CORE has recently moved premises, and in making such a move one is confronted with decisions about all the “stuff” that one accumulates over time, and the things we can do without etc. Also, the new premises offer something that the old ones didn’t – a shower, which means that biking to work is now more appealing as I have the option of freshening up after an energetic ride. All of this brings me to the subject of sustainability, and ideas about the carbon footprint – another issue for CORE as we do so much travel as a part of our job.

Which brings me to this nifty online carbon footprint calculator for kids from a group called ZeroFootPrint, described on their website as a not-for-profit that combines the best financial engineering, environmental engineering, social networking tools and business intelligence to create products and services that help large corporations, organizations and individuals significantly reduce their environmental footprint.

Their KidsCalculator is a fun way of engaging with the very serious issues associated with the way we are consuming the earth’s resources:

First launched at the Kitchener-Waterloo Children???s Museum, and available on the web at www.zerofootprintkids.com, our interactive calculator is a free educational tool, offered to teachers, organizations, and families who want to teach their kids that the choices we all make are important not only today, but for many years down the road, and not only for us, but for people and ecosystems around the world.

I’ve worked my way through the questionnaire and looked at the responses it gives (unfortunately NZ isn’t one of the countries listed yet) – but there’s plenty of scope I can imagine for using this in creative ways across the curriculum.