Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) is a decentralised international network under the umbrella of OECD/CERI. Since its inception in 1986, ENSI has brought together school initiatives, educators and other stakeholders in countries primarily across the OECD area (Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America) to promote and understand activities promoting sustainable development in schools and their communities. ENSI supports educational developments that promote environmental understanding, active approaches to teaching and learning, and citizenship education, through research and the exchange of experiences internationally. ENSI member countries (14 as of May 2001): Australia, Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Eco-School: aims to develop tests and publish methods of teaching and learning which define good practices of environmental education.
Learnscapes: aims to promote redesigning of school grounds to permit school communities to interact with their environment and link their curriculum with their use of school grounds.
Teacher training: aims to integrate innovative approaches to teacher education programmes through environmental education.
International research: aims to conduct comparative studies in such areas as "mainstreaming" which looks into national strategies for a widespread introduction of environment education into the school curricula and teaching and learning.
The conference report. "Innovations in Teacher Education through Environmental Education" was published in December 1999. For a copy, contact the ENSI Secretariat. The report was the outcome of the ENSI International Workshop, "Innovations in Teacher Education through Environmental Education" Klagenfurt, Austria, June 03 - 05, 1999.
ENSI International Principal Conference - Role and function of principals in sustainable school development Weilburg, Hessen, Germany, Aug. 31 - Sept. 03, 2000 (co-organiser: the Hessian Ministry of Education, Germany)
ENSI International Conference - Interdisciplinary challenges in Teacher Education in the Light of Environmental Education, Luzern, Switzerland, Sept. 16 - 19, 2000 (co-organiser: the University of Zurich, Switzerland).
ENSI was represented at the UNESCO-Japan Seminar on Environmental Education in Asia-Pacific Region (Tokyo, Japan, Dec. 19 - 22, 2000) to give an expert speech The Hadeland (Norway) Conference Report: From the Pilot to the Mainstream - Generalization of Good Practice in Environmental Education is now out. For free copies, contact the ENSI Decentralised Secretariat.
A major international conference on the ENSI Learnscape project, "Learnscape - Role of school grounds for environment education" was held Vienna, Austria, 07 - 10, Oct. 2001 The conference was organized by ENSI in collaboration with OECD's Programme on Educational Building (PEB).