Highlights from the 2019

Honorees

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Contents

Contents .................................................................................................................... 2

List of Tables ............................................................................................................. 6

Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7

Director’s Award....................................................................................................... 14

2019 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools ................................... 15

Alabama..................................................................................................................... 15

Troy University, Troy, Alabama ............................................................................... 15

California .................................................................................................................... 18

Carrisa Plains Elementary School, Santa Margarita, California .............................. 18

Eagle Rock Elementary School, Los Angeles, California ........................................ 21

Quail Lake Environmental Charter School, Clovis, California.................................. 25

St. James Academy, Solana Beach, California ....................................................... 28

Rialto Unified School District, Rialto, California....................................................... 31

Connecticut ................................................................................................................ 35

Weston High School, Weston, Connecticut............................................................. 35

Delaware .................................................................................................................... 38

The Jefferson School, Georgetown, Delaware........................................................ 38

Caesar Rodney School District, Wyoming, Delaware.............................................. 41

Florida ........................................................................................................................ 44

MAST Academy, Miami, Florida.............................................................................. 44

FAU Lab School District, Boca Raton, Florida......................................................... 47
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Georgia ...................................................................................................................... 50

Robert W. Gadsden Elementary School, Savannah, Georgia................................. 50

Sharon Elementary School, Suwanee, Georgia ...................................................... 52

Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, Georgia..................................... 55

Hawaii ........................................................................................................................ 58

Kapālama Elementary School, Honolulu, Hawaii .................................................... 58

Illinois ......................................................................................................................... 60

Meadowview Elementary School, Grayslake, Illinois............................................... 60

Bloomington Public School District 87, Bloomington, Illinois................................... 62

Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois............................................................ 66

Indiana ....................................................................................................................... 69

Goshen Community Schools, Goshen, Indiana....................................................... 69

Iowa............................................................................................................................ 72

Davenport Community School District, Iowa ........................................................... 72

Sioux City Community Schools, Sioux City, Iowa.................................................... 76

Kentucky .................................................................................................................... 79

Tates Creek Elementary, Lexington, Kentucky ....................................................... 79

Saint Agnes School, Louisville, Kentucky................................................................ 82

Louisiana.................................................................................................................... 85

Brookstown Middle School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.............................................. 85

Maryland .................................................................................................................... 88

Captain James E. Daly Elementary School, Germantown, Maryland...................... 88
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Calvert County Public Schools, Prince Frederick, Maryland ................................... 91

Massachusetts ........................................................................................................... 94

Boston Green Academy, Brighton, Massachusetts ................................................. 94

Ipswich Middle-High School, Ipswich, Massachusetts............................................. 97

Wellesley Public Schools, Wellesley, Massachusetts ........................................... 100

Michigan................................................................................................................... 103

Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan ................................................. 103

Minnesota................................................................................................................. 107

Forest Lake Area High School, Forest Lake, Minnesota ....................................... 107

Missouri.................................................................................................................... 110

Claymont Elementary School, Ballwin, Missouri ................................................... 110

Highcroft Ridge Elementary School, Chesterfield, Missouri .................................. 113

Herculaneum High School, Herculaneum, Missouri .............................................. 115

Raintree School, St. Louis, Missouri...................................................................... 117

New Jersey .............................................................................................................. 120

Holland Brook School, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey ...................................... 120

Saint Leo the Great School, Lincroft, New Jersey................................................. 123

New York.................................................................................................................. 126

Sanfordville Elementary School, Warwick, New York............................................ 126

Warwick Valley Middle School, Warwick, New York.............................................. 129

North Carolina .......................................................................................................... 132

Abbotts Creek Elementary School, Raleigh, North Carolina ................................. 132
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Douglas Byrd High School, Fayetteville, N.C. ....................................................... 136

Immaculata Catholic School, Durham, North Carolina .......................................... 138

Ohio.......................................................................................................................... 142

Graham Local Schools, St. Paris, Ohio................................................................. 142

Pennsylvania............................................................................................................ 144

Eden Hall Upper Elementary School, Gibsonia, Pennsylvania.............................. 144

State College Friends School, State College, Pennsylvania ................................. 148

Millersville University, Millersville, Pennsylvania ................................................... 151

South Carolina ......................................................................................................... 154

Dutch Fork Elementary School, Irmo, South Carolina........................................... 154

Washington .............................................................................................................. 158

The Northwest School, Seattle, Washington......................................................... 158

Lake Washington School District, Washington...................................................... 162

Lopez Island School District, Lopez Island, Washington....................................... 166

Oak Harbor Public Schools, Oak Harbor, Washington.......................................... 168

West Virginia ............................................................................................................ 171

Junior Elementary School, Belington, West Virginia.............................................. 171

Wisconsin................................................................................................................. 173

Schlitz Audubon Nature Preschool, Milwaukee, Wisconsin................................... 173
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List of Tables

Table 1. Number of U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools by year 

and type

Table 2. Number of nominating authorities for U.S. Department of Education Green 

Ribbon Schools by year

Table 3. 2019 honorees by type
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Introduction

Origins of the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School Program

In 2011, key advocates from the Campaign for Environmental Literacy, the Center 

for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Wildlife 

Federation (NWF), and the Earth Day Network steered some 80 national and statebased nonprofit organizations to request that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) 

honor schools for their sustainable facilities, health practices, and effective 

environmental education. The award that evolved from this petition, U.S. 

Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS)1, has had a significant 

effect on the green schools movement and allowed ED an unprecedented platform 

to address school facilities, health, and the environment.

These advocates and the federal family ultimately assisted ED in developing a 

consensus definition of a green school, featuring what came to be known as the 

three Pillars of the award: 

Pillar One: reducing environmental impact, such as waste, water, energy, 

greenhouse gases, and transportation, encompassing the areas of school 

facilities, grounds, and operations; 

Pillar Two: improving health and wellness by promoting a healthy physical 

environment (including aspects such as air quality, contaminant control, moisture 

control, acoustics, daylighting, pest management, and thermal comfort) and 

student and staff wellness practices (such as healthy school food and outdoors 

physical activity); and 

Pillar Three: offering effective environmental and sustainability education, 

including civic learning, green careers, and STEM (science, technology, 

engineering, and math) connections. 

How the ED-Green Ribbon Schools Recognition Award Operates

Going beyond the award requested by stakeholders, ED-GRS has become the 

federal communications and outreach tool around specific areas that ED had, until 

 

1 ED's award is called "U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools" and has "District 

Sustainability Award" and "Postsecondary Sustainability Award" categories. "Green Ribbon Schools" 

without the "U.S. Department of Education" is not ED's award, but instead is a separate program 

overseen by another organization.
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its advent, addressed infrequently. The award has allowed the agency to use its 

reach and audience to address matters of school facilities, health, and environment 

by highlighting innovative practices and sharing useful, free resources in these 

areas, despite limited authority to run grant programs in these realms.

Annually, state education officials voluntarily participate by nominating their top 

schools, districts, and postsecondary institutions based on their achievement in ED’s 

three Pillars. Although ED provides some suggestions as to how state education 

agencies might document nominees’ work in the three Pillars, ultimately, states have 

flexibility in their selection and nomination, so long as they document progress for 

each nominee in all the three Pillars. ED then uses the award to communicate 

honorees’ promising practices and the helpful resources they successfully employ to 

the nation’s schools. 

Growth of the Initiative’s Communications and Engagement Functions

Over time, ED has added several components to the initial school award, including 

recognition of school districts and postsecondary institutions, as well as a state 

education agency official’s award. The program’s outreach also has grown, along 

with its engagement functions, with a resource website, www.greenstrides.org, and a 

Green Strides tour spotlighting clusters of honorees around an annual theme. 

Green Strides, the outreach and engagement arm of the award, uses its website, a 

newsletter, and social media to get the word out to schools about the three Pillars, 

providing information, to the extent that ED’s limited federal resources allow, about 

free resources, programs, grants, and webinars. 

U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools by the Numbers

With the 2019 cohort, the award has now honored some 420 schools, 76 districts, 

and 44 postsecondary institutions. In this case, larger numbers do not necessarily 

indicate broader influence. ED-GRS was never intended to certify thousands of 

schools. Each year, state education agencies are invited to nominate up to five 

early-learning through 12th-grade school or district candidates, and just one 

postsecondary institution. This is because ED requires only a few examples to 

highlight innovative practices. For the same reason, institutions — whether school, 

district, or postsecondary — are eligible only once for this award, and always must 

state their designation with the year in which they were honored. Once ED has 

highlighted an institution’s practices, it is useful to move on to highlighting other, 

diverse examples. In fact, schools nominated from districts that already have won 

the award should demonstrate achievements above and beyond those previously 

honored in the district application. 
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Table 1. Number of U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School honorees 

by year and type

Year Schools Districts* Post-secondary* Total

2012 78 N/A N/A 78

2013 64 14 N/A 78

2014 48 9 N/A 57

2015 58 9 14 81

2016 47 15 11 73

2017 45 9 9 63

2018 45 6 6 57

2019 35 14 4 53

Total 420 76 44 540

*The District Sustainability Award was added in 2013, and the Postsecondary Award in 2015.

Number of ED-GRS Participating States

Despite the exciting efforts ED has highlighted with this recognition award, there is 

still work to be done to improve school facilities, health, and environmental 

engagement. Roughly 30 states voluntarily nominate candidates annually for this 

award. That means ED does not have a mechanism for highlighting the practices of 

green schools in the remaining 20 states, where state education agencies choose 

not to nominate. 

Table 2. Number of nominating authorities for U.S. Department of Education Green 

Ribbon Schools by year

Year Number of Participating Nominating Authorities

2012 30

2013 32

2014 30

2015 30

2016 27

2017 29

2018 26

2019 28

• All states, territories, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense 

Education Activity, and the Bureau of Indian Education are invited to nominate. 

Contributing to the Development of a More Coherent Definition of a Green School
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A key contribution of the award is believed to be that — to some degree and for at 

least a time — it brought various agencies and organizations together around a 

common definition of a green school. Rather than one organization using the term 

“green school” to denote an energy-efficient school, another using it to refer to 

institutions offering environmental and sustainability learning, and a third employing 

it to indicate environmental health or wellness practices, there has been a 

convergence such that a green or sustainable school must encompass all three 

Pillars. There continue to be initiatives that focus squarely on one segment of this 

work; however, it usually is with the stated understanding that they form part of a 

broader three-Pillar effort.

A Bully Pulpit for School Facilities, Health, and Environment

In 2011, the term “green school” was a relatively unknown concept at ED, as well as 

across much of the country. Today, there is a growing understanding of what this 

work entails, at least in small part because of ED’s efforts annually to illustrate this 

work with the concrete practices of its honorees. ED’s oversight of this award has 

offered the agency an opportunity to address and engage on school infrastructure 

and operational costs; environmental health and school wellness practices; 

nutritious, local, and student-grown school food; and hands-on, outdoors, projectand place-based, authentic, environmental, civic, and sustainability learning, among 

other related topics. The award also has allowed ED to highlight unique local, state, 

and national partnerships and where sustainability efforts intersect with equity.

