The Eco-Schools Seven Steps Process & Performance Indicators

Learning with the Eco-Schools Seven Steps

The Seven-Step process is the basic framework that guides an Eco-School to plan and implement the learning journey.

The steps are intended to be flexible enough to accommodate any school context, and environmental themes are the ‘means’ to bring about change through active involvement of children through a rigorous pedagogical process. The nature and the order of the Seven Steps allow for the incremental change in sustainability literacy through active learning as the actions of students improve the environmental performance of the whole institutions starting first with themselves. This process empowers them with the confidence to continue to positively influence their own self and make the world a better place to live in.

The Seven Steps are by design child-centered with teachers acting as facilitators. Teachers do not only provide instructions and assessment inputs but are also co-learners; they co-create the learning journey in a fast-changing world where information is available at the press of a button. The pedagogical approach as an iterative process requires the learners to be flexible, curious and stay positive as they learn that the world is far from ideal. This encourages meta-cognition or learning to learn, which is an important skill for lifelong learning. The Seven Steps are aligned to the four pillars of learning – learning to know, to do, to be and to live together.

A new rubric system has been developed, which schools can use to track their progress and understand the Performance Indicators for achieving the Eco-Schools Green Flag.

Step One: Form an Eco Committee

The first step of the Eco-Schools programme involves establishing a viable Eco Committee within the organisational structure of the institution. The Committee aims to direct and address all phases of the Eco-Schools programme. It is the driving force of the programme and ensures that students are at the centre of the process as other steps are carried out.

The committee empowers children for leadership and democratic values. It provides them with an experience of being aspirational and believing in their abilities to be change makers. The most important learning they acquire is to take responsibility with empathy and understand the complexity of decision making in a multi-stakeholder environment. In the process, they learn to debate, negotiate, respect different viewpoints, take decisions through building consensus and work in a team. The nature of this step calls for controlling emotions, punctuality and regular participation and a sense of volunteerism for a larger societal good.

Performance Indicators

Students are the driving force of the Eco Committee.
Eco Committee continuation. Eco Committee members remain on the committee onto the second year to ensure continuity and a smooth handover into the next cycle.
The Eco Committee meets regularly.
The Eco Committee minutes are recorded. Key decisions taken are documented and submitted with the Green Flag application.
Sustainable participation in the Committee. The number of students on the Eco Committee is sufficient and efficient.
Eco Committee meetings are chaired by students.
The Eco Committee is visible.
The Eco Committee is elected or nominated by students.

Election, Nomination and Selection

The Eco Committee needs to be as representative as possible, across stakeholders and age/year groups. Some schools go through an entire election process with manifestos, elections speeches, posters, ballots, to fill different positions on the Eco Committee! Having an elected committee celebrates representation and raises the profile of the Eco Committee.

Self-nomination or nomination of others is another popular way to build the Eco Committee. Volunteer students, teachers and other members of the school community express their interest and register with the committee! Selection of Eco Committee members by teachers or other staff is not encouraged.

Good quality meeting minutes have:

A clear outline of the agenda
A list of attendees
A list of actions taken before the meeting
A list of action points for next time, with a delegated responsibility

Step Two: Form an Eco Committee

A Sustainability Audit checklist includes all aspects of the school’s impact on the environment and society in relation to the Main and Crosscutting Eco-Schools Themes.

Problem identification is an important skill. The aim of the Sustainability Audit is to identify the status of sustainability in the school and to call for skills to prioritise. The results of the audit are used to derive the Action Plan.

The process of review or audit builds the awareness and sensitivity towards the biophysical environment and its allied problems and increases the theme specific basic understanding or disciplinary knowledge. The experience of investigation develops the attitudes, values and feelings of concern for the environment and the motivation for actively participating in environmental improvement and protection. These learning outcomes are reflected as students develop and implement the Action Plan. The step is just not limited to identifying the environmental challenges but also fills the gap in sustainability literacy that comprises of knowledge, competencies, disposition and behaviours that may drive the problem. In the process, students reflect on their own literacy and relate to the change required at a personal level before they plan for a larger change in the institution. The process builds the skills of research, analysis, curiosity, etc. It is important that the process calls for application of skills of numeracy, language, science that they learn in different subjects. The step encourages the students to develop the skills to use the data, to argue the need and using criteria for prioritisation for change. The conceptual clarity helps them identify the barriers in real life that force our action being ideal. This helps in setting realistic targets and monitoring implementation.

