The Scottish International Eco-Schools Planet Earth tartan was designed by Rosalind Jones and gifted to us as we celebrated 30 years of Eco-Schools and Young Reporters for the Environment in 2024/2025.

The colours of the tartan were matched as closely as possible to NASA photographs taken of Earth from Space while the proportions are as close as possible to Earth’s real proportions.

Joining more than 7,000 named tartans that have been designed and woven since the earliest archaeological evidence of tartan cloth in the third and fourth century AD, the Eco-Schools Planet Earth Tartan has been gifted to us becoming part of our heritage.

The tartan symbolises the physical features of Earth as seen from Space. Planet Earth is a sphere of dense rock 12756 kilometres in diameter surrounded by layers of atmospheric gases up to 97 kilometres thick. Oceans cover 70.8% of its crust and reflect deep blue. Land mass covers 29.2%, half reflects green vegetation, one third reflects white ice, and one sixth gold sand. The lowest layer of the pale blue atmosphere, the troposphere, is where water vapour forms clouds and moves in lines, or swirls, as weather systems.  NASA Apollo 17 astronauts, looking from the blackness of space, called Earth the Blue Marble.

The design used these Earth colours in proportion, squaring spherical Earth into a tartan sett, but with one important exception. The pale blue representing our thin atmosphere also forms a delicate cross, descending from pole to pole and reaching across the equator. This symbolises the protection life on Earth has from our fragile atmosphere, threatened by emissions from human activity, and now generating extreme weather and rising temperatures. Not to scale, black represents space and the thin white line the Milky Way.

The Planet Earth tartan is a visual, iconic, reminder to us all to cut our own emissions and to protect our world from the extremes of climate change and wildlife extinctions. It is designed to raise awareness of the plight of our planet and to generate a caring and sharing attitude for earth, nature, and each other, globally.

The pale blue cross is a stark warning, a wake up call to be aware and to care for the future of our planet… and the futures of our children!

Scottish International Eco-Schools Planet Earth Tartan inspires book ‘Who’s saving Planet Earth?’ to help us discover the who, what, where, why and how!

While designing and producing the tartan Rosalind was inspired to write and publish a book ‘Who’s saving Planet Earth’ to offer an informative and self-discovery approach to understanding one of the biggest problems facing our planet, people and places today. Written for adults aged 16 to 106, is a mind-stretching treasure trove of essential information at your fingertips.

The book’s holistic approach allows the reader to discover Earth’s and our human journey to the present day. It presents all the main environmental challenges and links to websites that illustrate what these problems mean to life on Earth. Readers will learn who is helping to mitigate these challenges and how they are progressing.

Each chapter highlights the work of international and national organisations tackling human-inflicted problems, with informative websites provided for further exploration. The final chapters focus on sustainability, positivity, and practical actions we can all take to help SAVE PLANET EARTH.

Author of the book Rosalind Jones said, “Whether you’re reading digitally or holding it in your hands, this book guides you through the challenges and solutions shaping our planet’s future.

“Designing the tartan inspired me to write a book ‘Who’s Saving Planet Earth’ which shares the passion and efforts of individuals and organisations across the globe.  I hoped that Keep Scotland Beautiful will benefit from proceeds from sales of this book to protect and enhance Scotland’s natural environment and coordinate Eco-Schools Scotland.”

Our CEO Barry Fisher said, “We are eternally grateful to Rosalind for gifting us the Planet Earth Tartan to celebrate 30 years of environmental education in Scotland and were delighted to support the publication of her book. 

“We hope the book, like the Planet Earth Tartan wraps its warp threads all around our planet, as we share it with other nations actively involved with Eco-Schools internationally and issue a call for us all to do more to cut our own emissions and to protect our world from the extremes of climate change and wildlife extinctions.”

You can order a Kindle book or a paperback via Amazon today - Who's saving planet Earth?: Discover who, what, where, why and how! Your own unique journey of discovery. eBook : Jones, Rosalind: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

You can read a Q&A blog from tartan designer Rosalind outlining more detail on the tartan design, and why it was gifted to us.