AbstractThis article presents the evaluation of a local government programme on environmental education (Programa Integral d'Educació Ambiental de Cornellà PIDEAC—Global Environmental Education Programme of Cornellà) in Catalonia. The programme aimed to change the habits of the local population. The evaluation has deployed quantitative and qualitative techniques in order to find out if that objective had been fulfilled. Its results show that the common understanding of environmental education has actually changed in the local population, although in a different sense than expected. The relationship of several social groups toward environmental issues should be taken into account to explain these results.