Become a member

In order to become an accredited member of GSS, schools need to be able to demonstrate a serious commitment to environmental sustainability. This involves performing a detailed self- assessment of the school’s current environmental policies and practices, as explained below.

The Application Process

Register your interest in becoming a Green Standard School by clicking on the Register button and sending us a simple form.

Complete our application and self-assessment forms

Fill in our online application form, which has two sections.

The first section provides us with a little more information about your school; the second will assess your current environmental practices.

This second section consists of 50 Yes/No questions. If you answer Yes, you will then be asked to provide something to help us verify your statement. This something could be a document, a comment a link, whatever you think is most appropriate.

Section two will automatically generate a score, with a maximum of 200 points available. To qualify as a Green Standard School you will need to obtain a minimum of 130 points.

Get accredited

Submit your completed application form and someone from our team will check through it.

If you qualify for accreditation, we will ask you to sign a membership agreement and pay the corresponding fee. Once we have received the agreement and fee, you will receive various items from us including:

A certificate showing your accreditation
Copies of our logo to use on your website, social media and so on
A report on your application form, suggesting areas you may like to work on
A log-in to our members site where you will find various resources including a range of teaching materials

Please note: you will need to revise the application form annually, but each time should be a lot easier and faster.

Sample questions from the self-assessment form

To show you how the self-assessment form works, here are the first three questions, which come from the section on Energy.

The text in the green boxes explains why we're asking these questions, and also suggests the sort of evidence we would like you to send us if you answer 'Yes'.

1. Do you monitor and record the amount of energy you use in your school?

Yes

If you record the amount of energy you use (electricity and any other fuel), you will find it much easier to manage your consumption. If you don’t know how much you’re using, it will be much more difficult. The sort of evidence we would expect to see here is a simple Excel sheet (or similar) that lists consumption over the past 6-12 months. This sort of information should be clearly indicated on your energy bills.

2. Have you undertaken to reduce your total energy consumption each year?

Yes

We would like to see schools set a target to reduce their energy consumption. This doesn’t have to be huge, a reduction of 3-4% per year is fine; the important thing is to have a target that everyone in the school is aware of. Evidence in this case could be a copy of a staff memo explaining the target and/or a copy of a poster put up in the school.

3. Does your electricity supplier guarantee to generate some or all of its electricity from renewable sources?

Yes

Needless to say, we would be delighted if all schools used only 100% renewable energy, but we know that this isn’t yet possible in many parts of the world. But you should be able to find out from your supplier’s website how much green energy they produce and if it’s not a significant amount, perhaps you could consider changing your supplier. Evidence in this case will normally be a copy of a recent electricity bill and/or a link to your supplier’s website.

Annual membership fees

Please note that schools that are members of certain national or international associations of language schools will be eligible for a discount on these fees.
Please contact us for details: info@greenstandardschool.org

Band	Turnover from previous fiscal year	Membership fee
A	Less than €500.000	€400
B	Between €500.000 and €1.000.000	€600
C	More than €1.000.000	€800

Start your journey with us

Become a member

The Application Process

Sample questions from the self-assessment form

Annual membership fees

Start your journey with us

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