Environmental Review

This is a process of examining your school's environmental impacts in order to identify targets for action and improvement.

Before you begin your Eco-Schools journey, it is essential that you audit your current environmental impact.

This process will help to raise awareness of the programme throughout the school, whereby results of the review can be publicised by means of a notice board, school newsletter, or through assembly or public announcements. It is important that the students are involved in the review process.

If this is your first Environmental review, Eco-Schools Simple Environmental Review template can be downloaded to guide your committee through each topic in which your school may have an environmental impact, namely:

  • Litter
  • Waste
  • School Grounds
  • Biodiversity
  • Energy
  • Water
  • Transport
  • Healthy Living
  • Global Perspective
  • Climate Change

 

It is designed to provide an overview of your school’s current position and covers each topic supported by Eco-Schools.

At Silver and Green Flag level, your school is required to complete a more in-depth and dynamic review. Again, a Full Environmental Review template is available to guide you though each topic of the programme.

At any point during the process, contact us and speak to one of our Eco-Schools Officers who are available to provide assistance, advice and extra resources to help you on your way to Green Flag Status.   

What are the benefits of carrying out the review?

The results of your Environmental Review will provide you with a basis to form your Action Plan; assisting your school in deciding whether change is necessary, urgent, or not required at all. It will also help you to set realistic goals and targets and measure your guaranteed success.

Completing an Environmental Review will ensure that no significant areas are overlooked and will help pupils and the wider school community understand the school's current environmental situation.

The process will also assist in identifying areas where little or no improvement is needed and help to identify and prioritise actions to be taken. 

When the time comes for applying for your Green Flag, you will need to provide details as to how and when you carried out your Environmental Review, who was involved and how you obtained the results. As there may be a long time frame between your initial review and finally applying for the flag, make sure that records are kept of all your work and results.

You should ensure that the wider school community works as closely as possible with the Eco-Committee to carry out the Review. It is imperative that as many pupils as possible participate at every stage.

It is recommended that an Environmental Review be carried out on an annual basis in order to measure and evaluate the continuing progress of the school's environmental performance.

By thoroughly checking all potential environmental impacts of the school for the theme under investigation, the environmental review will:

  • Give a clear view of the range of the school’s impacts
  • Make sure that no significant areas are overlooked
  • Identify areas where little or no improvement is needed
  • Help students and the rest of the school community understand the impacts
  • Help to prioritise the actions to be taken

 

It is very important to quantify your review using a unit of environmental performance that is applicable to your school, e.g. number/volume of bins going to landfill weekly, monthly utility meter readings, average cost of water consumption per pupil per month, etc. You can use this indicator throughout the Eco-Schools programme as a benchmark against which future monitoring can be compared. It is important measuring your progress becomes an intrinsic part of school life. This information is required to complete your Green Flag Award application form.

TOP TIP Whether you are devising your own Environmental Review or using the template provided, there are many opportunities to link this activity with the numeracy, literacy and science curriculum. Measuring, recording, estimating, displaying data, etc. can all be developed to meet Northern Ireland Curriculum targets, as well as contributing to Eco-Schools.

Once you have completed your Environmental Review, you should use the results obtained to go on to Element 3 - The Action Plan

Bronze
  • A simple Environmental Review of the school is carried out.
  • A Simple Environmental review of the school is carried out.
  • Following the review, areas for improvement are identified and activities are planned that will change and improve the environmental performance of the school.
Silver
  • Pupils and adults plan how to carry out an Environmental Review of the school.
  • A review document (the Eco-Schools Full Environmental Review template, or the school's own checklist) is used and the results are recorded.
  • Results of the review are made known to the whole school.
  • The Eco-Committee plans action resulting from the review.
Green
  • Pupils and Adults on the Eco-Committee plan and carry out an Environmental Review of the school in consultation with some non-committee members.
  • A review document is used that covers every area of the environmental impact. A comparison of measurements year on year should be discussed and evaluated.
  • The results of the review are collated into one document for display on the Eco-Schools notice board and web site (if the school has one)
  • Pupil members on the committee collect suggestions for action from school classes or tutor group.
  • An Environmental Review is undertaken once a year to evaluate overall progress. A comparison of measurements collated year on year should be discussed, analysed and evaluated to map progress show clear areas where environmental performance has been successful.