The year that has just begun will be crucial for the development of the green economy in Europe: Janez Potočnik, the European Commissioner for the Environment has proclaimed 2014 as the “European year for the green economy”. Human impacts on the environment have risen steadily. Previously our impacts were primarily felt locally. In the last few decades we have seen impacts spread across regions. Now, climate change, for example, has global impacts. The air we breathe in some areas of our country is not only polluted by the "classic" factors such as traffic, but also by toxic, often carcinogenic, chemicals produced by industrial sources. We have to change our attitude, first because access to reliable, affordable and socially acceptable energy services is a pre-requisite for alleviating extreme poverty and meeting other societal development goals. Than because emissions from developing countries are growing rapidly and are contributing to environmental problems, such as climate change and poor air quality, that put the health and prosperity of people around the world—but especially people in poor countries—at grave risk. Environmental education emphasizes the teaching of the holistic nature of the environment through interdisciplinary and problem-solving approaches. This has to start as early in education as possible. Introducing critical thinking and problem-solving approaches is fundamental if students are to become skillful in the identification and solution of environmental problems as students and later on as adult citizens and possibly decision-makers. This project focuses on enhancing environmental awareness and fostering critical thinking and problem-solving approaches among school teachers and students, by helping them to become actively involved in the exploration of their immediate environment, encouraging curiosity, fostering awareness and leading to an informed concern which will eventually be expressed in terms of positive action. The fundamental strategy is to encourage the use of the environment as a living laboratory full of local and low-cost materials. Thus the concrete topics of the project HELP are: - Biodiversity: gaining information about different landscapes of the world, their associated ecological environments, and the way these ecosystems are maintained and supported. We will compare the Mediterranean ecosystem with the Amazonian one, for instance. - Concrete actions to be undertaken to help the cause: green consciousness and engagement will be encouraged and promoted through dematerialization and recycling. 1. Dematerialization remains the main concrete contribution of our school to the protection of the environment. These past few years have seen a considerable trend in our school toward zero paper. Dematerialization has shown itself to be the simplest, fastest and most environmentally-friendly response to implement. The dematerialization of documents also allows: - Better flowing trade and thousands of trees saved. - Reduction of paper costs. - Reduction of sending and archiving expenses. - Optimization of the controls within the concerned services - Innovative services for the customers 2. Another important contribution is recycling. Involving teachers and students in recycling schemes and other activities to improve the environment can be a lot of fun. Educating children about the importance of recycling and the environment provides a path to a greener future. Recycling schemes in schools help to improve the environment and can reduce money spent by the school on waste disposal. Three teachers involved in curricular and extra-curricular courses and the headteacher have been selected to take part in the project because of their need to improve new content and methodological competencies, and their commitment with the topic. The long-term results and benefits of the project will be to promote sustainable development, that is an integrated concept involving all human actions down to the local level, and: •realizes the importance of international co-operation when facing worldwide problems •extends participation in project itinerary through sport activities as personal efforts for maintaining healthy lives in a healthy environment. •improves teachers’ competencies and students’ skills. • aims to improve the quality of life of both current and future generations, while safeguarding the earth’s capacity to support life in all its diversity; • is based on democracy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights including freedom, equal opportunities and cultural diversity; • promotes high levels of employment in an economy whose strength is based on education, innovation, social and territorial cohesion and the protection of human health and the environment.