The World is Your Classroom - Duurzaamsheidsfestival 2026

Sustainability isn’t something you learn about just in your Geography textbooks. You see it in the Sustainability Committee, the schoolyard, in the neighborhood, in nature, and in the questions students ask themselves. That was the idea that was at the heart of this year’s Duurzaamsheidsfestival (the Sustainability Festival), which took place on September 25th, 2026, at Burger’s Zoo in Arnhem.

A few members of the Eco-Schools team had the opportunity to attend the festival and discover how the world around is can become a classroom. The festival brought together students, teachers, and educational professionals who are interested in sustainability and in finding new ways to bring that into education.

The Sustainability Festival is a festival organized by 4 main organizations : Cooperation Leren voor Morgen, Eco-school Nederland, Collectief Natuurinclusief, and this year Gemeente Arnhem (the local municipality). Since this year’s theme was “The World is Your Classroom”, the festival focussed on gathering inspiration and sharing ideas that you can perhaps take back to your own school, classroom and community.

One of the key elements of the festival is the Inspiration Market, where there is a variety of stalls focused on different aspects of sustainability and education. Many universities like Hoge school Windesheim and Hoge school van Hall Larenstein presented interesting courses and projects regarding sustainability. The inspirational market gave us a chance to discover ideas that could be introduced at our school while also showing different ways schools across the Netherlands are already including sustainability into their education. This was one of the main reasons the festival felt valuable to us as it gave us ideas that we can take back to our own school and potentially turn into new projects.

There was a great variety of workshops ranging from lessons to more interactive games. For example we participated in an escape room and through the teamwork we learned that we our not alone in our journey towards a more sustainable life. Sometimes it can feel that we are the only ones that care about our environment but through meeting new people we learn that there are other people who also care.

Overall, the festival was an educational and inspiring experience. We left the zoo with new ideas, a better understanding of another sector of sustainability in education and inspiration that we can bring back to our school. Most importantly the festival showed us that learning about sustainability does not have to stop when you leave school as the theme says: the world is your classroom.

By: Sehaj Kambow and Gursimer Thukral

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