<< Background >>Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) allows every human to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future (UNESCO, 2014). Schools are an essential factor for introducing environmental awareness from the early age and to promote sustainability based on a holistic school approach. As hubs of communities, schools can help to transform markets, policy, education, and behavior, increase community resilience, mitigate climate change, and prepare citizens to think and act in new, creative and eco-friendly ways. Green Schools Alliance envisions a world where every person is aware of and accountable for the impact they have in creating an environmentally, economically, and equitably sustainable future while bringing together environmental education and community engagement. The aim of the environmental education is to encourage students to adopt eco-friendly practices into daily school life and consequently in their daily lives. CLIMATE BRIDGE focuses on developing new learning methodologies in the field of education-related activities concentrated on active environmental involvement by empowering students, school teachers, school leaders, teacher trainers, adult education professionals working with youngsters. The project intends to develop a holistic framework to boost the acquisition and development of global and transversal skills and competences on environmental/climate change related topics, among students and teachers/ educators and to increase critical thinking skills, consciousness & responsibility for enabling behavioural changes for individual preferences, consumption habits, and lifestyles to students. The consortium embraces the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is an urgent call for action by all countries, respecting the European Green Deal for the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy that restores biodiversity. CLIMATE BRIDGE will address the need of promoting environmental education in the educational system and will suggest ways to combat this environmental crisis through a change in people's lifestyle. By creating innovative tools and interactive material for the educational professionals, students will be engaged in the environmental sustainability and be inspired about their way of living. CLIMATE CHANGE will contribute to the achievement of SDG 13, and other European climate goals, including being climate neutral and omitting zero green-house gasses by 2050.<< Objectives >>Europe's attempt to create critical-thinking European citizens through education systems should incorporate today's emerging problems which have a direct impact on the quality of life. Eco-Schools is a growing phenomenon, which encourages young people to engage in their environment by allowing them the opportunity to actively protect it. It starts in the classroom; it expands to the school and eventually fosters change in the community at large. A holistic view of sustainability in schools. Ecological, social, and environmental contents of sustainability are not entirely novel ideas in the world of education. However, the educational process does not seem to be able to create the conditions which will lead to a new visual and awakening of the school teachers, students, school leaders, teacher trainers, adult education professionals working with young people concerning environmental problems and sustainable development. A common issue in executing education for sustainable development is that there isn’t a systematic approach. Teachers do not have to be familiar with one another’s work and good ideas often are not shared. Sustainability education may come down to individual teachers, making it that much more vulnerable. For that reason, it could be a good idea to implement the continuous quality improvement model for sustainability education. On the other hand, the approach to an integrated way of daily living through contact with nature is far away from the everyday school reality, even more from secondary school. Students spend the majority of their day in a school building during their most crucial developmental years. In this time of pivotal growth, schools must be a space for creative thinking, a source of inspiration, and a starting point for developing a sense of awareness and responsibility. The journey to that goal begins with educating students in a healthy and sustainable environment. That’s why sustainable schools are important; so that to give students the educational program, physical place, and organizational culture to encourage the development of environmentally conscious global citizens. The school community should be awakened and sensitized. Not only through limited action groups and volunteering, but through a theoretical approach, development of textbooks, arguments, examples, case studies, vodcasts and participation of students and teachers. A whole-school action is more likely to obtain buy-in if the goals and priorities, as well as the strategies designed to achieve those goals, are perceived as relevant and valid by members of the local community. This is why schools should consider aligning their sustainable development and climate action to local community needs. Examples of schools or institutions implementing similar actions in Europe must be taken seriously. The educational community has to be able to use supportive tools which will lead to reflections through both theory and practice in the daily learning process. In addition to the theoretical training material to be developed, our goal is that students be able to change their daily lifestyle in terms of their contact with nature and respecting the environment through a series of concrete good practices. The central idea of CLIMATE BRIDGE is to create a holistic environmental approach in adolescents, to awaken about sustainable development and quality of life. It aims at: -Creating awareness-raising European citizens regarding the environment through the education system-Empowering students, school teachers, school leaders, teacher trainers, adult education professionals working with youngsters-Informing about health & environment in communities-Developing critical thinking about future personal and social consequences concerning nature and the environment.