Green Schools in Israel: Multiple Rationales and Multiple Action Plans

Green schools in Israel are recognized as such by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) according to a list of criteria related to the management of the school – e.g., reducing material consumption, recycling, energy efficiency, and to its environmental education (EE) curriculum. However, these requirements do not necessarily mean that a school will be viewed as a “Green School” by a random visitor. Some of the schools run an extensive school-based EE curriculum, and act accordingly. Others are satisfied with the Green Certificate, and since further or continuous evaluation is rare, those school continue to the “next agenda item” and the “Green” remains mainly on the surface. In this chapter, I will discuss this duality, the ways NGOs and the MEP contribute to both deep and shallow approaches, and I will present one case study of an exemplary green school.