Our Training Programs and Materials
Our training approach is based on the “Zero Waste Training Handbook”, which means we use the main principles of educational psychology to deliver long-term learning on zero waste and circular economy solutions.
Our training methods and topics have been developed together with experts on waste management, zero waste and education, and combined with years of training experience of our trainers.
These documents are the result of the BEZWA project (Building a European Zero Waste Academy) – an Erasmus+ funded collaboration between five organisations with the main aim to create a strong educational framework in support of the zero waste cities movement in Europe. The project partners were Zero Waste Europe, Ekologi brez meja, Estonian University of Life Sciences and Tallinn University, with Zero Waste Estonia (then Let’s Do It Foundation) as the project coordinator.
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These short chapters give an overview why we have created this handbook, how to use it and describe our two main topics – zero waste and education – in a broader picture.
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This section focuses on the main principles around learning and teaching and how these principles can help us teach zero waste more effectively. Note that most of these principles are quite universal for learning in general and therefore can be useful for any educator. These resources provide the „How?“ of our training materials.
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This section gives an overview of the basic zero waste knowledge that is needed in order to promote zero waste solutions on a municipality level. These resources provide the „What?“ of our training materials.
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Our Trainer training programs are certified with a Zero Waste Trainer Certificate. It is a separate process you can apply to have your competences certified after a training or after learning the materials independently. Certified Trainers from all across Europe are listed on the Zero Waste Europe’s expert page. An expert certification will give you confidence in carrying out your mission. It also can advance you in your career. Qualified knowledge in implementing circular economy is increasingly sought after in all sectors and various positions.
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There are a variety of workshops and training courses using both formal and non-formal education methods across the world that focus on teaching zero waste and circular economy. What makes our resources special is the strong basis on educational psychology. This means that the latest scientific knowledge on how the human brain learns and effectively acquires new information for long term memory has been embedded into these documents, which is unfortunately often not done in educational activities in general.
Zero Waste Ambassador program
based on Zero Waste Ambassador Curriculum
You can strengthen and learn to spread your zero waste competences to drive your community towards long term systemic change. You will know the most important concepts and practical knowledge of how to implement zero waste strategies. This is for you, if you are actively working with different stakeholders and your job is to influence decision making in the regional governance.
From Expert to Trainer program
based on Zero Waste Trainer Curriculum
This program gives you a framework and a set of principles to be able to teach the most important concepts and practical knowledge of how to educate different target groups on zero waste and other sustainability topics. If your job consists of workshops and training sessions or even just public performances about circular economy and zero waste, you will learn to become more effective at it.
Request a training
You can request a training by writing to info@zwee.org
In addition we offer also workshops and trainings on following topics:
Zero Waste as systems change (for municipalities, organisations)
Basics of Circular Economy
Circular Economy business models (using CIRCO model)
Reuse systems
Basics of teaching complex problems and teaching skills
Critical thinking and greenwashing
Prices for trainings programs vary. Please consider these questions when asking for a price proposal:
Who do you wish to train? How many people?
On what topics/skills/knowledge would you want the group to be trained? In other words: what is the change you would like to see in them?
Do you prefer onsite or online training?
Do you have a specific timeframe in mind for the length of the training?