School of the month

Amsterdam International Community School (AICS) is a vibrant and diverse school community where students from all over the world learn, collaborate, and grow together. With students who often live far from school, speak different languages, and come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, AICS is a place where global citizenship is part of everyday life.

In such an international environment, sustainability carries an extra layer of meaning. The school’s ecological footprint is larger due to travel, logistics, and facilities, and at the same time, awareness among students is incredibly high. The Eco-Club is at the heart of this: a space where young people don’t just discuss sustainability, but actively shape it themselves.

The result is a growing community of students showing that young people, regardless of their background, have the power to spark real change. Something special is happening here: students discover that their ideas matter, and that they can make a tangible difference in their school and surroundings.

For this article, we spoke with student head Daksh Prasad, Eco-Coordinator Lies Warlop, and two Eco-Club members; Christofer Gerdt and Nilay Gupta about their work, their ambitions, and the impact they hope to leave behind.

A club built and grown by students themselves

Many students joined the Eco-Club through a simple yet powerful approach: classroom presentations. Posters help, but nothing is as convincing as another student standing in front of your class and sharing what the club does and why it matters.

The club also chooses to meet in person. As the students put it: when you’re only in Teams, you lose each other. In person, you talk, you think, you plan, and you build things together. That makes the Eco-Club not only a sustainability initiative, but also a social space where community naturally forms.

Christofer expressed it beautifully:
“It’s just nice to know that you’ve been able to make a difference. Eco-Club is fun, and it’s also a good learning opportunity. If you can have both, why not take that opportunity?”

Projects that reach far beyond the school gates

The highlight of this year is the AICS EcoVision 2026, a new large-scale event full of workshops, challenges, and guest speakers such as Vodafone’s Senior ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Manager, fully organised by the students themselves. They are inviting other Eco-Schools from across the Netherlands, making it an ambitious project that requires planning, coordination, and courage. Does your school want to participate in this exciting event? Sign-Up: https://forms.gle/7sQgTan2uDaapERs6.

Students take on roles such as event coordinator, logistics planner, or team lead. One of them laughed while reflecting on how much they’ve learned:
“I learned how to manage people, and that with some people you have to keep reminding them to do their work. It almost felt like being a teacher.”

Beyond AICS EcoVision 2026, the club is active in many ways. They organised: 

• a cleanup in the Amsterdam canals with Plastic Whale;
• carried out cleanups around the school using the Rubis app where each piece of collected trash generated a donation;
• wrote letters to companies such as ING to put sustainability on their agenda;
• created educational materials about solar panels and energy use.

 Each initiative is student-driven, and sometimes even leads to real conversations with companies. That is where their impact becomes visible.

What other schools can learn from AICS’ approach

The students explain clearly what makes their way of working successful. Visibility works, because in-person presentations convinced far more students than posters or online meetings. Ownership motivates, because students choose their own roles, projects, and responsibilities. A warm and social environment keeps students involved, especially at an international school where many students arrive or leave throughout the year. And dreaming big while starting small helps, because major projects like AICS EcoVision 2026 began as simple ideas during a regular club meeting.

Dreaming big about the future

When imagining a future without limits, the students dream of a multi-day Eco-conference with workshops, guest speakers, and international collaboration. They picture a sustainability festival where young people learn together, build together, and inspire each other.

In the longer term, they hope the Eco-Club becomes deeply woven into the fabric of school life. Not as an extra activity on the side, but as an everyday part of AICS’ culture. As Nilay said:
“I hope that what we’re doing now continues when we’re gone.”
Their work could become the foundation for a tradition that grows year after year.

The coordinator shares that hope: "a school where sustainability flows through every hallway, every classroom, and every project, and where Eco-Schools is not just a club but a movement."

A generation that takes responsibility

AICS shows what happens when students are trusted with real responsibility. They go further than anyone could plan for them. They take initiative, investigate, organise, build, and inspire. They don’t just learn about sustainability, they practise it every day.

And perhaps that is the school’s most powerful message: sustainability never remains abstract when young people experience that they can make a difference right now.

Become a Eco-School as well? Please contact us.