The Green Campus Programme has been in operation in Ireland since 2007. At present 52 Campuses are formally registered on the Programme, with nineteen awarded the Green Flag, including two hospital sites. See Awarded Sites page for more information. For further information on the programme: Green Campus Description 2024-2025

Green-Campus Ireland Smarter Sustainable Campus Communities

The Green-Campus Programme is an evolution of Green-Schools (known internationally as Eco-Schools) which is a programme developed by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). The Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce is the Irish National Operator for all programmes of FEE. FEE is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation promoting sustainable development through environmental education.

Established in 1981, FEE was originally a European initiative primarily active in environmental education through internal meetings, external seminars and conferences, and in a number of publications. Today, FEE operates globally and is mainly active through its five environmental education programmes: Blue Flag, Eco-Schools, Young Reporters for the Environment, Learning about Forests and Green Key. The Green-Campus Programme has been in operation in Ireland since 2007. At present fifty-two campuses and hospitals are formally registered on the Programme and nineteen of these have been awarded the Green Flag.

The Programme encourages practical environmental education and the empowerment of campuses to become exemplar in environmental stewardship. Throughout the pilot research and subsequent work with tertiary education providers it was found that the environmental impact of the tertiary education sector is significant, yet rates of campus uptake of traditional environmental management systems are low. Stakeholder driven, bottom-up approaches to environmental management as facilitated by Green-Campus has delivered benefits to the environment, campus management, students and learning, and to local and wider communities.

It must be noted that the GreenCampus Programme does not reward specific environmental projects or implementation of a new technology, instead it rewards long term commitment to continuous improvement from the campus community.

Green-Campus Programme Structure

The seven steps of the programme are:

1. Establishing a Green-Campus Committee incorporating student and staff representatives. 
2. Undertaking an environmental review.
3. Implementing an action plan.
4. Monitoring and evaluating actions carried out.
5. Linking the programme to learning on campus.
6. Informing and involving the campus and wider community.
7. Developing a Green Charter. The Green Flag Award

The assessment phase of the Green-Campus Programme culminates in both a written and demonstrative application. An assessment panel reviews the written and oral submissions of the applicant campuses, with the decision to award the Green Flag being made following the implementation of recommendations from the panel. The Green-Campus Programme is not stand alone; it compliments and is complimented by many additional environmental projects and programmes. Participant campuses have benefitted from using the Green-Campus Programme as a method to amalgamate environmentally themed groups and projects to work towards common and shared goals