<< Background >>The damaging effects that humans have on the environment has been shown and proven over and over. In fact, the recent coronavirus pandemic has clearly demonstrated how well our environment does when human destructive activity is reduced. Despite the obvious negative consequences of COVID, a clear positive side-effect was that most people became aware of how we are all interconnected. Especially with nature.As countries try to open up again, it is the perfect time to reconsider the importance of addressing global environmental issues. One of the main pillars of our society is education. It is, in fact, within the educational system that changes can be made in order to approach environmental sustainability, through tangible changes. Our project, PESEs, aims at raising awareness on important environmental issues that need to be addressed. It aims to have a ripple effect, where students who take part in our project continue the process of educating their families and friends. All partners in this project undoubtedly believe that we need to address environmental sustainability in our schools. Specifically ELC, a group of schools having first-hand contact with kids, felt the genuine need for students to truly understand environmental issues such as climate change, the circular economy model (reduce, reuse, recycle and refuse adverse practices). Younger generations are the future, if we expose them to these important environmental issues from a young age, get them involved, ask them to tell us THEIR stories, it will increase the chances of a shift in paradigm, to empower them and make them feel they are important players to improve the present situation. In fact, these young students will be future parents, stakeholders, perhaps even policy makers, and it is our mission to face this challenge in a constructive, positive way.<< Objectives >>The main, long-term goal of the PESEs is to introduce environmental sustainability in the school curricula, and make it a pillar of their education, which will in turn have a direct positive impact on the environment. We propose to create a hidden curriculum that can be integrated into their formal one, into their everyday lives.Our specific desired achievement during the duration of the project is to create a multinational community of people who take an active role in the promotion of environmental change. We want to facilitate the inclusion of environmental sustainability topics in the school curricula; in a way that is fun, interactive, and incites students to keep learning and take responsibility for their actions. One of PESEs’ main objectives is to bridge the gap between acquired knowledge and behavioural (actions) concerning sustainability in the younger population.<< Implementation >>There will be 2 international training activities (LTTAs), several national piloting sessions, amongst other activities aimed at increasing social awareness of environmental sustainability in a school setting. After the initial teacher training workshops on Digital Storytelling (DST), we intend students to produce their own and digital stories related to sustainability and environmental issues. The approach will be motivational and participatory within the school system. Partners will guide and engage secondary school students in the development of digital stories. The main goal is to empower these students to become vectors of this information and educational tools into their homes and their communities. Very importantly, they can also serve as catalysts for actions and social change. We also hope to use a self-generated means for students to voice their concerns, become engaged and seek more involvement from their local (and international) student communities. In terms of sustainability, the project is also targeted at improving the local and social economy and ecology. We will emphasize a participatory, hands-on design process by which students can generate ideas, share their own stories and create small projects. All results and proposals will be hosted and managed in an interactive, multilingual digital platform. This platform will be available even after the end of the project, so that other students, teachers and staff members can keep benefiting from the results of this project long after it is over.<< Results >>Specifically, the main outcomes of this proposal are: PR-1 (a): A METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK for implementation. Presented in the format of an electronic book (eBook), this outcome will include a literature review, analysis and evaluation of the existing educational national examples based on the UN's sustainable development (environmental) goals (SDGs). The learning and training needs for our target groups will set the structure for both of the subsequent intellectual outcomes, PR2 ( a training curriculum with the SD topics), and PR3 ( a Training Toolkit for the resources). PR-1 (b): A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT providing access to the full range of educational resources generated throughout the lifecycle of the project will be set up by ELC and AdM with the help of all partners. It will include access to the eBook and its updates (downloadable), the training curriculum, and the toolkit. The final outcome will thus include a comprehensive compendium of all intellectual outcomes for PESEs, which will be presented in the final conference scheduled for M23 in Madrid, ES. PR-2: A TRAINING CURRICULUM AND SUSTAINABILITY STORIES on sustainability development. Initially, selected groups of teachers from all the partner institutions and associates will be properly trained on the DST methodology, in order to be able to transfer it at a local level. This will be done using one of the two training activities planned (C1). Each partner will previously select local target school student groups and volunteer teachers to guide them through the process of creating their own digital stories on specific environmental and sustainable development topics chosen. This intellectual outcome is one of the central ones. The compendium of personal digital stories will be hosted and organised in an online platform that will offer flexible educational paths for the use of these stories on environmental pollution and sustainable development. PR-3: A PRACTICAL TOOLKIT of guidelines and resources for teachers and practitioners who want to use the materials generated in this project. It is intended that professionals in education have an organised and easy access to the guidelines and tools generated so that they can run DST sessions on their own, anytime, anywhere they may be. All the intellectual outputs will be maintained at least 5 years after the lifetime of the project. Further results are also expected from the 5 national multiplier events and a final conference, all planned at the final phase of the 2-year project. All these results will be integrated into the platform and project network, and as part of the on-going evaluation, a report will also be presented to describe potential improvement tools.