Green Eel - Environmental Management Systems for Schools

Green Eel - Environmental Management Systems for Schools

Sustainable Development Goals

Presentation

The Green Eel is an Environmental Management Systems (EMS) for Schools developed at AAUAS, with support from several students´ teams, and in cooperation with the department of environment of the city of Aalen and the Local Agenda 21 of Aalen. It is named after the eel (Aal) in the coat of arms of the city of Aalen.

Objectives

This environmental management system is adapted to education and equally concentrates on technical and pedagogical aspects. 

Main activities

Plan – Do – Check – Act

• An environmental policy serves as the foundation for the EMS, and provides a unifying vision of environmental principles that will guide further actions of students, teachers and management.
• An environmental programme must cover technical (energy, resources, waste, water, materials), environmental (greening the campus) and pedagogical (teaching, environmental subjects, projects) issues.
• An environmental statement has to be prepared by the school. It should contain all relevant information about ecological impacts and education for sustainable development.

The audit is performed by peers from three independent organisations (staff from city government, experienced teachers from other schools, staff and students from the university, members of environmental organisations)

Results

The project was awarded by UNESCO as a project of the UN decade for education for sustainable development.

Concept development and implementation of the environmental management system “Green Eel” was done by about 20 students´ projects.

Innovative aspects

Evaluation of the system and the learning outcome was made in several final projects. If and when the school fulfils the requirements of this standard, it will receive a “Grüner Aal” certificate.