What is the Green School programme?
Green-Schools, known internationally as Eco-Schools, is an international environmental education programme, environmental management system and award scheme that promotes and acknowledges long-term, whole school action for the environment. The green school’s initiative is in line with the 17 sustainable goals.
Unlike a once-off project, it is a long-term programme that introduces participants (students, teachers, parents and the wider community) to the concept of an environmental management system.
However, Green-Schools is far more than just an environmental management system. It fosters a strong sense of citizenship and leadership among participants that spreads far outside the school into the wider community. It also promotes a strong sense of teamwork among teachers, students and the wider community to reach a common high level goal. It flattens and democratises school management structures. It brings children into the decision-making process and makes them responsible for their decision and actions. In fact it could be best described as being ‘more than the sum of its parts’.
The aim of Green-Schools is to increase students’ and participant awareness of environmental issues through classroom studies and to transfer this knowledge into positive environmental action in the school and also in the wider community. Schools that have successfully completed all the elements of the programme are awarded the ‘Green-Flag’. This award has now become a well-recognised Eco-Label. The award has to be renewed every two years.
One of the key success factors of the Green-Schools programme is that it is a themed programme.
There are 9 key themes, which schools work towards to achieving a Green Flag in each.
- Litter and Waste
- Energy
- Water
- Travel
- Biodiversity
- Global Citizenship – Litter & Waste
- Global Citizenship – Energy
- Global Citizenship – Marine Environment
- Global Citizenship – Travel