Johannesburg: Schools as the centre of learning about the Nexus

This story of innovation showcases a Food-Water-Energy Nexus approach to environmental education through the School Greening Project.

The nexus project highlights annual School Greening Project which (2013-2017) as part of the City’s Environmental and Infrastructure Services Department environmental education efforts. It offered experiential and activity-based education focusing on resource productivity and caring for the environment. 41 schools in vulnerable communities were provided with equipment. A challenge for this project was an imbalance between the time needed to ensure school stakeholders became familiar with the technology, and the short budget period of the city’s financial year. Lessons from this case show how a nexus approach can create synergies between government departments and increase systems thinking capabilities of city actors into the future.

Keywords: Food, Food-water-energy nexus, Innovation, Sustainability, Learning, Infrastructure, WEF Nexus

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa