A few weeks ago I wrote about Web and mobile technology remaking education, but in the middle of the jungle – within a cluster of bamboo buildings nominated for various architectural awards and furnished with hip, mondernist bamboo furniture – I found a place where cleantech was remaking the very concept of a school.
The toilets are almost all very comfortable compost toilets, the trash is all recycled with the organic matter going to a school pig slop where Balinese black sows make sure nothing goes to waste. Each grade has a garden that supplies organic food for lunches— including organic cacao in the summer months so the kids can make their own chocolate. The school is even experimenting with different methods of renewable energy including methane-extraction from the compost-toilets and a large water vortex that creates hydro-electric power without the environmental devastation that comes with building a dam.
There’s an inflatable classroom with a canvas roof and hip oval-shaped desks for when the weather gets too unbearable, and – why not?—a state of the art mud wrestling pit. As I wait for a Balinese latte at the coffee stand, a mother hen and her chicks peck across the soccer field like something out of a fairy tale. The third-grade’s pizza garden isn’t too far off in the distance, and even farther down the path last year’s tweens learned real-world math by building their own thatched bamboo clubhouse. And, of course, there’s school-wide wifi.
Of course all of this green stuff is just be a gimmick if it’s not backed up by high academic standards. To that end, the school runs according to the Cambridge international school standards, combining the benefits of an international school education, with the unique advantages the Green School’s environment offers.
Richard Branson was here to check out Green School last week, and before him famous guests included Ben of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, Donna Karen of DKNY and David Copperfield. You can understand why the Vegas illusionist would like a school that seems to have sprung up from nowhere in the middle of the jungle.
The everyday students range from poor Balinese kids on a scholarship to the considerably-more-well off kids of a guy like Allard Luchsinger —a multi-time European Internet entrepreneur who decided to take a year off with his family in Bali. Unlike transitions to Los Angeles and San Francisco, his kids were instantly happy here, Luchsinger says. It’s not hard to see why.
This seems a school that only a wild-eyed, half-hippy entrepreneur could dream up so I’m not surprised to hear there’s not one, but two, behind it. John Hardy moved to Bali in the mid-1970s and his wife Cynthia moved in the early 1980s. Together, they started a local jewelry business called John Hardy Jewelry that caught on, selling its pieces in high-end chains like Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Neiman Marcus. In 2007, the company sold for undisclosed millions of dollars that go a lot farther when they are converted to Indonesian Rupiahs. (It takes just $100 to be a Rupiah-millionaire.)
Spurred by a desire to give back to the island that created their jewelry empire, the couple began dreaming about Green School. They put $5 million of their own money into the school, it opened in September 2008 and today it’s still largely reliant on donors and the Hardys themselves to keep the doors open. (Branson’s check is reportedly in the mail.) Meanwhile, the two have also opened a for-profit venture called PT Bamboo that makes the stunning sustainable bamboo architecture and furniture the showcased at the school.
Why should you care about a school in the middle of the jungle? Because that jungle shares the planet with us and Bali hasn’t always had the best track-record of environmental stewardship, having destroyed a good deal of coral with dynamite fishing in years past. Now, Green School is teaching locals a new way to think, plant and build, and is pushing the boundaries of clean-tech innovation that’s also beautiful, functional and comfortable. So frequently, we hear about emerging markets causing environmental problems, but Green School is another example of where an emerging market is creating the solution.
Source: Techcrunch.com
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would you please put more pictures?
done, bro.
This is such an awesome-looking school!! I wish all schools are like that =D
OMG I wish I was in that school!!!!
Dear Akhyari, are you sure wanna put Greenschool as a good news for Indonesia?
I lived in Bali, and i know that this school built by foreigner, and the student, mostly foreigner. The tuition is incredibly expensive, especially for all the people who lived surrounding the school.
I have visited this school, and i know for sure that very few Indonesians that could afford it.
Furthermore, did you already do some research why John Hardy Jewelry is being sold? please do browse about the case few years ago about the foreign owned jewelry company that registered the traditional Bali motifs as their design.
And now this school is make another issue in Bali since there’s some problem in their building permit.
So, is it a good news for Indonesia?
Dear Fitorio, i really value your sharp thought on this. And yes, I do understand your concern, and i am sure, both sides are in talks for the nice closure of the building permit issue.
I am not sure about the bali-motif claims by foreign parties, as this is not the first time as you might recall.
I am sure, as economy is accelerating, and people’s buying power is increasing exponentially, not necessarily in Bali, it’s nationwide, good schools like this are surely co-existing indonesia conservative-modelled schools. The time will come when experts, professors, scientist, great lecturers come to indonesia to share their knowledge, and know-hows, and they’ll surely be high-priced people.
National University of Singapore, is undoubtfuly the best univ in the region, the lecturers are mostly foreigners, and of course..it’s expensive. But look at the impact it has been giving in sustaining Singapore’s cutting-edge ‘superiority’ over its neighbors.
Again, your thought is really inspiring.
Thank you
GNFI
Dear Akhyari,
I do really appreciate for your reply but I think there’s some missing points,
Please do browsing on the case around 2008 that there are several case between local craftsmen that using traditional Bali motifs such as “patra tunggal” against foreign owned jewelry company that related with the school that you have mentioned, due to the motifs already registered by the company. I just want you to know about the previous “achievement” of the man behind the scene.
And for the school, ofcourse it’s different, NUS is built and run by Singapore Government. So the benefit and value is belong to the country. For this case, the school is owned by foreigner, so the benefit belong to them. Furthermore, can you imagine a highly cost school around a poor local community? it’s irony, not a good news.
This school is for me is simply like this. A bunch of foreigner wanna built a school for foreigner using the beauty of indonesia nature as a selling point of marketing.