In the transatlantic project “Going Green – Education for Sustainability”, German and U.S.-American students worked on environmentally relevant topics with the help of digital media in English classes (mainly at the high school level), but also in the context of bilingual content teaching. “Going Green” was designed as a blended learning project with a mixture of traditional classroom teaching and e-learning components. It was first implemented in the 2013/14 school year. Through continuous development and project cycles, the project was offered to students and teachers until 2024. In addition to the main course, further independent course environments were developed on special topics such as “Humboldt 250” or a project week on the topic of “energy transition” in cooperation with colleagues from the field of science education at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. During this period, a total of 5,000 students from Germany and the United States used the learning environment. In 2013, the “Going Green” project was awarded the renowned Hans-Eberhard-Piepho Prize for ideas in communicative foreign language teaching.

The students dealt with environmentally relevant topics such as waste avoidance, waste separation, recycling, mobility or sustainable nutrition. The German schools were able to work together with schools and classes in the USA, but this was not mandatory. The schools were also able to enter their project ideas and concepts for sustainable solutions in English into a nationwide competition organised by Leuphana University Lüneburg and the U.S. Embassy.

The programme began every autumn. The “Going Green” curriculum, with all the assignments and materials, was offered as a Moodle course (no longer available) so that teachers could use a personalized learning environment for their class.

The schools were free to decide which materials to use (online and offline) and to determine the scope of the project – as a single lesson, a series of lessons or a project week.

The closing event took place annually in April, around Earth Day. The teachaboutus.org newsletter kept the participating schools regularly informed.

The project was initiated by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin in cooperation with Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Berlin-based association Explorarium Life e.V. It was financed by the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.