By including experts in the field the process gives students an experience of future careers and an in-depth understanding of the subject. They learn to think and act like a practitioner, which showcases purpose in students’ learning, helps deepen their understanding of issues and most importantly shows the relevance of their actions in their own community.

Performance Indicators

Baselines and end-lines are established.
The audit is reviewed regularly.
Student leadership in the Sustainability Audit.
Distribution of tasks across age groups, stakeholders and curriculum areas.
Measurement indicators and methods are determined.
The Sustainability Audit is broader than just environmental performance and includes behaviour, knowledge.

Step Three: Link to the Curriculum

The Eco-Schools programme is most effective when it is integrated and linked to the school’s curriculum and syllabus, wherever possible.

The role of education is to prepare young people for the expectations of society. Addressing the sustainability challenge is one of the most important issues of our time. The biggest challenge is to not see Eco-Schools as an add-on in different subjects, but as a set of educational processes to be achieved across levels at any educational institution. Mapping the projects based on the Sustainability Audit and the curriculum standards according to subjects and skills is important. The students should be provided with an opportunity to set their targets for sustainability as they do for any subject or behaviour. To avoid curriculum overload it is important that the projects are embedded within the existing curriculum in a meaningful way so that all students benefit from both deeper learning experiences and quality learning in the core foundations of the issues they explore.

The interdisciplinary nature of the subjects creates an opportunity for making a holistic and balanced perspective possible. This would require that the teachers identify key concepts over subjects, explore the connectedness of these subjects and integrate themes by encouraging project-based learning. The action orientation of the Education for Sustainable Development curriculum helps in the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Performance Indicators

Carrying out a curriculum audit and integrating the action plan themes.
Achieving key competencies for sustainability.
Teaching staff participate in Education for Sustainable Development training.
The data collected from the Sustainability Audit are used in class.
Sustainability is embedded in school events / conferences / learning opportunities.

Definitions of Curriculum

Whole institution - Curriculum is the delivery component of an institutions' educational mission, values and theory of learning. It should follow in-depth discussions regarding "what a student should learn" and "how a student can best learn.“

Learning for Action - As applied to education, curriculum is the series of things that students must do and experience by way of developing abilities to do the things well that adults do in life; and to be in all ways the people that they should be as adults.

Subject - Curriculum refers to an interactive system of instruction and learning with specific goals, contents, strategies, measurement and resources. The desired outcome of curriculum is successful transfer and/or development of knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Step Four: The Action Plan

Identifies and lists specific goals for the reduction of impacts as identified in the Sustainability Audit.

This is one of the most significant steps to develop active citizenship amongst students and help plan their activities. Developing action plans is an important transferrable skill that is required at both the personal and professional level. It also helps in developing the skill of anticipation and mapping scenarios by projecting the consequences and potential impact of different decisions.

The Action Plan calls for demonstrating skills for budgeting - estimation of time and money, using criteria for prioritisation and decision making, innovative thinking, divergent and convergent thinking and lots of patience.

The action plan is an opportunity for the learners to practice transformative competencies by questioning the status quo, thinking of new ways to do things, collaborate, resolve differences and dilemmas as they try to optimise the outcomes and most importantly have the courage to take responsibility to bring about change. The process of negotiating an action while keeping all the stakeholders' interests calls for a demonstration of emotional quotient. The process of negotiating plausible actions gives students an opportunity to recognise values and clarify perceptions and perspectives that often stem from our cultures.

Performance Indicators

Action Plan is SMART.
Action plan indicates areas of action for environmental, social, economic and cultural elements of sustainability.
Distribution of tasks with student engagement.
The Action Plan should be publicly available.
The Action Plan includes communications targets - outputs and outcomes.
The Action Plan is continuously updated.
Map out the areas to be improved on campus.
Whole school approach in Action Plan activities.

Step Five: Implementation Monitoring & Evaluation

This is carried out by the Eco Committee to ensure that progress towards targets is checked, amendments are made where necessary and success is celebrated.

Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation is action research. As an exercise to assess progress made towards achieving targets identified in the Action Plan and to identify areas that require further corrective action, students learn to work together with dedication and determination. Effective problem solving requires the ability to investigate and evaluate against a set of agreed criteria.