A Significant Effect with a Limited Budget and Innovative Collaboration

Despite the limited availability of funds, the award has facilitated collaborations and 

connections that have saved resources. For example, both ED-GRS and Green 

Strides have enabled ED to share the many programs for schools offered by 

counterparts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); U.S. departments of Agriculture, Interior, 

and Energy; and collaborators across the for-profit and nonprofit private sectors.

In the same way that ED works more effectively across a broader range of federal 

agencies as a result of the award, many state education agencies also are 

collaborating in exceptional ways with state health, environment, and energy 

agencies to select their nominees to ED. The private sector, both for-profit and 

nonprofit, also has gotten involved at federal, state, local, and school levels, working 

with schools and governments. Through this collaboration, ED’s recognition award 

has become a tool to get various parties working better together for the benefit of 

students across the nation. 

Green Schools Are Successfully Serving Disadvantaged Populations 
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Nearly 45 percent of ED-GRS honorees have served majority-disadvantaged 

student populations, as measured by free and reduced-price lunch. While this is in 

part due to award criteria design, which asks states to ensure that at least one of 

their nominees is disadvantaged, state nominations have exceeded this minimum 

requirement. With ED-GRS designated schools, districts, and postsecondary 

institutions providing better education to traditionally underserved students, green 

schools practices may be another tool to advance equal access to a quality 

education for all students.

A Green School Need Not Be Newly Constructed

To ensure that the award highlights diverse examples of sustainability, the 

competition assesses candidates based on resources available to them, rather than 

in comparison to each other. In fact, the award has, over the years, highlighted 

many older school constructions engaged in low-cost, but highly effective, retrofits 

and behavioral change. All of these are steps that any school community can 

undertake, without a new construction that is designed specifically to be resource 

efficient and environmentally healthy. In this way, the award has helped to educate 

the public about the broad applicability of green school practices, in both old and 

new buildings.

Creating Incentives for Multiple Pipelines for Sustainability Improvements by All 

Schools 

Another important consequence of the award has been the refinement of various 

national and state-specific green schools programs that the award has spurred. 

States have realigned preexisting state green schools programs, built new ones, and 

now recognize runners-up beyond those they nominate to ED, in order to create 

pathways to the national award, broaden recognition within individual states, and 

incentivize more change. 

The 2019 Cohort

This year’s selectees were confirmed from a pool of candidates voluntarily 

nominated and exhaustively reviewed by 28 state education authority 

implementation teams. While selection processes vary from state to state, members 

of several state agencies as well as outside experts often comprise selection 

committees. At the federal level, we have selected 35 schools, 14 districts, and four 

postsecondary institutions that demonstrate promising practices to cut costs, 

improve health, and ensure that students learn through the most hands-on, 

engaging means possible.
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The diversity of U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, District 

Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees and the range 

of their work proves that any school, district, or postsecondary institution can take 

steps to improve the sustainability, health, and safety of school facilities; ensure 

nutrition and fitness practices for a lifetime of wellness and productivity; and engage 

students in real-world learning. 

Schools use sustainability in context to teach important civic values and skills that 

encourage students to grow into responsible, compassionate, and contributing 

citizens. Furthermore, working with dynamic environmental, social, and economic 

systems from an early age nurtures precisely the type of thinking, collaboration, and 

problem-solving skills that careers of the future require. This is the case whether 

these students graduate from green career and technical programs, green college 

preparatory schools, community colleges, or liberal arts colleges. 

It is with tremendous pleasure that we present the 2019 U.S. Department of 

Education Green Ribbon Schools, District Sustainability Awardees, and 

Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees. These honorees are ensuring that their 

students learn to live, work, and play with sustainability and health in mind — not as 

an afterthought, but as an integral part of everything they undertake.

The 2019 Green Ribbons are here. Prepare to be amazed! When you recover, go 

to our http://www.greenstrides.org webpage and get started using some of the same 

tools these awardees employ.
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Table 3. 2019 honorees by type

Total honorees 53

Early learning through 12th grade 

schools 

35

Non-public schools 10

Charter schools 3

Magnet schools 2

Public schools 25

Districts 14

Institutions of higher education 4

Disadvantaged-serving schools 18
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Director’s Award

The Director’s Award celebrates an individual’s 

exemplary efforts to administer ED-GRS in their 

state. Specifically, the ED-GRS Director’s Award 

recognizes a state education agency official who 

does the most to advance green schools by running 

a robust competition process; connecting more 

schools to resources in all three ED-GRS Pillars; 

amplifying the stories of honorees; helping schools 

learn from one another; partnering with a variety of 

entities to bring more resources and expertise into 

schools; and exhibiting a dedication to exceptional 

school facilities, health, and environmental 

education through activities outside of the 

administration of ED-GRS.

ED is delighted to have named John Olson, science content specialist from the 

Minnesota Department of Education, as the selectee for the 2019 Director’s Award. 

For several years now, Olson’s leadership and dedication have been integral to EDGRS’s success in Minnesota, as well as to the continued momentum of the green 

schools movement across the nation. Olson established a permanent home for EDGRS in his office in 2012. He hosted a highly attended ED-GRS Green Strides Tour 

leg in 2014. Olson successfully engaged his postsecondary counterparts in 2015, 

becoming the only state to nominate a full six institutions in that — the first year — of 

the postsecondary competition. He developed a detailed plan to sustain his efforts 

during his Peace Corps leave of absence in early 2016. 

Olson has engaged stakeholders from peer state agencies, nonprofit and for-profit 

private sectors, and the higher education community in order to share sustainable 

best practices, select ED-GRS nominees, and celebrated honored institutions at 

assemblies and presentations. Such collaboration to support local programs is not 

found in many other programs.

In sum, Olson has modeled excellence in ED-GRS implementation for other state 

education authorities to follow. ED commends Olson for his work to promote 

environmental stewardship, health, and sustainability and for inspiring more schools 

to aim high. 
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2019 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools

Alabama

Troy University, Troy, Alabama

Alabama’s international university looks out for the planet

Troy University is known for its beautiful, historic campus located in the charming 

southern city of Troy, Alabama. The 650-acre main campus is situated along rolling 

hills with oak, cedar, and pine trees present throughout the grounds. With over 

1,000 international students on campus from over 80 countries, Troy University is 

known as Alabama’s international university.

Troy has embraced continued growth in the academic space and the campus 

community. Even with this expansion, the university has increased efficiencies in 

energy and water usage and waste production. In all new construction and building 

renovations for the last six years, lighting control systems have been installed to 

complement light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and enhance energy conservation. 

This includes lighting in the new football end zone, the natatorium, and the new 

fitness center. Troy University’s newly constructed parking lots feature LED lighting, 

and plans are in place to update the old parking lots’ lighting as well.

All new construction and renovations for the last 20 years have included the 

installation of a building energy automation system, which allows for reduced utility

usage when buildings are not occupied, thus reducing consumption of natural gas 

and electricity. In 2018, the university evaluated its cooling tower water supply lines, 

replacing all ill-functioning pressure regulator valves and gauges. These changes 

and other improvements to the irrigation systems on the university’s Montgomery 

campus resulted in a savings of $80,000 annually. 

The university maintains partnerships with and provides support for the Janice 

Hawkins Cultural Arts Park with the Choctawhatchee—Pea River Watershed 

Management Authority, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, 

and the Daniel Foundation, among others, for environmental restoration of an oncampus urban forest, removal of invasive species, and addressing water runoff. 

Further conservation and environmental access efforts are offered through the 

university’s on-campus 75-acre arboretum and its 180-acre Pocosin Nature 

Preserve. The arboretum preserves rare and uncommon species, emphasizing 

research on the communities and habitats of the Wiregrass region of the Southeast. 

Additionally, Troy University enjoys ongoing recognition by Tree Campus USA for 

responsible stewardship of forests and trees.
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The university provides the Trojan Shuttle Service, encouraging students, faculty, 

and staff to take advantage of alternative transportation both on and off campus. An 

expanded array of alternative transportation options goes beyond the bus system 

and include an app-based bike and scooter program. This service provides 100 

bicycles and approximately 20 scooters.

Troy removes invasive 

species such as Chinese 

privet and kudzu, and 

plants native trees and 

other drought-resistant 

plants on campus through 

their Tree Campus 

partnership.

To manage the occasional 

visits from beavers and 

other rodents to the bodies 

of water on campus, the 

university uses physical 

controls such as mulching, 

traps, caulking, and regular 

waste management to 

reduce pest populations 

and infiltration. Chemical 

controls are used only 

when needed and are applied selectively to ensure air, soil, and water quality. In a 

partnership with the Troy Animal Rescue Project, the school works to capture and 

rehome stray cats and other pets on campus. Campus water quality reports are 

prepared and shared with the university annually through the City of Troy.

In addition to robust recycling around the campus and residence halls, Troy 

University’s waste management efforts extend to the kitchen. The university 

partners with Campus Kitchens Network, a national nonprofit organization that 

addresses hunger and food waste. Through this partnership, some 26,000 pounds 

of food has been reclaimed and apportioned into more than 15,000 meals. In 2015, 

Troy University became Food Recovery Verified, which is a program of Food 

Recovery Network that recognizes businesses and events for sending their surplus 

food to people, not landfills.

Each spring semester, all Greek organizations participate in the City of Troy’s Keep 

Troy Beautiful Team Up to Clean Up event. Each organization is provided with a 

location, and the members pick up trash and debris in that area. After each football 

The Troy University SPIN program provides healthy, no-emission 

alternative transportation for students on campus and in the 

community.
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game, campus organizations clean the football stadium. The official Troy University 

Christmas tree is a live tree located in front of Claudia Crosby Theatre. The Student 

Government Association decorates the tree with handmade ornaments that are 

recycled and redesigned every year by student organizations.

Troy University’s commitment to the health of its students, faculty, and staff is 

demonstrated through the current construction of an 80,000 square foot fitness and 

wellness center. This facility was created based on the initiative and commitment of 

university students to their own health promotion, and it is scheduled to open in 

2019. Existing expansive wellness offerings for students, faculty, and staff include 

health services and student peer education. Troy has a coordinator for outreach and 

peer educators who work with students and student groups on substance abuse 

education and intervention. Sport and recreation facilities, nature trails, conservation 

areas, and open outdoor spaces further enhance Troy’s commitment to health. The 

School of Social Work collaborates with the National Association of Social Workers 

and the Montgomery Public Schools to encourage the cessation of tobacco usage.

The university not only demonstrates sustainable practices, but actively plans for 

sustaining a green future. In September 2018, Troy University received a $3.2 

million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology that will 

establish the Center for Materials and Manufacturing Sciences. This research will 

focus on polymers and polymers recycling, and will prepare the next generation of 

the workforce for this growing industry.

Students are exposed to sustainability topics and green career pathways in their 

general studies science courses. The university expanded its general studies 

curriculum options in 2014 to include broader class options for students interested in 

environmental studies. Other interdisciplinary academic options include a First-Year 

Learning Community on Public Service and Sustainability for incoming freshmen. In 

this academic cohort, students take classes and engage in immersive activities 

designed to expose them to green career pathways and civic skills. The university 

hosts an Environmental Week every April in conjunction with Earth Day. Programs 

on recycling and waste reduction, conservation, biodiversity, and campus 

sustainability are offered to the student body.

