Cultivating Ecoliteracy across Europe: our journey
Ten years of collaboration, learning, and designing The Ecoliteracy Hub to promote ecoliteracy across Europe.
Our journey began in 2015, when we — Era and Esther, the promoters of this project — first met during a project exploring the future of food. From that encounter, we shared a vision: how can we educate people to live sustainably?
Esther had recently been one of the trainers in a training of eco-trainers promoted by Youth and Environment Europe (YEE). She shared her vision with Era: to create more trainings and a community of eco-trainers ready to spread ecoliteracy across Europe.
In 2017, we explored various pools of eco-trainers — YEE, International Young Naturefriends (IYNF), and Greenr (by the Green European Foundation) — but continuity and community were missing.
By 2018, we reunited in Madrid for the Youth at Work pool of trainers. Our conversation deepened: what do people need to know to live sustainably? We realized we needed a structured framework and guide for educators.
Image caption: “Participants developing eco-competences during the Live Sustainably TC in Asturias, Spain”
In 2019, we began collecting eco-competences from participants in the Live Sustainably Training Course in Asturias. This continued in 2021 with the Building Ecoliteracy in Youth Work TC in Santander, hosted by the Spanish National Agency.
The second edition of Live Sustainably TC in Hungary in 2022 further enriched our collection of eco-competences.
Later in 2022, at the SALTO Toolfair on Sustainability in Marseille, where we delivered workshops, we focused on shaping a long-term training of eco-trainers. We paired it with a strategic partnership in adult education to promote ecoliteracy, make the GreenComp framework more accessible, curate eco-competences, and compile resources for educators.
In 2023, our vision became reality with the launch of the PoETS project and the parallel Eco-ToT process, our long-term training of eco-trainers. The first edition of Eco-ToT ran in 2024–2025, and the second edition is underway in 2025–2026.
“Our growing community of eco-trainers:
the people turning ecoliteracy into practice and inspiring sustainable change”.
Some participants from our Live Sustainably courses are now part of our growing pool of eco-trainers, spreading ecoliteracy across Europe.
We dedicate this work to Joanna Macy, an environmental activist, author, and systems thinker. Her teachings on deep ecology and the interconnectedness of life inspire everything we do. Our website, The Ecoliteracy Hub, was launched in the year of her passing as a tribute to her vision and influence.
From our first meeting to the thriving network of eco-trainers today, our journey has been driven by collaboration, shared vision, and a commitment to empower people with the knowledge and skills to live sustainably. Through The Ecoliteracy Hub, we continue to grow this vision, one eco-competence at a time.