The process makes them learn the importance of a review system and develop a growth mindset that drives motivation and achievement. The failures and successes as they implement the Action Plan help students develop strategies for being resilient and bouncing back. Reflection is a key learning outcome for transformation and learning to take critical feedback simulates real life situations!

Performance Indicators

Student involvement in monitoring and evaluation.
There is a clear comparison to Environmental Review measurements.
Targets are achieved or illustrate positive progress.
The findings from the Monitoring & Evaluation are displayed in the school and communicated to the school and community members.

To achieve good monitoring, consider the following:

What are we monitoring?
How will we measure it?
Who will do it?
What are the baseline metrics and what is our target?
What tools and methods will we use?
When are we collecting the data?

The methods of monitoring that you use will depend on the targets and measurement criteria set out in your Action Plan. Here are some suggestions on how to monitor and evaluate:

Regular utility meter readings can be used to monitor any reductions in consumption to document the effects of energy-saving activities
Calculating financial savings will show the effects of energy-saving initiatives (where meters are not accessible)
Calculating the reduction in car miles attained through a walk to school week (or month!)
Litter/waste audits will show the effects of litter/recycling initiatives
Carrying out satisfaction surveys to record the noticeable changes that have taken place from students, staff, residents, local community. Carrying out this type of measuring complements whole school involvement
Before, during and after photographs should be taken as visual evidence to support your Green Flag application/assessment
Listing evidence of native wildlife/species of plants, shrubs and trees and how many have been planted on school grounds each year will assist in the monitoring of biodiversity

An example Eco-School achieves the following (you can use these as baselines!):

At least 20% electricity reduction (in kWh)
At least 10% increase in use of sustainable transport means (bike, walk, bus)
At least 10% increase of biodiversity on campus (local species like plants, trees, insects and animals)
At least 20% water use reduction (in litres)
At least 20% decrease of litter/waste on campus (in kg)
At least 20% decrease of food waste (in kg)
At least 20% increase in time spent learning outdoors (in minutes)
At least 20% decrease of marine waste in the surrounding community (in kg)
At least 30% increase in awareness levels on Climate Change & Carbon Footprint, Global Citizenship & Culture, Health & Wellbeing and Equality & Equity (awareness measured through student response surveys)

Step Six: Inform & Involve

This is the spread of the “Eco-Schools message” throughout the whole school and the wider community, using varied and effective publicity methods.

The aim of the Informing and Involving step is to spread the Eco Committee’s message throughout the school and the wider community through ongoing publicity. It is training to communicate using various tools and to celebrate success. The students learn to share and acknowledge the contributions of different actors – big and small for the future. They learn important skills of public speaking, influencing large community actions, etc. It is a collaborative platform where students, teachers, parents and communities work together to help students progress towards their shared goals of collective well being. Learning to participate in interconnected, complex and diverse societies is no longer a luxury but a pressing necessity.

One of the important outcomes to solve the challenges we are facing is the realisation of Global Citizenship as an outcome of education. Linking or twinning schools in different contexts support in understanding the context of the local issue in a global and how different perspectives are shaped by cultures.

Performance Indicators

The student population participates in Eco-Schools events and activities (e.g. Action Days, Theme Days, etc.).
Raising awareness on the Eco-Schools programme.
The school has created sufficient links with the wider community through its Eco-Schools programme.
The school shares its work with the Eco-Schools network.
The school is active on social media platforms to ensure online visibility.

Step Seven: Produce an Eco Code

The Eco Code is a synthesis and reaffirmation of values that determine disposition – a very good predictor of behaviour. Students learn to set up societal norms and ways to adhere to the norms. This gives them confidence and cements transformation for life! Environmental Education also entails practice in decision-making and self-formulation of a code of behaviour about issues concerning environmental quality.

An Eco Code is an easy to remember statement, slogan, song or poem that describes the school’s commitment to sustainability ac ons. There is no fixed format for the Eco Code and schools are free to choose their own every year.

The Eco Code can be:

A promise of behaviour change or a code for behaviour
Part of the school’s Strategic Plan
Part of the school’s regulations/rules (Assertive Discipline System)

The Earth Charter Code of Ethics can be a source of inspiration for the school’s Eco Code. Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) and Eco-Schools International have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Earth Charter International, so schools are free to refer to them.

Performance Indicators

The Eco Code reflects the school’s Action Plan.
The Eco Code is prominently displayed.
When writing the Eco Code, the Eco Committee seeks suggestions from the whole school community.
The Eco Code is updated regularly.