More than 1,000 schools in England and counting awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag

More than 1,000 schools in England have been awarded an Eco-Schools Green Flag for the last academic year, with even more set to be announced as certifications are finalised.

Eco-Schools is the world’s largest schools’ environmental programme and pupils taking part can learn about everything from litter and biodiversity to energy and global citizenship.

The programme is open to all schools from nurseries to sixth forms. For schools to reach the internationally recognised Green Flag standard, they must follow a seven-step framework that requires them to cover environmental topics in the classroom and make their school grounds more sustainable.

Our charity has been running the programme in England since 1994, and last year we relaunched it with a new, interactive platform. As well as supporting teachers on their Eco-Schools journey, the platform helps demonstrate the programme’s impact in more detail than ever before.

Through the platform, we can show that last year a massive 1.4 million children in England attended an Eco-School. That’s 1.4 million children equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to take realistic, positive action to improve the environment around them.

We also know that, at a time when rising energy costs are impacting schools like everyone else, the Eco-Schools programme has empowered schools to make real savings. Through their involvement, schools have made £336,131 worth of energy savings in the past year. That is in part due to the 24,919 energy-saving devices have been installed by participating schools.  

Almost a quarter of a million children and young people participated in the Eco-Schools energy topic, learning about how to reduce energy use and therefore protect the environment.

Collectively, Eco-Schools’ recycling projects have saved more than two million kilograms of waste from ending up in landfill sites.

181,982 pupils have benefitted from Eco-Schools’ Biodiversity topic in the last academic year. Through the work of schools on this topic, 1,214,917 m² of natural habitats have been created or maintained by Eco-Schools, and 37,865 trees have been planted.

The full impact report will be available in November. In the meantime, schools can register to join the Eco-Schools programme for the 2022/23 academic year here.