Troy’s College of Education hosts a “Power Up” STEM summer camp at the Pike 

County Boys and Girls Club. Under the direction of professors and teacher 

candidates, students focus on STEM and energy education for children in grades 

two through five. Fourth-graders from all over Pike County schools attend the 

annual Pike County Groundwater Festival, an event hosted by the Department of 

Biological and Environmental Sciences. Troy University is the newest hub in 

Alabama for the BEST Robotics competition, where students compete to design and 
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market robots that often are tasked with solving environmental and sustainability 

problems.

California

Carrisa Plains Elementary School, Santa Margarita, California

A net-positive solar powered rural school

Carrisa Plains Elementary School is situated on a high desert plain bordered by the 

Los Padres National Forest and the San Juan River on the west, the Temblor Range 

and the San Andreas Fault on the east, and the Carrizo Plain National Monument on 

the south. The community is home to two of the world’s largest solar plants, 

covering 13 square miles. BHE Renewables is located adjacent to and surrounding 

the school itself. The school serves one of California’s most rural communities; 

students in prekindergarten through fifth grade are served in three-grade band 

learning environments. Eighty-two percent of students are socioeconomically 

disadvantaged.

The staff at Carrisa Plains is always looking for new and innovative ways to support 

the students; at the same time, they are providing opportunities for their students to 

help the world. Students and staff are learning about the world around them and 

working with and using their environment to promote a change in their education, 

their way of thought, and their way of living. Much of this change at Carrisa Plains is 

carried out with a clear conservation plan and a strong and supportive relationship 

with the Atascadero Unified School District (AUSD), headquartered more than 40 

miles west of the school. 

Energy use at Carrisa Plains is controlled by a programmable energy management 

system, based on an energy conservation plan that follows the practices of AUSD’s 

resource management guide. In 2014, Carrisa Plains underwent modernization. 

Contractors and subcontractors were careful to minimize construction debris; to 

maximize construction recycling; implement appropriate stormwater handling 

measures; use efficient lighting; install heating, ventilation, and air conditioning 

(HVAC) equipment with a high seasonal energy efficiency ratio; increase the 

insulation of the entire building envelope; enhance daylighting; and provide 

increased natural ventilation. New carpet tiles allow for easy replacement of 

individual tiles. Areas that are not carpeted use a sustainable covering called 

Marmoleum. The school also added low-flow toilet valves and sink fixtures. An onsite 30 kilowatt photovoltaic system meets 100 percent of the school’s electricity 

needs. Carrisa Plains is a net positive-energy campus, producing more energy than 

it uses in a year. 
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Carrisa Plains has a partnership with Cuesta College’s sustainability resource 

center, through which the nearby community college provides Carrisa Plains’ 

students with instruction in using hands-on kits from the National Energy Education 

Development Project. Participation in Pacific Gas & Electric’s Savings by Design

and On-Bill Financing programs has also provided a variety of resources and 

incentives to the district and school site to make the school energy-efficient and 

inform students and staff about energy efficiency. 

At the beginning of the 2015–16 school year, Carrisa Plains began to integrate a nowaste ideology that incorporates composting procedures into students’ daily 

education programs. Each trimester, students perform a waste audit by gathering all 

waste material generated over two days. Students and staff then sort and weigh the 

collected waste and discuss the implications of the amount of waste created by the 

site. Student volunteers oversee sorting liquids, compost, recyclable, and landfill 

items into the appropriate collection bins. Carrisa Plains generates a fair amount of 

mulch because of the ample number of trees on the campus. The rounds from trees 

that must be felled are also used for seating in the outdoor classroom. Students 

have 1:1 

Chromebooks 

beginning in 

kindergarten, and 

the use of paper 

at Carrisa Plains 

has decreased by 

50 percent since 

implementation of 

the Chromebook 

program. 

Instructional time 

recently was set 

aside for students 

to create and 

design habitats 

for native animals 

to use as 

hideouts. Once 

the design phase 

is complete, 

students will use recycled resources to build and install animal homes throughout 

the campus. Students in kindergarten through second grade have begun creating 

bird feeders to provide additional sustenance to the local birds. 

Local high school students and staff from local nonprofit One Cool Earth provide 

Carrisa Plains with starters for their garden.
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Safe Routes to School provided Carrisa Plains with grant funds to resurface asphalt, 

allowing for a “bike garden” to be installed and all remaining areas to be reasphalted. 

Carpool signage and two new electric vehicle charging stations were installed. The 

rural school has offered alternatives to traditional walking or biking to school, such 

as Walk and Roll Wednesdays and Walk with Me, which have emphasized 

alternative modes of transportation. The school purchased six bicycles that students 

use daily so that all students can ride a bicycle while at school during the week. 

Since 2016, Carrisa Plains has partnered with the County of San Luis Obispo Health 

Department to host Bike Rodeos, where students participate in bicycle safety 

training and assessment. 

The staff uses various environmentally safe cleaning products. The school has good 

acoustics because of high ceilings, newly remodeled classrooms, wall surfacing 

material, quiet HVAC systems, and a high noise-reduction coefficient. Because the 

well water at Carrisa Plains is not safe for consumption, the site uses Crystal 

Springs Water Company for staff and student drinking water. Water is kept in 

Crystal Springs storage bottles until opened for use. Carrisa Plains reviews the 

EPA’s IAQ (indoor air quality) Problem Solving Tool quarterly, and has used the 

EPA’s IAQ reference guide to gain information about eliminating and preventing 

mold, radon, and asthma. Further, AUSD’s Integrated Pest Management efforts

prevent widespread illnesses from occurring. 

Students work weekly with a nationally recognized social-emotional curriculum. An 

onsite health clerk is available to students throughout the school week, and 

counselors and a psychologist are on hand for them year-round. The California 

Healthy Kids Survey is administered annually to collect data on resilience, protective 

factors, risk behaviors, and school climate. Presenters and motivational speakers 

discuss self-esteem and character education. Carrisa Plains works with the Alliance 

for a Healthier Generation to support nutrition goals and expectations. Carrisa 

Plains also has promoted and supported programs such as Reimagine Recess, and 

resources such as 15 Minutes to Healthier Habits. 

The Carrisa Plains campus has ample space to support gardens. The main garden 

is home to a chicken coop, raised food beds, a greenhouse, two compost bins, and 

an outdoor classroom. Five rain barrels that collect water are used to irrigate the 

garden’s plants, fruits, and vegetables. The garden, though still in use, currently is 

under construction, with students helping to redesign the space and make it a more 

productive area for learning. The new construction includes the addition of more 

fruit-bearing trees and native plants, the expansion of the chicken coop, and the 

addition of covered areas for the outdoor classroom. Staff and students began 

construction of a sensory garden in 2018. This garden provides students with a 

calm place for learning and meditating. Recycled or recyclable materials created the 

foundation for the sensory garden. 
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All Carrisa Plains students use the greenhouse, and manage waste with 

vermicomposting and recycling. They perform waste audits, conserve water, and 

use rain capture barrels while at school. They learn about soil, food webs, garden 

design, animals, ecosystems, recycling, oil spill cleanup, stormwater runoff, insects, 

climate, seeds, and harvesting. Teachers and paraprofessional educators teach 

students the sequential process by which gardens help us survive, thrive, and grow. 

The school recently established monthly garden work days, during which students 

volunteer their time to helping the school garden by raking, shoveling, and cleaning

up. Carrisa Plains plans to implement a requirement for each student in third 

through fifth grade to complete a community service project geared toward 

supporting the Carrisa Plains and California Valley community as well as the 

environment. The school uses the EPA’s Service-Learning: Education Beyond the 

Classroom resource for ideas on civic activities for students in all grades. 

Carrisa Plains has an onsite commercial-grade kitchen that provides students with 

many opportunities to cook from scratch. Students learn the process of cooking and 

baking from start to finish while gaining an understanding of how and where their 

food grows. Students make entrees, salads, and snacks using fresh eggs, fruits, 

and veggies from the garden. In addition to creating meals on campus, a monthly 

student-led farmers’ market provides a forum for students to sell eggs, vegetables, 

fruits, and a variety of other items from the garden.

Eagle Rock Elementary School, Los Angeles, California

An environmental manifesto: Mission to Mars

Eagle Rock Elementary School (ERE) has embraced an innovative integrating 

framework known as the ERE Environmental Manifesto. Its goal is to link nearly all 

subjects and materials to a common theme: Mission to Mars. It is the kids in today’s 

elementary schools who will be the brave explorers of the future and who need to be 

trained today for the adventures of a lifetime tomorrow.

The framework focuses on Earth first, with the belief that it is essential to provide an 

understanding about the interconnectedness of Earth’s water, energy, and life 

support systems, as well as its technological systems. ERE’s framework is built 

around teaching students how to treat their home planet as a sustainable “Earth-ina-box,” considering the planet’s sensitivities, vulnerabilities, strengths, and 

weaknesses, while integrating biology, chemistry, ecology, physics, mathematics, 

and technology. The goal is to carry this knowledge of sustainability into space. 
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Eagle Rock has written environmental literacy requirements that address nine 

subject areas, including Earth’s systems, the environment, and human influence. 

These areas expand students’ knowledge about the earth, and they also engage 

students’ problem solving and critical thinking skills in meeting these requirements. 

The after-school green club extends many of the sustainability concepts learned in 

class to the school green grounds. Activities include monitoring and measuring 

plants and wildlife; sampling soil, water, and air; and maintaining various green 

projects around the school. The after-school garden club, which is sponsored by 

Sprouts Farmers Market, expands the interactions with the garden facilities once per 

week. 

On field trips, students can participate in the Sepulveda Basin Environmental 

Education Program. They observe wildlife with binoculars, test a lake’s water 

quality, and learn about native plants. Students also are given opportunities to go to 

the Catalina Island Marine Institute, where they can increase their science literacy, 

have hands-on experiential science using state of the art labs and equipment, and 

engage in field activities. Other field trips take students to a natural history museum, 

Underwood Family Farms, and the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. 

Several service-learning projects provide opportunities for students to learn 

sustainability principles, including neighborhood clean-ups, community e-waste 

roundups, and clothing and toy donations.

At the foundation of the Earth-in-a-box framework is a massive greening renovation 

that ERE has undertaken over the course of several years. ERE is, and historically 

has been, a Title I school. As such, funding for green projects has not fallen on the 

shoulders of the families. Funds instead have come from idea-inspired competitive 

grants. In addition, ERE has a green team made up of parent volunteers, teachers, 

and students, all of whom show a commitment to maintaining and expanding 

existing greening projects. The green team designs the green footprint of the 

schoolyard for the years to come. The design, development, and maintenance of 

the renovation was done in direct consultation with ecologists, environmental 

economists, and health professionals. This has ensured that the final product serves 

the best interests of the environment, the school, and — above all else — the health 

and well-being of students.

In 2016, ERE was honored as a flagship school in the Los Angeles Unified School 

District in recognition of the school’s sustainable green renovations. The 

renovations removed 23,789 square feet of asphalt, which was replaced with a 

permeable surface made of decomposed granite; native/drought tolerant trees and 

plants; and buffalo grasses, a non-mowing, clumping grass that wears well under 

constant use. Innovative bioswales landscaped with trees and plantings now 

capture excess rainwater and recharge it into the groundwater aquifer. Green space 

was increased by more than 30,000 square feet. Where asphalt remained, ERE 
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painted over dark surfaces with beige reflective paint. Partnering with a professor at 

Occidental College, ERE took surface infrared temperature measurements before 

and after the renovation to quantify the reduction in heat island effect.

