We know that young people are some of the most engaged and informed people when it comes to environmental issues. In a recent poll of 2000 16-year-olds by BBC Newsround, 73% said they are worried about the state of the planet, and 58% said they are worried about the impact that climate change will have on their futures. 80% said the problem of climate change is important to them. This is why we are delighted to be providing reduced price educational screening licences of 2040 and free classroom resources, giving students the tools to be able to effect positive change wherever they are in the world.

As well as organising screenings with individual schools across the UK and US, we have also partnered with several UK environmental organisations to share 2040 with their educational networks.. 

One such partner is Eco-Action Families in Brighton and Hove, who are a group dedicated to bringing environmental education to all schools in the area. Earlier this year, they raised funds to bring 2040 to every secondary school in the Brighton and Hove area, and now over 15 schools across East Sussex have access to 2040 and our UK specific educational materials, including over thirty worksheets, lesson plans and exclusive clips.

Eco-Action Families have also organised a series of webinars with local environmental activists for schools to participate in, and on Friday, Together Films were delighted to join them for their first event!

Led by student representatives Rania and Ben, the 14 schools from across Brighton and Hove were also joined by Ella Garrud of Sussex Wildlife Trust, Cat Fletcher from Freegle, Will Cottrell of Brighton Energy Coop and Matt Denford, a recent university graduate who set up Ethicul, a platform for ethical shopping.

Students posed questions asking how to make schools more environmentally friendly, what we can do to help our beaches, how to reuse and reduce ahead of recycling, and whether the UK can ever be fully renewable. It was incredible to see so many young people engaged and excited about the possibilities of what we can do for the environment.

The last question of the webinar took us back to 2040 – what did the panellists want Brighton to look like in the year 2040?

“It’s just about having more open conversations, reducing it being a taboo subject, you’re challenging things openly… getting together with your friends and family and making more change from the bottom up.”

Matt Denford, Ethicul

“We really need to nail the waste management issues in our city… It’s a long journey but we need to get better at managing our waste. I’d also like to see the high streets looking different, and not full of retail shops… It would be lovely to see more community based activity on the high street. Our communal areas where we all come together would not be focused on shopping.”

Cat Fletcher, Freegle

“I’d like some seals in Brighton! More wildlife in the seas, but in terms of humans, I’d like to see more people standing up and taking action. Things don’t change if you don’t stand up and make a noise about it.”

Will Cottrell, Brighton Energy Coop

“At the moment we’ve got marine conservation zones, but they still allow different activities in them depending on the site, but these highly protected marine areas will stop all damaging activity including fishing from them which will really give excellent protection, and I’d really like to see some of them in Sussex. I’d also like to see people more connected to nature – people especially in big cities such as Brighton, even though we’ve got the sea and the south downs right by us, I still think we’re so disconnected from nature, we see ourselves as separate and I want that to change.”

Ella Garrud, Sussex Wildlife Trust

You can catch up with the rest of this webinar here.

We loved being able to share 2040 with schools, and we look forward to continuing working with Eco-Action Families and our other partners across the UK to bring 2040 to as many school children as we can before COP26 in November!

Find out more and purchase your own educational licence for 2040 for your school here.