Within quantum information, many methods have been proposed to avoid or correct the deleterious effects of the environment on a system of interest. In this work, expanding on our earlier paper (Paz-Silva et al 2012 Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 080501), we evaluate the applicability of the quantum Zeno effect as one such method. Using the algebraic structure of stabilizer quantum error correction codes as a unifying framework, two open-loop protocols are described which involve frequent non-projective (i.e. weak) measurement of either the full stabilizer group or a minimal generating set thereof. The effectiveness of the protocols is measured by the distance between the final state under the protocol and the final state of an idealized evolution in which system and environment do not interact. Rigorous bounds on this metric are derived which demonstrate that, under certain assumptions, a Zeno effect may be realized with arbitrarily weak measurements, and that this effect can protect an arbitrary, unknown encoded state against the environment arbitrarily well.