92 schools & 160 kindergartens were certified recently by the Israeli ministers of Education & Environmental Protection as ‘green’ educational establishment, within the framework of  WATEC 2009. The new certifications have increased the total number of green schools and kindergartens approved to date to 232 and 274 respectively. According to the Israeli Ministry of Environment, the definition of green schools refers to their commitment to green conduct and to continued development according to specially formulated environmental indicators, with school approval as “green” given upon meeting the criteria of rational use of resources, community contribution and having integrated environmental issues into the school curriculum.

At the award ceremony, Environmental Protection Minister Erdan stated he identified the issue as one of the Ministry’s main targets and announced that the Ministry’s educational budget was increased from 5 million NIS to 30 million NIS in 2009.

For the full story on the green Israeli schools on WATEC, click here.