A garden program is integrated directly into the curriculum, serving more than 30 

classrooms that attend six-week sessions of twice-weekly edible garden classes. 

ERE also is integrating the garden curriculum into its approach to the California Next 

Generation Science Standards. 

As a result of learning about the garden, even the school’s youngest students are 

familiar with complex scientific concepts like osmosis and the carbon and nitrogen 

cycles. They gain hands-on experience studying everything from the structures of 

plants to the life cycles of butterflies and the importance of bees. Students are 

taught the vital importance of agriculture throughout history in various civilizations. 

Working in the garden program and learning through trial and error gives them a real 

sense of the challenges other cultures have faced in providing food. 

The Eagle Rock Elementary School campus is designed for green spaces, water conservation, temperature 

modulation, and active learning spaces.

With over 50 percent of ERE pupils qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch, the 

garden provides an important introduction to health and nutrition, as well as access 

to fresh fruits and vegetables that otherwise may not be available to all ERE 

students. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels during unstructured recess 

periods have significantly increased. Students play in the green spaces and develop 

gross motor skills balancing on the strategically placed wood structures, logs, and 

stumps throughout the campus yard. Notably, this increase in activity has correlated 

with a decrease in the frequency of antisocial behavior in the school. 
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The school community has made efforts to improve food nutrition by actions such as 

reducing the use of sugar, salt, preservatives, and other processed food items. 

After-school clubs include yoga and dance. Kindness campaigns are held each 

year, which focus on elements of kindness and goodwill as positive messaging in 

lieu of anti-bullying messaging. ERE staff has been trained on Restorative Justice

and has been implementing its principles. Multiple mental health programs are in 

place, which include Kids Hope USA®, a foster youth program, and the Asian Pacific 

Counseling and Treatment Centers, which provides much-appreciated peer 

counseling and mental health support. ERE students participate in a solar 

awareness and sunscreen program run by the University of Southern California.

An integrated pest management program has been established at ERE. The school 

also maintains and cleans its ventilation system once every month. All air filters are 

changed, coils are cleaned, and vents are washed every six months. ERE’s parent 

drop-off zone is facilitated through a “safety valet” program, which allows parents to 

drop off kids safely with designated liaisons who lead students from cars to 

classrooms, eliminating vehicle idling.

Eagle Rock has made further efforts to reduce environmental impact, switching out 

bulbs to LED and toilets to low flow. ERE reduced gas use by 29 percent between 

2010 and 2018, and reduced electricity use by 4 percent from 2012 to 2018. ERE is 

moving toward installing a solar energy system that will fully meet the school’s 

needs. Currently, solar energy operates ERE’s irrigation systems. ERE also plans 

to acquire solar panels for teaching as part of its Environmental Manifesto. More 

than one-third of the school’s energy is obtained from purchased renewable energy 

across a portfolio of sources, including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and small 

hydroelectric power. With the support of the school district, ERE participates in the 

U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge. ERE’s indoor and outdoor 

water use is metered together, and there has been a 13 percent reduction in ERE’s 

water consumption from the baseline year of 2010 to 2017.

According to an ERE survey, 41 percent of students reported carpooling with two or 

more students in the car to and from school. Thirty-one percent reported walking. 

Seven percent of respondents used other public transportation, and 5 percent of 

respondents reported rolling to school. At ERE, carpool parking signs and electric 

vehicle charging stations have been installed, and a well-publicized no-idling policy 

has been implemented. The school celebrates an annual walk-to-school day, and 

has implemented a walking school bus program, in which adults accompany groups 

of students as they walk to school along a given route.

Eagle Rock reports a 38 percent recycling rate, with 60 percent of solid waste being 

diverted from landfill or incineration due to recycling. In ERE’s compost system, 100 

percent of landscape waste is recycled on-site. Tree wells are designed to retain 
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dead plant material. Composting is done twice a week for educational purposes, 

with a bin provided through EnrichLA, a community wellness nonprofit organization 

that, among other things, builds edible gardens in local schools.

Quail Lake Environmental Charter School, Clovis, California

New methods “spork” learning and innovation 

Quail Lake Environmental Charter School (QLECS) operates under a schoolwide 

initiative that includes the sciences in an integrated curriculum, fostering a true 

understanding and connection to the sustainability of Earth’s resources. QLECS 

seeks to teach core subject areas through integrated, hands-on curriculum and realworld experiences that make critical connections to sustainability.

In 2014, the Sanger Unified School District, of which QLECS is a part, supported the 

school’s focus in environmental sciences by establishing an instructional support 

provider dedicated to science at the school. Since then, this faculty member has 

spearheaded the effort to integrate science into all content areas, with a focus on 

sustainability and the environment. QLECS’ integrated units start with California 

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS); they encompass higher-order 

questioning with response justification, grade-level progress monitoring, 

differentiation in the classroom, technology to enhance lessons, and integration of 

curriculum to create relevant learning. 

In seventh grade, students study and develop new ways to conserve water. They 

research from citizen, legislator, and farmer points of view and create solutions to 

community problems. Third-grade students work with the California Department of 

Fish and Wildlife to learn about environmentalism and life cycles by raising salmon 

to be released into the San Joaquin River and caterpillars/butterflies to be released 

into the school’s garden. QLECS environmental education field trips include visits to 

a pumpkin patch, zoo education center, nature center, an outdoor education center, 

Sequoia National Park, Sequoia Lake, a water treatment facility, and a three-day trip 

to Sierra Outdoor School.

All middle school students participate in an online system called Naviance. The 

program offers students an opportunity to learn about careers with which they may 

be unfamiliar. One of QLECS’s goals through Naviance is to spend time discussing 

environmental career pathways. Middle school students at QLECS are also 

exposed to green career pathways through electives, such as agricultural business, 

the Project Lead the Way design and modeling course, and the Project Lead the 

Way Energy and the Environment class.
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School grounds include 4,000 square feet of garden space featuring an outdoor 

classroom environment, a 2,000-square-foot butterfly garden, and planter beds in 

the front of the school that provide students with opportunities to study fruit 

production and plant management. The garden includes a 17 x 35-foot greenhouse 

to which all students have access and can use in various ways. Students in 

kindergarten through fifth grade visit the garden every two weeks for garden lessons 

led by their teacher and the school’s science instructional support provider. Lessons 

not only focus on gardening skills, but also tie into the California NGSS and 

California Common Core State Standards that are being taught in the classroom. 

After harvesting produce in the 

garden, students are encouraged to try 

it. Recipes and produce are sent 

home with students. 

During the garden/agriculture elective, 

middle-school students research 

plants and learn design methods for 

the new raised beds in front of 

QLECS. They use iScape on their 

iPads to assist them in this process. 

Students then present their ideas —

along with a cost analysis, scaled 

drawing, and explanation of choices —

and export pictures from iScape to the 

class and administration to see whose 

plan is chosen. Finally, students plant 

the beds with the winning designs. 

This one project covers all subject 

areas and allows participating students 

to enhance the campus’ outdoor 

space.

In the summer of 2016, QLECS 

installed a 137-kilowatt photovoltaic 

system to offset 62 percent of the 

site’s annual energy usage, resulting in approximately $25,000 in annual savings. 

The school’s remaining electrical needs are met by the local utility, Pacific Gas & 

Electric, which has a 27 percent renewable portfolio minimum. The school installed 

an energy management system in all permanent buildings, as well as energyefficient lighting.

The school partnered with Tree Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley to enhance school 

grounds by planting 34 trees, which decreased water usage by replacing 

A Quail Lake first grader collects data in the garden, 

using a ruler to measure plant growth.
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conventional irrigation with drip rings. Quail Lake has separate meters for indoor 

and outdoor water use. The school achieved a 33 percent reduction in indoor water 

consumption and a 54 percent reduction in outdoor water use over approximately 10 

years.

Over the last five years, QLECS has aimed to go paperless in as many areas as 

possible. School newsletters and flyers are sent out electronically. Students in first 

through eighth grades use 1:1 iPads. QLECS has taken steps to make hard copy 

items such as lunch menus and district flyers paperless, as well. In 2017, two waterbottle filling stations were added to the QLECS campus. All staffers were given 

custom refillable bottles with their names on them to use.

Quail Lake recycles 60 cubic yards per month and composts 10 cubic yards per 

month, achieving a waste-diversion rate of 78 percent. The school has composted 

all lunchtime food waste since 2016. A multiple-bin system in the cafeteria, 

overseen by the green team, allows students to sort their liquids, recycling, trash, 

and food waste. Last year, QLECS switched to using compostable trays and 

purchased a shredder in order to use the trays in on-site compost. In 2018, the 

QLECS cafeteria eliminated spork packets, replacing them with spork and napkin 

dispensers. The old spork packets consisted of a plastic spork, a straw, and a small 

napkin wrapped in a thin plastic bag. Most of this packet was going directly to the 

landfill or being pulled from the compost by the green team. Now, students take a 

spork or napkin from the dispensers, as needed. Straws are no longer used on 

campus.

The school decreased the amount of harmful chemicals on campus through 

integrated pest management practices and organic farming methods. QLECS 

ensures that 70 percent of the cleaning products used are third-party-certified as 

green products. QLECS switched to using microfiber cloths as an alternative to 

chemicals to clean surfaces in classrooms. Microfiber cloths are provided to each 

teacher to use as necessary, instead of turning to disinfecting wipes, and are picked 

up weekly for laundering.

Quail Lake seeks to implement practices that promote health and wellness 

throughout all campus features and programs. The physical education department 

offers Nutrition Wednesday, when students learn about healthy eating habits, calorie 

intake and expenditure, and physical exercise techniques. When planning 

classroom parties and staff celebrations, QLECS encourages healthy snacks and 

birthday potlucks. During the afternoon programs LEAP and Campus Club, students 

are given additional opportunities for physical play.

For the mental well-being of QLECS students, a Positive Behavioral Interventions 

and Supports system is in place that is deeply embedded in the school culture. The 
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school also incorporates the Second Step curriculum in classrooms to help students 

how to understand and manage their emotions, control their reactions, be aware of 

others’ feelings, and have the skills to problem-solve and make responsible 

decisions. QLECS has an onsite school psychologist, counselor, speech therapist, 

and resource specialist program teacher to work with all students.

St. James Academy, Solana Beach, California

A holistic and spiritual approach to education and caring for community and nature

St. James Academy strives to prepare students to live and work in the world as 

responsible citizens. In the words of Pope Francis, “We are faced not with two 

separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex 

crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an 

integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at 

the same time protecting nature.” At St. James, students are taught daily in the 

classroom, in church, and through hands-on indoor and outdoor activities that they 

have a spiritual and moral responsibility to care for their community and world.

St. James is fully committed to clean, efficient energy. In 2016, LED lights were 

installed throughout the campus, replacing all overhead fluorescent lighting. In 

2017, rooftop solar was added. In their first year of use, the solar panels provided 

98 percent of the school’s on-site electricity. In addition, St. James has opted to 

purchase excess electricity from the Solana Energy Alliance under a 50 percent 

renewable and 75 percent greenhouse gas-free plan. Heating, air conditioning, and 

lighting are turned off during periods of non-use, and the school has a white, 

reflective roof. Based on St. James’ clean energy commitment, Electrify 

America/Greenlots recently selected St. James for the installation of five dual 240-

volt electric vehicle charging stations (one of which is accessible) at no cost (a 

$75,000 value).

