our latest accomplishment is that we became a part of Green Standard School – we are certified by GSS.
I approached our school management with the idea of a green project initiative, and we all agreed that, being a language school, it is an excellent idea to raise awareness about being “green”. Our multicultural team put together things we do and chose The Bridge’s “Green Seven” listed below.
We hope that you, as our reader, will maybe feel inspired to incorporate some (at best all) of these 7 principles into your everyday life as well.

Rada Paššáková

info@thebridge.sk

+421 917 323 317

The Bridge Green Seven

1. Reduce / Reuse / Recycle

What it means for us

REDUCE means to cut back on the amount of waste we generate. REUSE means to find new ways to use things that otherwise would have been thrown out. RECYCLE means to turn something old and useless into something new and useful.

Our approach

Our school has installed separate bins for paper, plastics, and kitchen waste in its classrooms and offices. We also contribute towards the reduction of landfill sites, where waste materials are disposed of. We do not use plastic cups or plastic tableware on our premises.

Did you know?

Glass is 100% recyclable and can be reused countless times. If we don’t recycle it, it will stay in the environment forever. Aluminum cans are 100% recyclable and can be back on the shelf as a new can in 2 months. Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees. Plastic can take 500 years to decompose.

Our recommendations

Emma recycles clothes

I try to recycle as much as possible, including clothes and shoes. If the items are still good for someone to wear, I take them to one of the many clothes swap events which take place across Bratislava. When the clothes are no good for anyone to wear, I put them into a bag and drop them off at one of the many Humana collection bins around the city to be recycled.

Emma Wyatt
Teacher

Sources

Top 10 Reasons to Reduce, Recycle & Reuse

2. Conserve energy & water

What it means for us

Conservation is the careful maintenance of a natural resource to prevent it from disappearing. And what is a natural resource? It is the physical supply of something that exists in nature (such as soil, water, air, energy)

Our approach

At The Bridge, we all made a pledge to use less water, turn off the lights if they are not needed, use less heat and less paper by 100% online school administration and using digitized versions of our book library instead of photocopies.

Did you know?

By using a low-flow special showerhead in your shower, you can save 56 litres of water during a 10-minute shower. Less modern toilet flushing systems can add up to 70 litres a day down the toilet. You can save by retrofitting or filling your tank with something that will displace some of that water (such as a brick).

Our recommendations

Juraj uses as little water as possible

Whenever I’m using water at home, it reminds me of the comfort we live in – we have drinking water at our disposal 24/7. That’s why I’ve been trying to come up with ways of using as little of it as possible. For example, when doing dishes, I steep them after use, later clean them with a sponge, not using any water, and only after that, I rinse them under lukewarm water. I realized that we tend to keep water running during the whole process, which is a complete waste. Also, hot water needs more energy and other resources to make. This way, we use much less of it.

Juraj Streďanský
Teacher

Sources

Conserving Earth

3. Responsible travel and transport

What it means for us

We all need to be transported. An important factor from an ecological point of view is how we are transported. Everyone who can walk to work from our team does so, or uses more environmentally friendly means of transport.

Our approach

The Bridge has a multinational team. We go “home” for holidays, we travel. We fly and we drive but whichever means of transport we use, we do our best to put responsible travel first. All of our teachers and staff use public transport on a daily basis, whether to get to work or to the client’s premises. If we do use a car to get to a conference, we make sure we use up all of the car’s capacity. And with the onset of the pandemic, we have limited our business travel and replaced it with online meetings.

Did you know

You could drive 336 cars to Edinburgh for the same CO2 as one plane – it depends on the type of car and airplane of course, this survey compared a Boeing 747 and a Ford Mondeo and was published by Science Focus.

Our recommendations

Ondrej travels by bicycle and train

My advice is: Bicycle or use public transport. I am an English teacher and photographer. I use a bicycle and public transport for daily transportation. It’s convenient and keeps me in good shape. I like it best when I can combine them. I took 3 trains, 1 bus, 1 bicycle for a 2-week training in Italy and I can tell you it was worth it!

Ondrej Koščík
Teacher

Sources

How many cars equal the CO2 emissions of one plane?
Psychological Benefits of Walking through Forest Areas

4. Sustainable shopping

What it means for us

Whether shopping for our homes or office or school, we at The Bridge understand that everything we buy has a health, environmental, and social impact. And if we and you commit to sustainable shopping, this is our mutual chance to support what is important.

Our approach

Our school partners with suppliers and shop owners who act responsibly toward the environment. We buy local. We buy second-hand. Every item you will see in our school was acquired with attention to nature. The clothes that we do not wear we pass on to friends and colleagues.

Did you know?

It can take more than 3,100 litres of water to make a single t-shirt. A shocking 2016 McKinsey report revealed that three-fifths of all clothing items will end up in an incinerator or landfill within a year after being produced.

Our recommendations

Andrea uses eco-friendly shopping bags

We can all make positive choices, even in the little things. For example, in the way we shop. Plastic bags are increasingly being recycled, but most of them still end up in landfill, where they can take hundreds of years to decompose. That’s why, when I make a major purchase, I take a durable, reusable bag so I don’t have to use a plastic one. I also always keep a small collapsible bag on hand that I use for unexpected or smaller purchases.

Andrea Záhumenská
Director of Education

Sources:

A review of green purchase with reference to individual consumers and organizational consumers

5. Green Chemistry

What it means for us

As the name indicates, these are chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. In fact, it involves the entire process, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal.

