What is Eco-Schools?

Eco-Schools was created in Denmark in 1994 by FEE, following the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Today, it is the largest international accreditation and education for sustainable development programme in the world. It helps schools to make a commitment to operating in a more sustainable way, while encouraging young people to play a proactive role in society.

As an educational programme, Eco-Schools encourages practical actions but also puts education for sustainable development (ESD) at the heart of the process by supporting numerous links to school curricula. By bringing the whole school community together around a shared project, it encourages reflection and cooperation between various groups on the school staff, pupils and their parents. As a result, it encourages everyone involved in the life of the school to take part in the project at every level.

Supported by UNESCO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Eco-Schools is an Award Scheme linked to the Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030 and is recognised all over the world. The programme offers participating schools the opportunity to take part in exchanges and share their experiences as part of the national and international Eco-Schools network. Today, schools all around the world are taking action on sustainable development through the Eco-Schools programme.

As the official representative of FEE in Switzerland, J’aime ma Planète develops Eco-Schools since 2016. Today, the programme connects 66 Swiss schools and reaches more than 20’000 students.

«Eco-Schools is an amazing adventure: it allows all the stakeholders of a school to communicate, internally and externally, to have their efforts recognised and to take part in an international and state-of-the art sustainable development programme. It’s an undeniable asset!» – Esther, Eco-Schools coordinator at Lycée Rodolphe Töpffer, Genève.

Why participate in the Eco-Schools programme?

From creating a school garden to fighting plastic waste and implementing energy-saving measures, initiatives for sustainable development in Swiss schools are numerous and diverse. Against this background, a programme that helps bring these initiatives together in a coherent fashion and allows for further improvement can be of real benefit.

The Eco-Schools program offers a framework and a methodology that helps schools engage in a long-term approach to education for sustainable development.

How does it work?

The Eco-Schools program takes a comprehensive approach to ESD. It offers a flexible Seven Steps Methodology that allows schools to proceed at their own pace. This creates a framework for a project that brings the whole of the school community together and in particular, gives pupils the opportunity to play a major role in setting up the programme and making it a success.

Eco-Schools’ primary objective is to help schools to implement a gradual programme of (education for) sustainable development and in so doing, help pupils to develop the knowledge, skills and motivation they need to address and tackle the challenges of the world around them.

The programme makes use of school buildings and the surrounding areas as educational laboratories. Each school selects a theme for a one or two-year project and implements initiatives designed to make practical improvements in how it operates. These initiatives are accompanied by educational activities associated with sustainable development, carried out in class or outside school. A new theme is added each year to drive a gradual process of continuous improvement.

The Eco-Schools themes