Environmental education is a set of educational processes, school-based or not, in which individuals and the community seek skills, social values and competences in pursuit of environmental conservation and the quality of life of all individuals and their surroundings. This manuscript aims to present a contextualisation of environmental education, showing the faces and possibilities of a possible practice in the school (formal) and out-of-school (informal) contexts, as well as its characteristics and origins. It will deal with the initial concepts and introduction to environmental education, the approach to environmental preservation in the school context, sustainability and recycling in question, the role of the consumer and the future, environmental education and the treatment of effluents, environmental education as a subsidy for the conservation of the cerrado environmental education and the preservation of the cerrado. The discussion does not end with the presentation proposed here, because the search for knowledge about Environmental Education is broad and cyclical. This work is recommended for the community in general, as well as students, teachers of basic and higher education, and environmental researchers.