Landscaped green spaces are drought-tolerant, and the grounds include a 1,500-

square-foot edible organic garden, a 3,400-square-foot green schoolyard and

outdoor classroom, and an 1,800-square-foot tree-shaded patio. The only grass 

maintained on campus is on the athletic field used for physical education and sports. 

Water-conservation practices include timed irrigation, mulching for landscaping, and 

a drip-irrigation system for the school garden. Two outdoor filtered water-bottle 

filling stations ensure that clean, cool drinking water is available to encourage 

hydration.

St. James students, staff, and parents follow a formal sustainable practices policy. 

The policy encourages the community to refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle 

disposable plastics and Styrofoam. Reusable or biodegradable plates, cutlery, and 
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cups are used in the teachers’ lounge and at school events, including back-toschool night and open houses. The school eliminated all single-use plastic water 

bottles in 2016; all students and teachers use reusable water bottles and are 

encouraged to use reusable lunch bags and containers. St. James students live 

throughout San Diego county. More than half of students carpool to school, and 

approximately 6 percent walk, bike, or skateboard.

The St. James campus is cleaned by an eco-friendly cleaning service, JAN-PRO, 

which uses microfiber cleaning cloths, bleach-free and chemical-free cleaning 

products, and HEPA-filtered vacuums. The campus has properly maintained 

ventilation and 

natural lighting 

throughout and is 

free of allergens 

and toxins such as 

lead, mercury, and 

radon. Every 

homeroom 

classroom opens to 

an outdoor 

environment with 

fresh ocean air and 

breezes.

Local family-owned 

Ki’s Restaurant 

supplies highquality fresh and 

nutritious foods to 

the St. James student lunch program. Their menu offers gluten-free options, and all 

offerings are free of pesticides, fillers, preservatives, and trans-fatty acids. 

Additionally, St. James has a wellness policy indicating that campus celebrations 

must feature healthy foods instead of sugary treats or drinks. Students study health 

and nutrition as part of the physical education and sustainability curriculum.

All students, preschool through eighth grade, are required to participate in physical 

education, nearly 100 percent of which occurs outside. Sunscreen and hats are 

always advised. Every day, all students and teachers take two to three five-minute 

breaks that incorporate movement. They use GoNoodle and other tools within the 

classroom such as Indo Boards, which develop coordination, balance, core strength, 

and mobility. As a part of the school surf team, students learn the skills to surf and 

bodyboard while understanding the conditions of the ocean for their safety and the 

Third-grade students at St. James Academy explore succulents in the 

native plant garden.
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well-being of others. Surf team members also learn to respect, protect, and care for 

the ocean.

In 2016, St James received a grant from Feed the Future to rebuild and enhance its 

organic edible garden, now known as the peace garden. Together with school 

volunteers, the garden was redesigned, planters and soil were replaced, drip 

irrigation was installed, and the garden was made accessible. Students plant 

seasonal vegetables and herbs, including broccoli, radishes, kale, lettuce, onions, 

tomatoes, basil, and rosemary, and they care for two citrus trees. Students make 

soups, salads, smoothies, and lemonade with their organic harvest. St. James 

students are becoming healthy in every aspect of their lives — physically, mentally, 

emotionally, spiritually, and relationally.

A part of the core ideals at St. James is that every person on the planet has a role 

and has an influence. St. James’ inclusion program recognizes all forms of learning 

and fosters growth for every student. Children with special needs are welcome to 

enroll at St. James, and their learning skills are integrated into their grade. The 

school’s peer mentoring program gives junior high students an opportunity to 

support the education of younger students in a warm and supportive environment. 

The school’s culture of inclusivity was fostered by the eighth-grade class of 2016, 

which gifted the school with a Buddy Bench where a child can sit if they need 

playmates, leading to the formation of many new friendships.

St. James’ holistic and spiritual approach to environmental and sustainability 

education cuts across all STEAM disciplines, as well as social studies, religion, and 

community service. Students study Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on climate and 

justice, Laudato si’: On Care for Our Common Home, in which the pope urged all 

people of faith to care for the Earth and the poor.

Outdoor education at St. James is supported by a dedicated sustainability teacher 

and University of California master gardener. Junior high students have planted a 

Native American garden featuring plants used by the local indigenous Kumeyaay 

nation. Native American garden activities are integrated into third- and fourth-grade 

social studies. Students learn about the native uses and conservation of 

endangered Torrey pine trees located on the adjacent church campus. Nonnative 

ornamental plants are being removed and replaced with native, drought-tolerant 

pollinator plants to attract local bees and birds.

Second-grade students take an outdoor day trip to the San Diego Zoo annually to 

study animal life cycles. Fifth-graders attend an overnight trip on the Star of India, 

the world's oldest active sailing ship, to study ocean ecology, the night sky, mariner 

navigation, and all aspects of crewing a large ship. Sixth-graders spend three days 

at AstroCamp, an outdoor science school focused on exploring the universe through 
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hands-on experimental science, astronomy labs, physical science labs, and field 

science. Students in grades seven and eight attend a three-day retreat that includes 

sunrise hikes and outdoor games, and where spirituality and healthy relationships 

are explored.

In the 2017–18 school year, junior high and alumni students engineered and built a 

butterfly house to protect and conserve threatened monarch caterpillars so that they 

may grow into butterflies. Ample milkweed, the only food source for monarch 

caterpillars, is maintained in the pollinator garden. The fifth grade annually works 

with San Diego Coastkeepers to clean debris from local beaches, and they keep 

statistics on what they find.

In 2017, the entire school participated in an outdoor performing arts production of 

the environmental fable The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, and they adopted a line from the 

play as the school sustainability theme: “Unless someone like you cares a whole 

awful lot, nothing is going to get better.” All costumes were made from recycled or 

borrowed materials. Following this production, St. James students have continued 

to perform excerpts from The Lorax outside of school, including at a community 

holiday parade, for the San Diego Roman Catholic Diocese and bishop, at other 

churches, and at the 2018 Rise for Climate March. St. James’ outreach efforts 

continue to inspire their community and others toward a more sustainable future.

Rialto Unified School District, Rialto, California

Environmental issues inspire students to think globally and act locally

Rialto Unified School District (RUSD) is a diverse district in Southern California’s 

Inland Empire, serving more than 25,000 students in 29 schools. Environmental 

education and use of green technologies are the foundations upon which RUSD 

educates students, makes decisions regarding student and staff health, and 

develops innovative partnerships and practices that support environmental and 

sustainability literacy.

In order to teach students to be responsible citizens of a global society, RUSD 

provides educational experiences that develop environmental literacy for all students 

in prekindergarten through 12th grade, which include outdoor learning, the California 

Environmental Principles and Concepts, innovative environmentally-focused course 

offerings, and community-based environmental stewardship projects.

Rialto’s science education is the catalyst for environmental education, using local

and community projects to tap into students’ curiosity and thirst for knowledge, as 
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well as project-based learning about local environmental issues. To fill the gap 

between the adoption of the California Next Generation Science Standards and the 

aligned instructional materials, RUSD middle and high school teachers worked hard 

and developed their own open-source free textbooks from vetted online resources. 

Provisions were made at each school for students who did not have access through 

a device at home. 

The district’s STEM CARES (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics 

Cultivating Active Responsible Environmental Stewards) program uses locally 

relevant environmental issues to inspire students to think globally and act locally to 

improve their community and their world. RUSD was one of the first districts in 

California to develop and earn University of California science laboratory course 

approval for robust integrated science sequences of courses based on 

environmental sciences that promote students making green college and career 

choices.

A new career and technical education (CTE) green construction pathway is under 

development. The integrated water science courses are linked to a career pathway 

in water distribution or treatment, and serve as a context for learning about green 

technologies, environmental issues, and sustainability; they are approved as both a 

CTE pathway and as stand-alone science courses. The citizen-science course 

sequence consists of environmental science and exploring marine environments. It 

is linked to the engineering pathway, and will be linked to the green technology 

pathway that currently is under development.

Nine elementary schools participated in the Orange County outdoor education 

program; the program included an overnight field trip to examine marine 

environments, fossils, stars, and planets, as well as various edible plants. All 

elementary school and secondary school science teachers receive between three 

and five environmentally focused professional learning sessions each year. 

Teachers participating in Elementary Einstein Fellows workshops are developing 

environmental science-themed integrated curricula using project-based learning. 

Rialto has a fundamental belief in maximizing the efficient use of resources, 

including human ones. The district has been especially successful in leveraging the 

expertise of classified staff to work directly with students and teachers; this has 

increased engagement in the classroom and in outdoor learning environments on 

school grounds. RUSD’s grounds supervisor works directly with the district science 

lead to develop lessons for the recently installed outdoor gardens, which were 

funded by a California Proposition 84 grant. The nutrition services division has 

partnered with the science lead and local farmers to bring locally grown fruits and 

vegetables to an elementary and a middle school in a pilot program. The farmers 

have talked to classes about the environment that supports these crops, as well as 
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the nutritional value of these foods. The district energy manager has worked with 

science and CTE classes on energy audits.

From February 2014 to October 2018, RUSD realized a 23 percent reduction in 

electrical energy usage and a 12.5 percent reduction for water and sewer usage. 

RUSD contracts with Cenergistic, and it funds a full-time energy manager. The 

district tracks energy usage using Energy Cap software. In its latest EPA ENERGY 

STAR report (March 2016), 96 percent of RUSD schools documented an ENERGY 

STAR score of 70 and above, with a mean score of 91 and a median score of 94. In 

2015, the board approved the installation of solar panels at all school sites by 

SunEdison (now Onyx Solar). The completed project has a total capacity of 7,800 

kilowatts, which meets 80 percent of district needs. For the 20 percent of energy 

purchased, renewable 

energy comprises 25 to 

28 percent of the 

companies’ portfolios. 

Other recent projects 

have replaced inefficient 

transformers, installed 

motion sensors and lowflow fixtures, and added 

cool roofs, LED lighting, 

and skylights.

The landscaping at most 

elementary, middle, and 

high schools, as well as 

at the district office and 

the district professional 

development center, has 

been replaced with 

drought-tolerant plants 

and xeriscaping (a style of landscaping used in arid regions that requires little or no 

irrigation or other maintenance) to reduce water consumption. School sites have 

installed water-restrictive faucets and replaced toilets with low-flow models. Water 

expenses have been reduced by 24 percent. Veolia, one of the district’s water 

companies, is a partner that provides many water-focused, classroom-based student 

learning opportunities. There are gardens at 19 elementary, five middle, and two 

high schools, and 16 elementary schools have citrus groves. Both the gardens and 

groves are used as outdoor learning spaces. 

The common labs at each grade in elementary and middle school provide outdoor 

science instruction. Students spend approximately three hours per week on average 

Rialto Unified School District fifth-graders plan their garden and test 

soil quality.
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in the school gardens learning about topics including life cycles, growing food, and 

ecosystems. While a few elementary schools have chosen to brand themselves as 

“STEM with a focus on environmental education” campuses, all schools are, in fact, 

involved in using their gardens as outdoor learning laboratories. The district’s 

culinary program is highly successful, with state-of-the-art facilities; the culinary 

teacher has developed a kitchen garden as a learning space. 

