DCI sets a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for largest sustainability lesson

Guinness World Records
Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson - DCB

At Dulwich College International (DCI), our students are educated about sustainability and encouraged to take action so that they are prepared to embrace the social and environmental challenges facing the planet.

As part of this commitment, 3,006 students across the DCI network officially participated in the world's largest environmental sustainability lesson on Wednesday October 30. At Dulwich College Beijing, more than 1,000 students from Years 3 to 11 filled the Wodehouse and Edward Alleyn Theatres and the Sports Hall and took part in the class through an interactive livestream.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD - DCB Students
GUINNESS WORLD RECORD - DCB Students 2

Themed "Living a Sustainable Lifestyle" and co-developed with students, the lesson demonstrated the importance of environmental protection and conveyed the message that each person can and should effect tangible positive change.

We are thrilled that the lesson achieved a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for "Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson (multiple venues)"! Students across our family of schools were able to participate alongside the official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ participants from Dulwich College Shanghai, Dulwich College Beijing, Dulwich College Suzhou, Dulwich International High School Suzhou, Dehong Beijing and Dehong Shanghai.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD - Headmaster

"Our vision is for our students to Live Worldwise – to have the skills and motivation to make a positive difference in the world," said Fraser White, Founder, CEO and Chairman of Dulwich College International. "The environmental issues facing our planet are both a challenge and an opportunity. It is our responsibility to create future leaders who will champion sustainability across the globe but this also gives us an amazing chance to find new ways of working and new ways of teaching. The Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson at Dulwich is a collaboration between the school and our students so they are engaged in designing and directing the learning experience. We're proud that this collaboration that the students co-designed has created a movement across all our campuses in Asia and clinched a world record."

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD - Ceremony at DCB

Students as young as eight years old helped to create the learning experience, even developing the lesson content and designing the "sustainability pledges" to drive home that sustainability can be a daily lifestyle choice. Meanwhile Isaac L, a 15-year-old Year 11 student at Dulwich College Beijing, combined his interest in web development with his love for the planet by developing from scratch the webpage to host these pledges.

"My previous experiences of being the main web developer at HackDulwich, DCI's hackathon, provided me with the opportunity and confidence to now be on the web development team of the homepage of the Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson," explained Isaac. "I love using the skills I've learnt to bridge my passions for STEAM and web development with an initiative that brings attention to the climate crisis, a massive problem facing our species."

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD - DCB Students
GUINNESS WORLD RECORD - DCB Students

The lesson also serves to kick off "Sustainable November" – a larger month-long movement encouraging sustainable living across our family of schools. Students, staff and parents are encouraged to stay committed to the pledges they made as part of the lesson and support one another in building habits to make tangible and permanent change.

As our family of schools now extends across 13 campuses with more than 9000 students receiving a Dulwich education, the message of Sustainable November is that we can all do something - one small action, if repeated by many individuals, can have an enormous and meaningful impact.

To learn more about how DCB has integrated sustainability into its entire curriculum, please click here.

Largest Environmental Sustainability Lesson