Eco-Green School Framework

The Seven Step Framework to Becoming an Eco-Green School

The SWA-SL Eco-Green Schools Seven Steps approach is a series of carefully engineered measures to help schools maximize the success of their Eco-Green School goals. The approach involves a wide range of people from the school community – with students playing a leading role in the process. The most important aspect for schools to remember is that every school is different, and it is therefore critical that a school fits the seven steps around its circumstances and situation and NOT try to fit the school into the seven steps. Some key points about the individual steps are below.

Step 1: Form an Eco-Green Team

The Eco-Green Team is the driving force behind the Eco-Green Schools process and will represent the ideas of the whole school. 

  • It is student-led
  • The Eco-Green team ensures that the entire school knows about Eco-Green Schools and will receive regular updates
  • Composition can be Students/Teachers/The Principal/Non-Teaching Staff (e.g. Secretary, Caretaker, Cleaner)/Parents/interested and relevant members of the wider community
  • The Eco-Green Team meets regularly to discuss environmental and social actions for the school

Step 2: Sustainability Audit

Carrying out a Sustainability Audit helps the school to identify its current environmental and social impact and highlights the good, the bad and the ugly.

  • The aim is to examine the environmental and social issues in your school/community.
  • All main themes should be reviewed annually (the school is free to also choose other areas of concern that are more relevant to its needs and to devise appropriate checklists accordingly)
  • Make sure that the wider school community works as closely as possible with the Eco-Green team to carry out the Review. It is essential that as many pupils as possible participate in this process
  • The results of your Sustainability Audit will inform you of your Action Plan

Step 3: Action Plan

The Action Plan is the core of your Eco-Green Schools’ work and should be developed using the results of your Sustainability Audit.

  • Use the Sustainability Audit to identify the priority areas in your school. To keep it manageable we suggest focusing on not more than three Themes at a time.
  • Create an Action Plan to resolve or improve those problems. It should include: the necessary tasks, the people responsible and the time frame for actions to achieve your goals/targets
  • Make your action plan SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely)
  • As with every aspect of the Eco-Green Schools process, pupils should be involved as much as possible in the drawing up of the Action Plan.

Step 4: Monitor and Evaluate

To determine whether you are successfully achieving the targets stated in your Action Plan, you must monitor and measure your progress.

  • As always, students should be given the responsibility of carrying out monitoring activities where necessary
  • Results of monitoring should be regularly updated and displayed for the whole school to see
  • The monitoring methods that you use will depend on the targets and measurement criteria decided on in your Action Plan for the topics you wish to look at and the age and ability of the pupils and other individuals who carry it out
  • Evaluation follows on from monitoring. Evaluating the success of your activities will allow you to make changes to your Action Plan if required.

Step 5: Curriculum Work

Apart from increasing the status of the program, linking Eco-Green Schools activities to the curriculum ensures that Eco-Green Schools is truly integrated within the school community.

  • Integrating the program into the curriculum can be done, either directly through specific classes or innovative teaching
  • Every student in the school community should gain an understanding of how real-life environmental and social issues are dealt with in a real-life setting

Step 6: Inform and Involve

Getting everyone on board! Actions should not just be confined to the school: for example, students should take home ideas to put into practice.

  • It is essential that the whole school is involved in, and the wider community aware of, the school’s Eco-Green Schools program.
  • Means of information provision and public relations to tell about their work can include: school assemblies, school noticeboards, school newsletters and websites, school plays, sports meets, dramas and fashion shows based on environmental and social issues, letters to businesses and corporations, local and national press, radio and television, etc.
  • Global Action Days

Step 7: Create an Eco Code

A statement that represents the school’s commitment to sustainability

  • It should be memorable and familiar to everyone in the school
  • The format is flexible, it can be a song, drawing, model, poem, etc.
  • The Eco-Code should list the main objectives of your Action Plan
  • It is crucial that pupils play a key role in the development of the school’s Eco Code, as this will give them a greater sense of responsibility towards the values the Eco Code represents
  • The content of the Eco Code should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that it continues to reflect the school’s ecological aims and targets
  • The Eco Code should be prominently displayed throughout the school