At the elementary level, students learn how to support the environment and how the 

environment supports them. Most of their projects involve gardens, but they also 

focus on the human effect on the environment. At the middle school level, students 

explore alternative energy, conduct food waste audits, and lead recycling efforts. At 

the high school level, students examine environmental issues related to production 

and consumption of goods and ways to reduce the effects of humans on the 

environment. Students also have designed California native gardens, solar boats, 

and desalination units. Parent Garden Champions is a new program in which 

parents receive training from the district science lead and the grounds and 

maintenance supervisor to support the maintenance of their local school gardens. 

Every school was provided with the basic materials and tools to maintain its garden. 

Waste disposal and recycling is tracked with the assistance of staff, billing 

companies, and students. Each classroom at each school has at least one recycling 

bin; schools participating in composting programs have special food bins. 

Elementary, middle, and high schools compete against each other quarterly to 

determine which campus can recycle the most. Once every quarter, maintenance 

personnel at each school collect the recyclables from the school and weigh them. 

The nutrition services department reward the elementary, middle, and high school 

with the highest recycling rate with a barbeque picnic. Waste disposal and recycling 

also is tracked through monthly billing from Burrtec Waste Industries, Inc. The bills 

break down costs into the amounts of waste disposal and recycling by site. 

Additionally, high school science students from environmental science and 

Advanced Placement (AP) biology classes collect data during waste audits to 

determine how RUSD is reducing its carbon footprint by using data from the schools 

that are composting. Burrtec works with RUSD to teach students about waste 

reduction. 

Rialto’s integrated pest management practices, designed to eliminate or reduce the 

use of pesticides and chemicals, focus on preventive measures, mechanical 

devices, and glue boards. When pesticides are used, as a last resort, about 75 

percent are safer products. RUSD purchases and uses green cleaning products and 

high-efficiency cleaning equipment to reduce chemicals and asthma irritants. All 

classrooms are air-conditioned, and humidity control is monitored by the HVAC 

system. Except for a few classrooms, all indoor learning environments in the district 

have views of trees and nature.
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The district and the City of Rialto have implemented a citywide Safe Routes to 

School program. The program includes pedestrian and bicycle education such as 

those offered in Safe Moves student bike/pedestrian workshop/assemblies, and Bike 

Rodeos, an interactive program to teach children the skills and precautions to ride a 

bicycle safely, which is conducted at school playgrounds. The district has conducted 

a safe route analysis at every school site made adjustments to improve ingress and 

egress. The city and the district work jointly on the walking school bus program. 

Twenty-nine percent of students report walking and 10 percent report rolling to 

school, with another 35 percent carpooling and 15 percent taking the school bus.

The district supports the mental health and positive behavior of students through the 

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program, for which there is a 

full-time, district-level coordinator. There is also a counselor on special assignment 

on staff who provides restorative practices coaching, PBIS training, and training on 

the effective use of restorative circles. Each of the three comprehensive high 

schools is home to a wellness center; two include meditation gardens. 

Each year the city organizes an Earth to Table event and a community conservation 

fair. During these events, many of the district’s schools participate in a walking tour; 

help put together food boxes for those in need; learn about pedestrian safety, water 

conservation, pollution prevention; and learn how to make healthy choices about 

food and exercise. RUSD partners with CEMEX to organize an annual community 

five-kilometer run at the local surface quarry, the proceeds from which are donated 

to the district’s STEM program.

Connecticut

Weston High School, Weston, Connecticut

Sustainable action from innovative thinkers, creative problem solvers, and inspired 

learners

Weston High School (WHS) is a suburban high school serving 840 students in the 

town of Weston, in grades nine through 12. Sixty-three percent of WHS students 

participate in AP coursework, with a 94 percent passing rate on their testing. WHS’ 

mission is to provide a safe and intellectually challenging environment that 

empowers students to become innovative thinkers, creative problem solvers, and 

inspired learners prepared to contribute to the global society. WHS has embraced 

programs, policies, and initiatives that create a safe and healthy environment for 

their students while also creating a curriculum and culture that trains students to 

improve both their local and global community. In doing so, Weston High has 

become a model for local school systems in terms of sustainable action.
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Weston’s commitment to sustainability is visible in every hallway and every 

classroom. Weston has made the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development 

Goals part of the curriculum objectives, and they are displayed on posters in each 

classroom and throughout the hallways. This serves as a daily reminder to students 

that they are part of a larger global community, and that the purpose of their 

education is in part to contribute to the achievement of these goals. As a further 

illustration of this commitment to sustainability, the hallways of several school wings 

are decorated with murals that promote sustainable initiatives.

While sustainability goals are incorporated into all disciplines, they are a focus of the 

science and social studies curriculum. In science, standard and AP environmental 

science courses are offered, with approximately 50 percent of all students in the 

school taking one or the other before graduation. Further, courses in advanced 

science research and Project Lead the Way (an engineering and STEM- focused 

course) are offered to teach students the necessary skills to tackle real-world, 21stcentury problems. 

Other classes that include environmental concepts are AP U.S. History, which 

includes reading and assignments on environmental preservation in the progressive 

era, and Introduction to Economics, which emphasizes sustainable practices and 

economic effects. The AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics courses also 

emphasize sustainability and green practices by serving as positive externalities in a 

market.

All these courses encourage students to step beyond the classroom in order to 

experience these sustainability challenges firsthand in both the local and global 

community. For example, students in the environmental courses are given 

numerous opportunities to work directly with local organizations and government 

officials. Students have done everything from physical volunteer work to attending 

presentations and town meetings. Groups with which they have worked include: the 

Weston Sustainability Committee, the Weston First Selectman, the Lachat Town 

Farm, the Nature Conservancy and Devil’s Den Nature Preserve, Earthplace Nature 

Center, Wakeman Town Farm, and Trout Unlimited.

Weston has embraced a relationship with a local service organization, Builders 

Beyond Borders, in which students do local community service and travel to Latin 

America during school vacation to do construction projects in underprivileged 

communities. 
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In addition to its commitment to educating students about sustainability, Weston 

High also is committed to teaching them about the environment. This is evident in 

the high priority placed on the health and well-being of students, as well as in the 

creation, structure, and operations of Weston High. When the school added a new 

science wing in the past decade, officials built to LEED Silver certification standards. 

Weston High has retrofitted lighting 

with LEDs, and added motion 

sensors for classroom and hallway 

lighting. 

The school actively recycles plastic, 

purchases green cleaning products, 

uses the EPA’s IAQ Tools for 

Schools Action Kit, and has made 

efficiencies in its bus transportation 

system to reduce carbon dioxide 

emissions. Teachers’ paper copies 

are tracked and enumerated 

through Papercut software, 

encouraging them to reduce usage. 

Weston High is fortunate to be in an 

area surrounded by rich forest and 

wetland ecosystems. Classes are 

conducted outdoors regularly to 

take advantage of these areas. The 

building features numerous outdoor 

courtyards, which bring natural light

to classrooms and a connection to 

nature. 

Water-bottle filling stations are 

located throughout the school to 

reduce plastic bottle consumption. 

Weston has a packaged sewage treatment system, which can perform as well as 

Mother Nature in transforming sewage waste into clean, harmless substances, 

mostly water and nitrogen gas. This treatment system creates an environment that 

facilitates the growth of bacteria that break down sewage into nonpolluting end 

products. This water, once treated, is discharged directly back into the ground. The 

district is on a well water system, and maintenance is controlled by the town 

administrator. Water is tested annually.

Weston prides itself in offering all types of meals, including vegetarian and vegan 

options. Students always have access to the salad and fruit bar, among other vegan 

A Weston High School AP Environmental Science 

student experiments with a trout habitat as part of Trout

in the Classroom participation.
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and vegetarian snacks and drinks. The cafeteria also highlights multicultural meals 

from around the globe, with Asian, Latin, and Mediterranean cuisines often featured. 

WHS has its own vegetable garden. Various classes and clubs maintain this 

garden. The environmental science courses (AP and standard), biology courses 

(AP, honors, and standard), and the special education department often do research 

and studies, and they work in the garden. Clubs have an equal, if not greater, 

importance in maintaining the garden. Various clubs plant, harvest, and cook with 

the vegetables in the garden. The garden further is used to supply the cafeteria. 

WHS purchases local foods, as well. 

The school surpasses expectations in physical education by having implemented 

Project Adventure, a program based on team building that establishes challenging 

yet achievable goals. The program requires applying critical thinking, learning, and 

teamwork to improve peer relationships and self-esteem. The Weston Student 

Government also holds events throughout the year that provide students with the 

opportunity to get outside. For example, “Food, Friends, and Funk” is an event that 

takes advantage of the benefits of being outdoors.

With the recent formation of the Weston High School green team, which is a 

collaboration of all sustainability-minded clubs, classes, and groups in WHS, the 

school is enacting a host of new initiatives in and around the school. These include 

collection and recycling of textiles, e-waste, and ink cartridges and batteries. The 

green team has started implementing composting in the cafeteria, installing electric 

vehicle chargers on campus, creating nature trails in the surrounding forests, and

incorporating bee hives and pollinator gardens around campus. WHS also is 

working to build stronger collaborative relationships with the surrounding community 

so that sustainable efforts extend beyond the campus. 

Delaware

The Jefferson School, Georgetown, Delaware

Tiny by design, mighty by nature

The Jefferson School (Jefferson) started in 1992 as a nonprofit, private, independent 

day school, providing integrated, hands-on learning experiences for children ages 3 

through 14. Tiny by design (the current enrollment is 102 students, and the 

maximum possible is 120), Jefferson’s philosophy is that children are naturally 

curious, learn best by doing, and seek to understand interconnections.

Jefferson provides enough information to kindle children’s curiosity and then the 

tools to help them forge their own paths of discovery and learning. Jefferson aims to 

integrate subjects just as they are in the real world and have children outside every 
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day. The school features active, engaged learning via multi-sensory, hands-on 

experiences in a curriculum interwoven with its 43-acre campus.

Adjoining the Redden State Forest, Jefferson boasts two ponds, trails with fitness 

stations, an outdoor classroom, a Nature Explore classroom, pollinator gardens, 

vegetable gardens, a greenhouse, goats, chickens, and beehives. In addition, there 

are numerous native trees, bush, and wildflower plantings, as well as purple martin 

nest houses. 

Jefferson recycles every material the state of Delaware accepts. There also are 

compost containers in each classroom. Each week, third- and fourth-graders weigh 

each classroom’s recycling and composting amounts. The school uses no lawn 

pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or fertilizers.

Since 2010, Jefferson 

has cultivated alliances 

with regional partners 

to build a naturecentered, active 

curriculum. Partners 

include the Delaware 

Nature Society, the 

University of Delaware 

College of Marine 

Studies, the Lewes 

Historical Society, 

Delaware Tech, 

Delaware Department 

of Natural Resources 

and Environmental 

Control solar car and 

bridge challenges, the 

Delaware Bee Keepers 

Association, Delaware 

Wetlands, Nanticoke 

Watershed Alliance, Stash Your Trash, Delaware Inland Bays, Oceana, Delaware 

Native Plants, Parkside High School Horticulture Department, Echo Hill Outdoor 

School, iNaturalist, and the National Phenology Network.

