ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATIONAT BUDAPEST BUSINESS SCHOOL EXPERIENCE OF THE GREEN MENTOR PROGRAMME

A Green Mentor Program tapasztalatai

Abstract

Environmental education or by more modern term, the pedagogy of sustainability has developed alongside the environmental movement since the 1970s. The essence of environmental education is the love of nature and as a consequence the protection of it. Its goal is to create new attitudes toward nature from the youngest generations.
We have to understand that we cannot continue to exploit nature, since on the one hand it is unethical, and on the other, we undermine the very foundations of our own existence. International organizations, including the European Union work for the awareness-raising on this topic. Mainly the Environment Action
Programmes deal with it, but environmentalism is a horizontal priority within educational and other programmes too. The Green Mentor Programme, which will be presented in this article, was also funded by the European Union, under the Erasmus Plus Programme. The purpose of the article - beyond the general
presentation of environmental education - is to demonstrate the Hungarian experience of the EU-funded  programme. The authors mentored various businesses in their greening during the pilot process. The article introduces the methods and tools of the Green Mentor Programme and the experience we have gained in the pilot process. The reader will learn about the green mentoring process and its participants, the most commonly used tools, and the typical environmental challenges and responses of the Hungarian companies.