Alice Smith School Students Lead Push for Climate-Responsible School Trips

KUALA LUMPUR, 12 November 2026. A group of A-Level students at Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur turned a study of travel emissions into school policy: the school has offset 394 tCO2e from its 2025 and 2026 Trips Weeks, the school reported on 17 September, making that travel carbon neutral on its calculations.

The project began when 12 A-Level students were invited to investigate the environmental impact of travel to the 2025 FOBISIA Leadership Conference. Their analysis estimated that travel to the conference generated 451 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). The students then researched carbon offsetting projects, examined project information and independent assessments, and weighed the strengths and limitations of each approach.

They presented their recommendations to around 400 school leaders at the conference. FOBISIA accepted them and purchased carbon credits from four projects, at a total cost of USD 1,860.

Back at school, the students challenged school leaders to consider the carbon impact of the school's own educational travel. Leaders raised fair questions about the credibility of carbon credits, the risk of greenwashing and double-counting, and how to keep any approach responsible and transparent. The students went back to the research, analysed data from independent ratings, compared competing claims and set out the uncertainties openly.

Rather than an open-ended commitment, they proposed starting with Trips Week and one offsetting project they had assessed, paid for from the existing Enrichment budget. The school adopted the plan and retired carbon credits generated by the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve in Indonesia, covering 394 tCO2e from the 2025 and 2026 Trips Weeks.

The students also stressed that offsetting is not a silver bullet. Their approach starts by asking whether a trip is essential, then looks at ways to reduce emissions, including alternative transport where practical, before dealing with what cannot be avoided. The school plans to bring all global curriculum excursions within this approach and to build climate-responsible travel principles into school policy.

The idea has spread beyond Kuala Lumpur. Together with The Alliance for Sustainable Schools and Metanoia, the experience at Alice Smith School helped inspire the Climate-Responsible Travel for Schools Campaign, which aims to address 50,000 tonnes of school trip emissions across 100 schools by June 2027. Marlborough College Malaysia and Amnuay Silpa School have begun addressing emissions from school trips, and Chinese International School in Hong Kong has addressed 1,050 tCO2e from a full year of travel.

For the students involved, the work built practical skills in data analysis, research, critical thinking, financial decision-making, collaboration and communication, applied to a real decision rather than a marked assignment.

About Alice Smith School

Alice Smith School is a British international school in Kuala Lumpur which in 2026 marks 80 years since it was founded. It follows the English National Curriculum, enriched with a global perspective, and takes pupils through (I)GCSE and A Levels. The school has around 1,450 students and teaches in English.

What this means for families

For families in Kuala Lumpur, the project shows how a school can use real problems to teach older students research and decision-making, and how student work can change the way a school runs its trips. The students' own conclusion, that the first question is whether a trip is needed at all, is one families can also bring to conversations about school travel.

Families comparing options in the city can also consult the best international schools in Kuala Lumpur.

You can contact Alice Smith School here.