<< Implementation >>During the project all partners in collaboration will contribute to the implementation of all activities so to meet project’s objectives. The main activities of the project include:A1. Project and Quality ManagementThe aim of Project and Quality Management activities is to ensure the smooth and timely implementation of the project in terms of financing, administration, production, and coordination. A1.1. Development of Project Work Plan (PWP)A1.2 Organisation of partner meetings & conference calls (4 Transnational meetings-agenda, minutes, meeting’s reports)A1.3 Two Progress reportsA1.4 Elaboration of QMP. This plan will be a live document responding to the different phases of the project development process and will be updated throughout the project life-cycle. Quality assurance surveys will be conducted in months 6, 12 and 18 comprising questionnaires to be filled out by all members of the local stakeholders in each partner country. A summary of the findings from each of the quality assurance surveys will be produced by P2A2. Dissemination & Exploitation StrategyThe Dissemination Leader & Exploitation Leader will prepare a comprehensive Dissemination & Exploitation Strategy. Furthermore, the Dissemination & Exploitation Leader will develop the website.A3. Project Impact Plan The Project Impact Plan will outline an agreed set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for each of the developed results. Two impact assessment reports will be produced.A4. Exploitation Plan to identify potential exploitation opportunities; build a framework for lobbying; and devise a series of actions for influencing policy.All partners will:- Participate and provide input to the above activities;- Make explicit their commitment to provide resources that guarantee the sustainability of the project’s outcomes once it is over;- Use various project and own resources in order to disseminate project outputs and activities at local/regional/national and European level; - Engage the target group and raise awareness of the project and its value to relevant local/regional/national and European stakeholders and multipliers;- Translate press releases, leaflets text and other relevant material to their national language;- Be actively involved in the exploitation and sustainability efforts from the beginning of the project; and- Report implemented dissemination and exploitation actions, using the templates that will be provided by the Dissemination & Exploitation Leader.A5. Organisation of Multiplier Events. One Multiplier Event will be organized in each partner country so as to increase the awareness around the project and the expected outputs, therefore significantly contributing to increasing the impact of the project. A4. Organisation of transnational learning, teaching, training activity. (HOW MANY?)<< Results >>Through the establishment of a transnational network between schools, civil society organisations, training organisations, pedagogical teams, the project will encourage cooperation, exchange of good practices and the transfer of initial knowledge on environmental topics while being in alignment with the project’s objectives. It will address the important role of the environment in humanity, the causes of climate change, the lack of incentives and environmental culture in six European countries. Also, CLIMATE BRIDGE will point out the need of promoting environmental education in the educational system and will suggest ways to combat this environmental crisis through a change on people’s lifestyle. The expected results and outcomes concern:-Eco-Training Material and Handbook to improve knowledge and to harness the potential of changing lifestyle into an ecofriendly one.-Open Badge for Climate Change Education to integrate into training/workshops, making the current training schedules more productive.-Peer to peer video podcasts for a sustainable climate to learn about environmental topics and get inspired for a sustainable, eco-friendly lifestyle.The project will include all the necessary results in order to be coherent and successfully implemented. The partners will also deliver:•A concrete management plan •Meetings’ Minutes•Quality Assurance Strategy •Interim and Final Evaluation Report •Dissemination Strategy and a Final Dissemination Activity Report•Sustainability Plan•Participants' lists from the local events•Project logo•Informative printed material•4 Newsletters in English and translated in the partners’ language•Feedback questionnaires from the target group’s members who will be involved in the workshops/training•6 Multiplier Events for the target group and project’s stakeholders in each partner’s country•2 local pilot workshops in Greece and Turkey (R1)•6 local pilot workshops (R2)•6 Pilot trainings in each partner’s country (R3).During the project and after its completion, the partners expect that school teachers, students, school leaders, teacher trainers, adult education professionals working with youngsters as well as partners, will show an improvement in several areas and will gain experience and knowledge from this collaboration:•Improvement of the acquisition and development of global and transversal skills on climate change related topics.•Awareness on environmental topics and climate change, its impact on humanity and implementation of a sustainable lifestyle.•Development of training material which teachers can easily integrate into their courses to raise climate awareness and motivate students to live a greener lifestyle.•Create results/ outputs developed specifically for the specific needs of disadvantaged people with a particular focus on easy-to-understand information applicable to daily life such as energy and food consumption, water use, waste reduction, clothing and choices of mobility.•Building and strengthening partnerships between the organizations participating in the project;•Raising awareness in the field of environment and the climate change;