PEOPLE was formed in late 1972 and it managed to put up 6 candidates for the February '74 snap election, and five when a second election was called in October. Green candidates have stood in every General election since 1974 and have also contested many, but not all, by elections. Despite the claims by PEOPLE that they would contest 600 seats at the next election in practice near complete coverage of England and Wales was not achieved until 2015. Details of General election performance can be found on the General Election Archive pages.

In 1976 John Luck was elected as the Ecology Party's first district councillor for Rye ward on Rother District Council and John Davenport was first to obtain a parish council seat inWorcestershire. In 1977 Jeremy Faull was elected as the Ecology Party's first county councillor for the Withiel division in Cornwall. The number of principal authority (that is district, unitary and county) councillors has fluctuated since. There is more detail about local elections in the Local Election Archive pages.

In the 1975 referendum on EEC membership the Ecology Party took a "No" position. However the Ecology Party did put up 3 candidates in the first direct election to the European Parliament in 1979. At that time the elections were held on a single-member constituency basis with each constituency covering about seven parliamentary constituencies.  There were only a few Ecology Party candidates in 1979 and 1984, but by 1989 with a rising level of support the decision was taken to contest as many seats as possible.

Details of European elections are on the Euro Election Archive pages