Jefferson hired an environmental science coordinator in the spring of 2017, and a 

summer outdoor program coordinator in the fall of 2018, to work together to enhance 

both year-round programs and outdoor maintenance.

As part of their environmental education, students The Jefferson School 

test local water quality.
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The environmental science coordinator meets with all grades weekly; student and 

teacher participation in environmental topics is built into the schedule. In addition, 

the environmental science coordinator has regular contact with the school head, 

maintenance staff, and parents.

Jefferson has addressed four Eco-Schools pathways (energy, wildlife habitat, 

biodiversity and healthy living), involving students each step of the way. The school 

conducted the Eco-Schools energy audit and subsequent energy-saving campaign; 

measured the square footage of impermeable surfaces; planted trees and pollinator 

gardens to reduce lawn area; estimated biodiversity around campus; evaluated tree 

size and forest quality; and started weighing recycling and composting. Students 

have investigated virtual water use, ecological footprints, and the life cycle of their 

personal possessions. The school switched overhead fluorescents to LED lighting; 

installed water-bottle filling stations; and recently mounted a solar voltaic field. 

These changes complement the school’s geothermal heating system to reduce its 

environmental impact.

The school has an active physical education and health program, daily recess (with 

nature trail walks for interested students), and frequent classes outside at all levels 

of instruction. Most environmental science classes go outside once or twice a week. 

All levels take numerous outdoor-oriented field trips. Fifth- through eighth-grade 

students also attend the Echo Hill Outdoor School in the fall.

Health classes focus on nutrition and healthy eating habits. Once a month, parents 

bring in healthy snacks for “Eating the Rainbow” events featuring fruits and 

vegetables in many colors. Environmental science and health classes collaborate to 

have students investigate the environmental impact of different diets and the 

distance food travels to arrive at our tables. Middle school students frequently 

provide healthy, handmade (and often solar-cooked) snacks for the school. For the 

healthy living pathway, Jefferson evaluated weekly time spent outdoors at each 

grade level.

In addition to in-school activities, Jefferson sponsors fall and spring on-campus 

family camping nights, a star night with local astronomers, and a spring fivekilometer walk/run for the community. The school has a “Road Kill Café” area 

(featuring decomposing deer, fox, raccoons and other finds) that students visit 

frequently. Game camera photos of scavengers are regularly featured in morning 

meetings.

Students participate in a yearly “Stash Your Trash” sculpture contest, a gardening 

contest at Salisbury’s Parkside High School, and Delaware Department of Natural 

Resources and Environmental Control’s solar car and bridge contests. Jefferson 

offers fall and spring campouts, a pre-holiday campfire, a winter hike, and a five-
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kilometer run. Students have planted more than 100 trees and bushes and over 350 

wildflowers in the last school year. Students care for school chickens and goats. 

Middle schoolers build rowboats. Jefferson has hosted speakers on topics including 

wild edibles, litter reduction, and watershed health. Jefferson participates in 

iNaturalist and the Delaware Schoolyard Biodiversity Project, and posts phenology 

observations on Nature’s Notebook for the National Phenology Network (including 

cloned lilac observations and the Journey North tulip gardens project).

Caesar Rodney School District, Wyoming, Delaware

Cultivating stewards of the Chesapeake 

Several years ago, Caesar Rodney High School (CRHS) formed Caesar Rodney 

School District (CRSD)’s first student-led environmental organization, Earth Club. In 

2017, Earth Club was rebranded as the EcoTeam. Today, a districtwide green team 

includes building administrators and department heads, and each of the district’s 12 

schools has its own student-led EcoTeam.

In 2016, CRSD completed an energy audit of 10 school buildings, the district office, 

and the maintenance building. This data is being used as a baseline to create a 

comprehensive energy management plan for the district, as well as individualized 

action plans developed by students at each school. Two new schools are expected 

to receive LEED Silver certification and be recognized as 21st-Century Education 

Schools, a design framework that pays special attention to physical, socialemotional, and academic environments. Both elementary and middle school 

“neighborhoods” are watershed themed. As students travel through the building, 

they are immersed in their local estuary, starting with a vestibule housing a giant 

floor map of the St. Jones River and Chesapeake Bay watershed, and including 

glass partitions etched with topographic mapping, such as natural shapes, textures, 

and color palette. 

Alternative energy sources within the district include geothermal energy, which is 

currently used to run four CRSD schools; a solar array, which is installed in the high 

school outdoor classroom; and a wind turbine at the two schools located on Dover 

Air Force Base. All 12 schools organize sustainability data using Eco-Schools’

dashboard and the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. 

Four CRSD schools have installed substantial rain gardens, which process runoff 

before entering storm drains. With the continued partnership of the U.S Fish and 

Wildlife Service, CRSD has removed mowed turf and replaced it with native and 

drought-resistant vegetation and permeable substrates for pathways and weed 
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suppression. The early childhood center faculty planned and installed a native 

arboretum, in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and Project Learning Tree.

Schools in the district are adding share tables and composting garden and cafeteria 

scraps. Grants support the installation of water-bottle filling stations (which are 

popular at CRHS), the successful reusable bags project at Frear Elementary, and 

the “No Straws Please” campaign at Nellie H. Stokes Elementary School, all of 

which reduce single-use plastics and promote proper hydration. The district’s 

network of EcoTeams, in partnership with the Delaware Department of Natural 

Resources and Environmental Control, the Delaware Solid Waste Authority, and 

Revolution Recovery, has begun a campaign to communicate how to “recycle right.” 

CRSD piloted its own student recycling training kit in its gifted education and 

enrichment program. Building custodians and students with special needs from the 

Charlton School are essential team members at each school as they help transport 

recyclables. These endeavors provide Charlton School students with practical 

vocational and critical life skills, while also providing inclusive time with the student 

population.

The district partners with 

community organizations 

like the Delaware Solid 

Waste Authority and 

Delaware Department of 

Natural Resources and 

Environmental Control 

(DNREC), which provide 

educational experiences 

and resources to help the 

district better understand 

and manage the solid 

waste stream. The U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service

has partnered with the 

district for many years, 

providing valuable 

resources and expertise to 

help transform portions of mowed turf and drainage swales into native habitat with 

increased biodiversity. The NWF and Green Building United support CRSD schools 

along twelve pathways of the NWF’s Eco-Schools USA program, which provides 

unique learning experiences through effective sustainable management of school 

grounds, facilities, and curriculum. Local businesses like Wyoming Millwork Co. and 

local branches of Lowe’s and M&T Bank recognize CRSD’s commitment to green 

schools, providing regular mini grants to fund various projects. CRSD participated in 

1At W. Reily Brown Elementary School, in Caesar Rodney School 

District, students and parents helped install the wetlands rain garden 

area.
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a statewide program funded with a B-Wet (Bay Watershed Education and Training) 

grant from NOAA. The grant provided funds for three district schools to partner with 

the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to 

facilitate and pilot Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences (MWEE), install or 

amend outdoor classrooms, and survey schoolyard biodiversity. Community 

partnerships also support a commitment to the implementation of NGSS, as CRSD’s 

instruction department begins to explore ways to bring more STEM lessons 

outdoors. 

F. Niel Postlethwait Middle School, along with Allen Frear Elementary School and 

the John S. Charlton School for special needs students, comprise a facility now 

known as the EcoCampus at CRSD. The EcoCampus is growing into a district hub 

for green schools initiatives, student field experiences, and teacher professional 

development. As a follow-up to a past summer’s green schools professional 

development courses held at the EcoCampus, district teachers who attended the 

courses were provided with resources to facilitate installation or renovation of 

outdoor classrooms, community gardens, and compost centers on their campuses. 

In 2017, CRSD hired its first environmental education specialist, whose responsibility 

is to advise the district on school facilities, health, and environmental learning. The 

person in this role also works with outside districts as they consider making 

sustainable changes. Across the curriculum at each grade level, CRSD includes at 

least one curricular unit that provides the opportunity to assess student 

environmental literacy. The high school offers a general environmental studies 

course, as well as an AP version. The instruction department also has assembled a 

math, science, and environmental education division, known as MSE2, to inform 

principals of the latest trends and pertinent information available to their faculty. In 

the social studies curriculum, teachers work with students to design green cities and 

make connections between economics and ecology. Annual career fairs at each 

CRSD school features partners from Delaware State Parks, DNREC, the EPA, and 

local nature centers. 

The instruction department developed a series of summer professional development 

courses, with three courses focused on the district’s growing outdoor learning 

infrastructure. Each course had full enrollment of approximately 25 staff members 

from throughout the district. In the course called Compost Center, participants were 

led along a story line, “An Apple’s Two Tales,” written and illustrated by middle 

school students. After receiving a fresh apple snack from partners at local Fifer 

Orchards, participants explored how natural resources cycle through the 

environment, and how there are choices for waste disposal (using their apple cores 

as examples). All participating schools received a free compost tumbler to begin its 

own compost center. 
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The course called The Community Gardens showcased CRSD’s expanding network 

of raised bed gardens. Participants learned basic gardening skills, and they 

concluded a day of training with a harvest and an opportunity to make fresh 

smoothies and infused oils. Participating schools received a free raised garden bed. 

Finally, the Outdoor Classrooms course explored what possibilities exist for 

developing interactive outdoor learning facilities where students and staff can work 

with nonformal education partners and authentic environmental education 

experiences. Attendees of this session were provided a prototype “go-bag” filled 

with simple field equipment, including an iPod touch with the iNaturalist app as a tool 

to encourage staff to get outdoors and explore. 

The district has supported the installation of gardens at each campus. Backyardstyle gardens, in conjunction with regularly provided cafeteria meals and interpretive 

signage, offer students and families more access to knowledge of where food comes 

from and increases the chances that, when given the opportunity, students will try 

new foods like radishes and asparagus. Each year, the Delaware Farm Bureau 

Foundation’s mobile classroom rolls onto elementary campuses to teach children 

about farming, healthy eating and agriculture. This helps build excitement and 

support for our CRHS agricultural science program. All this work is also made 

possible by support from partners at Kent Community Garden Collaborative and 

Clark Seeds, Inc., which provides free expertise, along with seeds, plants, soil, and 

tools at discounted prices. The Delaware Master Gardeners are working to support 

EcoTeams throughout the district by providing mentors to each community garden. 

Additionally, the district operates a food bus that brings free meals to children 

throughout the summer.

Florida

MAST Academy, Miami, Florida

Keepers of the coast

Established in 1991, Marine and Science Technology Academy (MAST) converted 

the local Planet Ocean museum, which closed that same year, into a unique magnet 

program among the 400 schools in the Miami Dade County Public School system. 

The school’s mission is to provide a marine setting and nurturing environment for 

studies leading to academic success, career preparation, an appreciation of the sea, 

and environmental awareness. 

In 2015, MAST added a sixth- through eighth-grade program and a Cambridge 

Advanced Program of Studies track, tripled the student body size, and doubled the 
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school’s square footage with a large construction project. Notwithstanding the 

increased capacity, efficiency improvements resulted in a reduction in electricity 

consumption by almost two-thirds. In July 2017, MAST requested and obtained an 

energy-efficiency audit from Florida Power & Light. That report served as a baseline 

for MAST’s energy-efficiency goals.

