ECOLOG, a key action programme and network for the greening of schools and education for sustainability, was developed in 1996 by an Austrian team of teachers working on the international ENSI project (Affolder & Varga, 2018). ECOLOG is a national support system with the aim of promoting and integrating an ecological approach into the development of individual schools and attempts are being made to embed the programme in Austria's federal states through regional networks. To provide support, a network structure involving ECOLOG regional teams in the nine Austrian provinces has been developed; furthermore, a scientific advisory board has been established. Central support is provided by the Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) and by the Institute of Instructional and School Development (IUS) at the University of Klagenfurt. Additional support measures are provided by the FORUM Environmental Education (an NGO), via seminars for heads and coordinators of ECOLOG network schools, the Education Support Fund for Education for Sustainable Development, as well as via the National Environmental Performance Award for schools and university colleges of teacher education (Rauch & Pfaffenwimmer, 2020).
ECOLOG is structured in three levels to support schools in the ECOLOG programme: (1) the coordination by the IUS in partnership with the BMBWF; (2) nine ECOLOG regional teams (one in each Austrian province) in collaboration with educational and environmental authorities, university colleges of teacher education and various organizations of environmental education; and (3) ECOLOG coordinators and teams in all ECOLOG schools.
Originally embedded in the OECD-Project “Environment and School Initiatives”, the ecologization of schools project in Austria was conceptualized as a comprehensive school development concept following quality criteria, such as action-orientated and reflective forms of open learning or project instruction, where pupils learn actively (e.g., by generating local knowledge) and take over responsibility for creative processes and constructive relationships with the local community or neighbourhood (Rauch, 2000). ECOLOG is based upon an action research approach (Rauch, 2016). Schools analyse the ecological, technical, and social conditions of their environment and, resultingly, define objectives, targets, concrete activities, and quality criteria to be implemented and evaluated. Students and other stakeholders of a school should be involved in a participatory way, and collaboration with authorities, businesses, and other interested parties is encouraged. The measures concern, among others, areas like saving resources (energy, water, etc.), reduction of emissions (i.e., waste, traffic), spatial arrangement (from the classroom to the campus), the culture of learning (communication, organisational structure), health promotion, social learning, as well as the opening of the school to the community.
All in all, over 600 schools (approx.10% of Austrian schools) with about 15,000 teachers and approximately 110,000 students as well as 13 (out of 14) university colleges for teacher education are currently part of the network. Many others are reached through the website, teacher in-service-training seminars, and newsletters.