GAP started in 1990 as an initiative of a group of environmentalists looking for ways in which ordinary people in the industrialised countries can contribute to meeting the major environmental goals recommended by international commissions and research groups. It operates in fifteen countries as a decentralised action programme. It aims at translating global environmental goals into measurable household, workplace and community actions. GAP provides skills and support to enable people to fulfil those actions at the individual and local level, collects the results, and feeds them back to everyone involved in the programme and to the media. Its principal activity is the so-called EcoTeam Programme in which individuals work together to bring their own households into a better environmental balance.

GAP Netherlands is part of a growing international network of sister organisations that all develop and implement programmes based on empowerment and (local) sustainable development.