The Sustainable School. Humankind Can Grow in a Circular Environment. Which Is the Challenge of Circular Education for a Change in Future Generations?

TAGMA is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) from Uruguay that promotes the bio-construction of public educational spaces in Latin America within the parameters of sustainability and the vocation of being a vector of communication and transmission of the premises of environmental care in the community. The goal of its “One Sustainable School” initiative is to build a network of self-sufficient public schools in Latin America to generate a triple impact: on the children who live in each school, the surrounding community, and society as a whole. Over 6 years, the program has built a network of nine schools in five countries: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Uruguay. The construction of TAGMA’s spaces is carried out through sustainable construction courses open to the international community. It is based on six principles of sustainability: water harvesting, gray and black water treatment, food production, renewable energy production, passive conditioning of the building, and the inclusion of recyclable materials. Besides this, the NGO adds the seventh value: the human factor. The TAGMA model raises one or more hopeful questions in today’s critical environmental landscape: What impact could a whole new generation graduating from a circular school have on society?