Our approach

Our school has never used toxic cleaners and detergents. Our office management purchases only sustainable chemicals (another word for green chemicals) that are safer chemicals and products which avoid hazardous substances and chemical derivatives. We want to reduce the accumulation of these products in the environment after they are used as well as not wanting to inhale chemical exhausts. We believe that, for regular cleaning, we can use non-aggressive detergents only to get the job done.

Did you know?

Chemicals can meddle with your hormones. For example, by mimicking hormones and tricking our bodies. Packaging, pots, and pans can leach chemicals into our food. Microplastics, macro-problems. On average, every square kilometre of the world’s oceans has 63,320 microplastic particles floating on the surface. The tiny pollutants are also found in fruit and vegetables such as carrots, lettuce, pears, and apples — the latter with an average of 195,500 plastic particles per gram.

Our recommendations

Klaudia uses green chemicals

I think using chemicals for cleaning is insane, let alone toxic chemicals. Used in cleaning, they get in contact with our food or body directly. It’s insane to wash your bathroom with chlorine. I clean on a regular basis, so I’m OK using bio-degradable cleaning materials and things like vinegar, baking soda and citric acid. I’m especially careful about cosmetics. Skin is our biggest organ, so I am trying to keep the rule of not putting on your skin what you wouldn’t eat. I use a lot of oils, cocoa butter, neem powder and clay. My favourite are products from India and Arabic countries.

Klaudia Bednárová
The Bridge CEO

Sources

World Environment Situation Room, Program OSN pre životné prostredie

6. No meat policy

What it means for us

Ditching meat (and also dairy) for vegetarian and vegan meals not only reduces diseases, but choosing vegetarian options would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Meat consumption is responsible for releasing greenhouse gases such as methane, and CO2. These gases contribute to climate change. Also, livestock farming negatively contributes to the climate by the destruction of forest ecosystems.

Our approach

Now this one has been very popular among us, the Bridgers. Most of us here pledged to consume less meat, or to switch to a meat-less diet entirely. Our catering for all conferences, meetings, team events, or outings are 100% vegetarian or vegan. It is not just environmentally friendly, but it is also a practical way to deal with many food allergies and dietary exclusions. Last but not least, our brains work better when our digestive system is not overloaded, hence a healthy and light diet is one step towards effective learning.

Did you know?

Meat production causes twice as much air pollution as plant food production.

Our recommendations

Giada’s concern about the food we eat

I was first introduced to veganism during a yoga retreat, back in 2018. Sticking to a diet that excludes meat, dairy, and other animal products in favour of plant-based foods might sound extreme and even uncomfortable. However, I couldn’t be any happier with my decision: a vegan diet is kinder to animals and to our bodies, moreover, the production of meat and animal products takes a huge toll on our natural environment. Being vegan is not always easy, but it’s one of the most effective tools we have to protect our planet.

Giada Cortese
Lector

Sources

Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases

7. Education and Awareness

What it means for us

Understanding “the green policy” and being environmentally aware means understanding how our behaviour impacts the environment and committing to making changes to our activities to protect the planet. It also means reducing our impact on the environment as much as possible. And all this is possible through the awareness, sharing, and passing on of knowledge. Being teachers, we have powers to inspire and motivate our students to become better selves, more environmentally aware selves. Being active citizens conscious of our actions and impact is the way to go into our green future.

Our approach

The Bridge today offers some great conversation classes that focus on green topics. Also, these topics are, one way or another, integrated into many other courses. We encourage our students to engage and actively participate both inside and outside of the classroom. We inform them about the upcoming green activities within our area, and how to join them (tree planting, waste collecting organized by the City of Bratislava, etc.).

Did you know?

At The Bridge, we try to be an example, so have implemented lost of ecological improvements within our school. We separate waste, collect batteries, use cotton towels instead of paper issues, we use loofa for washing the dishes, and on the terrace we placed a composter. Every year, we organize a walking challenge on the occasion of Earth Day.

Our recommendations

Andrea motivates teachers in terms of green topics

We communicate and include green topics into our lesson plans, we even created an ebook with a selection of environmental topics according to levels. You can download the ebook for free and use it with your students in your classes. We hope it will be inspiring.

Andrea Záhumenská
Director of Education

Practical examples of eco topics in English lessons

We have prepared a new e-book for you, our fellow English teachers, which aims to bring more green topics to English lessons.

Green Lesson Plans ENG (107)

Green Standard Schools

As an accredited member of the Green Standard Schools, we adhere to the 12 established guidelines and aim to inspire not just our students, but also other institutions.

  1. Reduce the amount of energy consumed in the school and switch to sustainable energy suppliers where possible
  2. Reduce the amount of water consumed in the school
  3. Reduce the amount of paper consumed and move towards a paperless operation
  4. Discourage the use of pointless plastics by all staff, students, and suppliers
  5. Reuse and recycle everything brought into the school that can usefully be reused or cycled
  6. Reduce the environmental impact of purchases e.g. by using local supply chains
  7. Reduce the environmental impact of all marketing activities
  8. Compensate for the carbon generated by students and staff travelling to the school – especially international students!
  9. Encourage providers of accommodation services to adopt sustainable practices
  10. Include activities that benefit the environment in the school’s programme of social activities
  11. Ensure that all staff and students are aware of the school’s environmental policies
  12. Systematically include environmental issues in the teaching curriculum

Green Standard Schools

Green Standard School je neziskové združenie, ktoré verí, že vzdelávanie je pre ochranu a záchranu životného prostredia kľúčové.
Pomáha spájať organizácie, ktoré prostredníctvom vzdelávania chcú poskytnúť práve túto vysoko účinnú formu pomoci – formovať a budovať uvedomelý vzťah ku životnému prostrediu a jeho udržateľnosti.