What is an Eco-Committee?

The Eco-Committee are an action team and are the driving force behind the Eco-Schools work. If the name Eco-Committee is too wordy then you can call it something else – a lot of our centres use names like Green Team or Eco-Warriors and have a badge or hat for the children in it.

The Eco-Committee should include:

• Children (if possible)
• Members of staff
• Community member e.g. parent

The Eco-Committee is also encouraged to include:

• A member of the senior management team
• Other teacher(s)/key workers
• Non-teaching staff members
• A caretaker or kitchen staff

If it’s possible to have children as members then this should be encouraged, however it’s not compulsory for early years settings.

The Eco-Schools programme is designed to be flexible – centres should think about how it will work best for you.

Whilst Eco-Committees are driven by adults, it’s important that the entire centre community are informed about decisions and involved in the projects taking place.

The role of the Eco-Committee

The Eco-Committee is tasked to:

• Ensure that the whole centre is aware of the Eco-Schools programme
• Take the lead in carrying out the Environmental Review
• Provide a link between the children, teachers, management and the whole centre community
• Take the lead in delivering the Eco-Schools Action Plan and increasing the children’s awareness of environmental issues
• The size of the Eco-Committee and how often it meets may depend on the size of the centre. However, the Eco-Committee must keep records of their decisions and meeting minutes should be reported back to the senior management team

We've formed our Eco-Committee...what next?

Once the Eco-Committee has been formed, they need to conduct an Environmental Review of the centre. Conducting this review enables the Eco-Committee to investigate what the centre is doing well at and what areas might need to be worked on. This in turn will help guide your Action Plan and what topics you will choose to focus on.

Find out more about the Environmental Review.