From a single recycling bin to green transformation across 25 schools
Uzbekistan: Empowering students to lead environmental change through the Sustainable Future Society
What if a single classroom’s waste problem could spark a sustainability movement reaching 25,000 people?
In Uzbekistan, it did.
In Namangan, a city in eastern Uzbekistan, history teacher Abrorjon Sadriddinov noticed that students were throwing organic waste into recycling bins. Instead of just fixing the problem, he built an entire system to prevent it. He then trained 25 other schools to do the same. The Sustainable Future Society (SFS) is a student-led environmental education programme that moves schools from theoretical awareness to measurable action, using a methodology that has now reached over 25,000 people.
“The lesson we learned from this project is that we must give freedom to our young people. Freedom to think, freedom to decide, freedom to act.”
Abrorjon Sadriddinov, History Teacher, Presidential School Namangan
The European Training Foundation (ETF) is delighted to count this initiative as one of the finalists for the Green Skills Award 2026. Read on to find out why.
The project
The Sustainable Future Society (SFS) follows the international Eco-Schools methodology, adapted by Abrorjon Sadriddinov and his students for the Uzbek context. It begins with forming eco-committees in each school, then guides students through sustainability audits, action plans, curriculum integration, monitoring and evaluation, community awareness campaigns and the creation of self-written eco-codes.
The programme’s first test site, Abrorjon’s own Presidential School in Namangan, obtained the internationally recognised Green Flag Award (a rigorous, externally validated sustainability certification) in just two years. From there, SFS expanded to 25 schools across the region, training teachers, students and parents in practical sustainability skills.
The ETF has selected this initiative as one of the six finalists for the Green Skills Award, recognising the wide-scale impact that is achievable when advocates think systemically. SFS turned a single classroom’s waste problem into a structured, student-led methodology that has reached 25,000 people across 25 schools, demonstrating that practical environmental education can be low-cost, scalable and led by the young people it is designed to empower.
Why this initiative stands out:
- A proven seven-step methodology adapted from the international Eco-Schools framework, refined through real classroom experience: eco-committee, sustainability audit, action plan, curriculum link, monitoring, community involvement, eco-code
- An educational innovation bridging a gap between environmental theory and practice in Uzbek schools
- Training reaching stakeholders at all levels across schools, teachers, learners and parents
- Going beyond environmental awareness, and empowering students to implement real transformation in their environment
The Sustainable Future Society (SFS) guides participating schools through a seven-step methodology adapted from the international Eco-Schools framework:
Step 1: Form an eco-committee of students and teachers.
Step 2: Conduct a sustainability audit to measure biodiversity, electricity usage, water usage, fuel usage, and wellbeing/health across the school.
Step 3: Create an action plan of environmental actions, based on the audit findings
Step 4: Integrate the action plan into the school curriculum.
Step 5: Collect data, analyse results, and reflect on what's working and what needs to change.
Step 6: Students run awareness campaigns through media, events and outreach to involve and inform parents and the wider community.
Step 7: Create an eco-code to establish commitments to sustainable behaviour.
- Over 25,000 people reached across 25 schools trained across the Namangan region (18,637 students, 3,426 teachers, 2,317 parents)
- 128 student-led environmental projects launched, from recycling systems to energy-saving practices
- 70+ training sessions and 53 awareness campaigns delivered, creating a multiplier effect across the region
- Green skills developed include critical thinking, data collection and analysis, project management, teamwork, environmental leadership, and community organising
“When students see the results of their actions — real data, real change — they stop being passive learners and become project leaders.”
– Abrorjon Sadriddinov
- Students who began as participants are now leading eco-committees and mentoring peers in other schools, creating a self-sustaining network
- One student discovered her future career path as a genetics physician through an SFS biodiversity project, proof that environmental education opens unexpected doors
- Teachers report that curriculum integration of sustainability topics has increased student engagement across subjects, not only in environmental science
- Parents involved in the programme have changed household practices, extending the impact from school to home
- The model is low-cost, requires no complex technology, and can be led by trained students and teachers, making it highly replicable in schools across Central Asia and beyond
Abrorjon is not an environmental scientist: he is a history teacher. But he understood that sustainability cannot be taught from a textbook alone. It has to be practised, measured and owned by the students themselves. His role, as he describes it, is to remove barriers and let young people discover what they are capable of. That philosophy – give students real problems, real tools and real responsibility – is why SFS works. It is also why it spreads: every school that adopts the model gains not just a programme, but a generation of young people who know how to turn concern into action.
As Abrorjon puts it, drawing on an old Uzbek saying: in teaching, you always learn.
“The future belongs to students, and they are ready.”
Abrorjon Sadriddinov, History Teacher, Presidential School Namangan, Uzbekistan
