There were 587 schools in the programme nationwide before Queenstown Primary, Makarora and six other schools in the Dunedin City Council catchment signed up.
Enviroschools regional co-ordinator Jenny Neilson said expressions of interest were sent to schools in Otago, with 40 expressing an interest to join the programme which began in Hamilton in the late 1990s.
Queenstown Primary and Makarora were selected to join Glenorchy School, Arrowtown Primary School and Hawea Flat School and Wanaka in the Central Otago Lakes District, Mrs Neilson said.
"We looked at schools that had made a commitment to education for sustainability practices in their schools.
"Enviroschools is not a programme just for the kids - it looks at people, practices, policies and programmes."
Mrs Neilson said part of the selection process involved looking at each school to see what steps it had already taken for sustainability.
Under the council-funded and facilitated programme, Queenstown Primary would receive 35 to 40 hours of the facilitator's time at the school next year. Pupils would be looking at "theme areas" and curriculum and areas the school as a whole needed to look at, for example organisational processes and management areas.
Principal John Western said it was time schools began to play their part in sustainability, teaching children early about its importance.
"Schools need to play their part in modelling sustainability and obviously we need to educate our children so that they're [implementing] sustainable practices in the future."
Mr Western said all of the school's 666 pupils would be involved in the programme in some way.
Mrs Neilson said Queenstown Primary was the largest school in the southern region in the programme, joining at the same time as Makarora which, with just nine pupils, was the smallest.
