The hybrid participatory approach was developed and run in the demonstration sites (DS) to jointly co-design a set of intervention measures identified as the most suitable for fostering sustainability in their own school or university.

It integrates elements of research and citizen engagement, in particular group-based techniques. The approach partly draws upon the STAVE tool. To engage students, teachers, and administrative staff, Sustainability Competence Teams (SCT) are organized at all involved DSs. To engage the wider educational community, Sustainability Competence Committees (SCC) were set-up, integrating additional actors from the DSs (school directors, sustainability managers, etc.) and other external actors (NGOs, local authorities, etc.). Notably, the SCTs incorporated those in charge of making the decisions that condition the possibilities of transforming the planned measures into concrete actions.