GreenComp Outside The Box
GreenComp, Where You Least Expect It.
Looking Beyond The Spectrum Of Sustainability
Most sustainability teaching starts in the same places: recycling, rainforests and melting ice. GreenComp, the European Sustainability Competence Framework, was written for all learners in any learning setting, so we took it somewhere else. Each of its twelve competences is taught through something every learner already knows: the lost property box, the seat by the radiator, the traffic jam at the school gate, the group project where one person does all the work.
Each unit has three 60-minute lessons: a hook, an investigation with a real action, and a final lesson that measures whether anything changed. Every lesson has a teacher’s sheet and a student’s sheet for ages 9 to 10, 11 to 13 and 14 to 16, ready to print. The lessons draw on 169 GreenComp KSA statements and 11 communication checks, with examples from the UK, the EU and Türkiye.
GreenComp Outside The Box is the first tool in the Outside The Box series from 169to1.
Select, Classify, Prove
GreenComp Outside The Box
The first tool in the Outside The Box series: a GreenComp mini curriculum for learners aged 9 to 16. Each of the 12 sustainability competences gets its own unit, built around something unexpected: a lost property box, the cracks in a pavement, the cable under the ocean, the thermostat on the wall. Every unit has three 60-minute lessons, written for three age bands, from the teacher’s side and the student’s side.
Built on GreenComp (JRC, 2022) and the eleven checks of the Communication Pulse, with every unit mapped to the SDG targets. Background figures trace to named sources from 2020 onwards, checked on 15 October 2026. Historical events are marked as such.
All Units
Open a unit to read its three lessons for your age band, switch between the teacher’s and student’s view, and add it to your pack for printing.
The eleven checks come from the Communication Pulse: nine ingredients from Planetary Communications (Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2026), grouped as Reliable, Relevant and Relatable, plus two 169to1 checks, Listen First and Honest About Costs. Every lesson in GreenComp Outside The Box uses two or three of them. Open a check to see what it means, its levels for your age band, and every lesson that uses it.
GreenComp has 12 competences in four areas, with the knowledge, skills and attitudes behind each one. Each competence has its own unit here. Statements marked with a unit tag are the ones that unit’s lessons build. Open a competence for the full picture.
GreenComp: The European sustainability competence framework (Bianchi, Pisiotis and Cabrera Giraldez; JRC, 2022), rewritten in plain British English and reused under CC BY 4.0. The links between statements and lessons are 169to1’s lesson design.
All 169 SDG targets, each with the GreenComp competence that most directly develops it and the units in this curriculum that work on it. Open a target for its education snapshot.
An Editorial Mapping, Not An Official One. GreenComp does not link its competences to SDG targets. The lead competence for each target comes from the GreenComp Pulse, and the unit links are 169to1’s suggestions, so teachers can test them and change them.
Did It Work?
Lesson 3 of every unit asks learners to measure what changed after their action, and to report it honestly. Fill this in as a class or group, then copy or print the report.
1What We Set Out To Change
One change you wanted, and how you would count it. The unit’s suggested measure appears below when you choose a unit.
2Before And After
Measure the same thing, the same way, before and after your action.
3What The Audience Did
Choose all that apply, then describe it.
4How We Know
Evidence someone else could check.
5Our Verdict
6Claims Check
7Our Report
Built from your answers. Copy it into a newsletter, a report to school leaders or a presentation.
Every figure in the units traces to a named source. This list shows each source with its organisation, title, date and link, the units that use it, and what it supports. Frameworks come first, then the sources behind the background figures. All links were checked on 15 October 2026.
How To Read This List. Reported means the figure comes from a news or summary report of the original study, which is named in the entry. Historical marks an event or publication from before 2020 that is used as history, not as current data.
Your Lesson Pack
Every lesson has a teacher’s sheet and a student’s sheet, one A4 page each, written for the age band you choose. Each unit also has a Unit Overview for the teacher, with the background figures and their sources.
Your pack is empty. Use Add To Pack on any unit, or add all twelve.
Printing opens the sheets on their own page. Use the Print button at the top, or on a phone use Share and then Print, to save a PDF. Each sheet is fixed to one A4 page.
Guides, Rubrics And Records
Ready to print, in the same A4 format as the lesson sheets.
Teacher’s Guide
Two pages: how the curriculum works, the three-lesson pattern, the age bands, the eleven checks and a suggested route through the year.
Curriculum Map
One page: all 12 units and 36 lessons at a glance, with competences, checks and SDG targets.
Source List
Every framework and source used in the units, with dates, links and the units that rely on them.
Checks Rubric And Score Sheet, Ages 11 To 16
Three pages: all eleven checks at four levels, and a score sheet with a colour-in mix.
Checks Poster, Ages 9 To 10
One page: eleven simple questions with three steps and colour-in bars.
Did It Work? Record Sheet
One page for classes without devices: before and after, evidence, a verdict and a claims check.