At the request of veteran teachers, the MAST parent, teacher, and school 

association (PTSA) created the MAST PTSA sustainability committee to introduce 

green infrastructure and reinvigorate hands-on sustainability activities such as 

organic gardens, schoolwide recycling, Bayshore beach cleanups, and coastal 

restoration projects.

In 2018, the PTSA 

partnered with the 

Phillip and Patricia 

Frost Museum of 

Science to create a 

Green Champions 

program that 

recognizes MAST 

students at an end-ofyear ceremony for 

dedicating community 

service hours toward 

sustainability efforts. 

Students who attend 

monthly Green 

Champion meetings, 

MAST workdays, and 

Frost Science coastal 

restoration days on 

Virginia Key, as well as 

dedicate community 

service hours to environmental or health and wellness programs at MAST, receive 

bronze, silver, or gold recognition for their achievements.

To increase school security, the PTSA funded an off-grid, solar-powered guard 

shack, repurposing materials decommissioned during construction of a new school 

building. The engineering teacher worked with students to calculate the required 

materials, including the purchase of the specially designed air conditioning unit with 

a built-in inverter and deep-cycle batteries to allow the system to run wholly off the 

grid.

MAST Academy Green School Champion volunteers conduct beach 

cleanup and coastal restoration at Virginia Key with Frost Museum of 

Science.
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The academy installed the first electric car-charging unit at a school in the district, 

doubling the electric car presence on campus. MAST retrofitted pool lights and the 

engineering classroom with dimmers, motion sensors, and LED lighting. It has 

participated in the Green Apple Day of Service. MAST installed energy monitoring 

hardware through the ReNew Our Schools competition. 

The first school in its district to eliminate straws from its cafeteria, MAST also 

replaced Styrofoam cafeteria trays with compostable trays and installed six waterbottle filling stations across campus to encourage healthy hydration and reduce 

waste. The school has funded the only operational recycling program in the school 

district, securing common area and classroom recycling bins. MAST has enforced 

its no-idling policy and secured a bike rack and two free BikeSafe clinics through the 

University of Miami’s Pediatric Neurology department.

An outdoor heated swimming pool and a mile-long shaded walking trail allow 

students to exercise along Biscayne Bay. MAST has a mandatory freshman 

swimming program, as well as a triathlon event that includes a one-mile run on a 

shaded trail behind the school, a 200-meter swim, and a one-half mile kayaking 

component. Sun safety is incorporated into the physical education curriculum 

across all grade levels. MAST students grow vegetables on-site in two outdoor 

raised garden beds as well as indoors for the culinary and experimental science 

class. This produce is then consumed by students. The culinary class also 

coordinates local organic vegetable delivery for MAST families.

Mental health and wellness are supported at MAST with three on-site professional 

counselors and a peer counseling program known as the Health Information 

Program (HIP). HIP trains upperclassmen to talk with ninth-grade physical 

education students about challenging health topics such as sex education, sexual 

orientation, drug use, bullying, and physical abuse.

The academy was founded to provide effective environmental and sustainability 

education. MAST includes rigorous classroom courses and offers internship 

opportunities with environmental scientists and nationally prominent science 

institutions. Students can pursue one of two highly acclaimed academic programs: 

(1) the maritime program, or (2) the Cambridge program. AP courses available 

include environmental science, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, 

calculus on both the AB and BC levels, mechanics, electricity, and magnetism. The 

Cambridge courses are offered on marine science, environmental management, and 

global perspectives.

Students can take electives in topics such as solar, experimental science, and 

engineering. MAST has one of only two JROTC Coast Guard programs in the 

country. In addition to the course offerings, students pursue internships with 
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institutions located just minutes from the school, including with NOAA, the United 

States Coast Guard, and the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and 

Atmospheric Science. Students have hands-on opportunities to apply their 

environmental and sustainability knowledge through monthly beach cleanups, native 

plant gardening, coastal restoration, shark tagging, coral reef restoration, and eco art 

campaigns.

With the academy’s Family, Career, & Community Leaders of America club, the 

culinary class participates in several competitions that focus on recycling and 

redesigning, food innovations, budget and finance, and environmental 

ambassadorship. The culinary class takes field trips to a local farm where students 

learn about the crops, and they plant, harvest, and share a picnic with the farmer; 

and they take a charter boat excursion to fish and learn about sustainable fishing.

The academy was selected this year to become the first Miami-Dade public school 

to provide an Outward Bound experience for students and teachers. Seven 

teachers and seven students explored the Blue Ridge Mountains for five days. They 

endured challenging physical conditions, and they rapidly developed trusting bonds 

with other participants to problem-solve and collaborate on expeditions, which 

included rock rappelling and creating a zipline system.

FAU Lab School District, Boca Raton, Florida

Environmental stewards caring for the community through sustainability and service

The Florida Atlantic University Lab School District (FAULSD) is a small lab school 

district run by the Florida Atlantic University College of Education. It comprises 

Florida Atlantic University High School (FAUHS), A.D. Henderson University School, 

Karen Slattery Educational Research Center for Child Development, Pine Jog 

Environmental Education Center, and Palm Pointe Educational Research School. In 

the journey to the top of the green schools mountain, students and staff have gained 

the power to observe what is around them, learn what changes can do, change what 

they can, and inspire those they meet along the way.

A districtwide program created and led by students entitled “Save Energy, Save the 

Future” encourages staff to make sure any unnecessary electronics are turned off 

when not in use and when not in their rooms, such as computers, overhead 

projectors, and other electronic classroom tools. Other energy-saving highlights 

include the installation of occupancy sensors and a solar-powered walkway with a 

solar-powered backup. FAUHS has built a solar/electric powered car from the frame 

up and using recycled materials. The newest construction in the middle and high 

schools are an autonomous solar powered go-kart, along with solar powered race 

cars. 
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Families are encouraged to operate through an online rideshare organizing 

mechanism. The district observes National Walk to School day and offers 

preferential parking for low-emission vehicles.

Hydroponic gardens as well as a butterfly reading garden have been added to 

various school grounds to encourage use of the lush outdoor areas and beautiful 

Florida weather. Additionally, the district expanded two outside classroom gardens, 

including variable systems such as aquaponics, vertical hydroponics, horizontal 

hydroponics, raised bed gardens, barrel gardens, and a new research-based 

aquaponics lateral system. These gardens were built in the center of the high 

school for all students to observe, learn, and participate in care and maintenance. 

Cistern and rain barrel systems reuse greywater to irrigate plants.

In their community 

service efforts, 

FAULSD students and 

staff collect donated 

blankets to create care 

packages for cancer 

patients, focusing on no 

waste, repurposing, no 

physical flyers, and 

digital notification. For 

a districtwide Color 

Run, the focus is again 

on having no waste, an 

environmentally safe 

color product, reusable 

water bottles, and alldigital notification. A 

Lego wall of innovation 

allows messages and 

artwork to be recreated 

every week by a 

different grade to allow for a change of décor and of message every week in a front 

lobby walk in area. This area is made of recycled Legos donated to FAULSD. 

The district installed additional water-bottle filling stations, and all students were 

provided refillable water bottles both to encourage consumption of water in lieu of 

sugary caffeinated beverages and to decrease refuse. Recycling programs are 

headed by the student-facilitated Planet Patrol, marking on the charts of every 

classroom the number of recyclables collected and whether it was sorted properly. 

Awards are then given to the best classrooms based on data collected by the Planet 

Florida Atlantic University Lab School District kindergarten and first grade 

students assemble an underwater robot using recycled products.
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Patrol. FAUHS encourages work to be submitted electronically with few exceptions, 

and electronic work is accepted whenever possible in the lower grades. 

All FAULSD schools have adopted a STEAM culture for all education and 

curriculum, and within that curriculum, have integrated environmental consciousness 

and studies. Administration has built outdoor education time into the curriculum 

across all grades. All grades have a minimum of one field-based or outdoor 

investigation, and most have numerous outdoor learning events during the year to 

encourage students to expand their knowledge beyond the classroom. 

Environmental stewardship is integrated with culturally authentic resources, 

Spanish-language curriculum, and citizen science process skills like data collection, 

analysis, habitat restoration, and water stewardship. 

The district has updated its five-year plan with an expansion, including hands-on 

environmental research, which can be implemented into the curriculum. It has 

grown the green team and set up sub-teams within the district to allow for additional 

resources and completion of tasks. The requirements of being a green school are 

formally addressed at parent and student government organizational meetings. 

FAULSD works to cultivate new staff interest in sustaining and growing school 

sustainability efforts.

Students have designed and implemented an automated instrument to measure 

tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in cancer tumors, and, in another project, a system for 

early identification of airborne chemicals. They are involved in multiple ecological 

projects including Seaperch, an underwater robotics program where students build 

underwater submarine robots using recycled materials. 

District schools participate in the Million Orchid growing project with FAU Pine Jog 

Environmental Education Center and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens. This 

program to restore Florida native orchids has been tremendously successful. 

Additionally, students are conducting field research on a variety of subjects, 

including studies on Bachman’s sparrows, mangrove restoration, ocean currents, 

geological effects of beach nourishment, carbon sequestration, and invasive exotic 

species. 

Students run a YouTube channel associated with their on-campus WeatherSTEM 

station. Hands-on aquaponics includes a 400-gallon circulating freshwater tank with 

fish, gravity-feed filtration, and hydroton lava rock, allowing students aquaponics 

situational exposure.

The district has grown, expanded, and stretched its sustainability programming, 

continuing to strive for excellence, not as a reward, but as a culture. Already, 

students have created animatronic owls to preserve the natural habits of the native 
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species, solar powered cars and go karts, and robots that will be able to harness 

energy from the ocean. Where will they go in the next five years? The sky's the 

limit...or maybe not.

Georgia

Robert W. Gadsden Elementary School, Savannah, Georgia

Teaching conscientious environmental preservation with energy-saving strategies

Robert W. Gadsden Elementary School (GES) exemplifies the concepts and ideas 

of conscientious environmental preservation and sustainability. GES was opened in 

1955 and rebuilt in 2012. It serves 558 students from kindergarten through the fifth 

grade. Most students live in the surrounding urban neighborhood, and nearly half 

walk to school. GES is a Title I school, with 98 percent of its students eligible for 

free or reduced-price lunch. Business partners have played an active role in 

engaging students to be better citizens and supporting the sustainability efforts. 

The campus is 7.25 acres, landlocked in an urban community. Less than 30 percent 

of the land is dedicated to buildings. When the facility was rebuilt in 2012, a second 

floor was included in the design to reclaim more than an acre of green space. This 

resulted in a new athletic field and space for a 6,400-square-foot, 30-kilowatt 

photovoltaic system. The photovoltaic system is expected to lower energy costs by 

5 percent and avoid production of more than two tons of carbon dioxide every 

month. 

The school has one of the lowest utility costs per square foot in the district at 76 

cents. GES also achieved a 38 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. A 

variety of energy-saving strategies have included the incorporation of energymanagement performance guidelines and automated temperature-control systems; 

the integration of occupancy sensors; the scheduled replacement of conventional 

lighting with LED; the development of efficient student transportation; and the 

introduction of recycling. The school was ENERGY STAR-certified in 2014 with a

Portfolio Manager score of 91.

Four transport buses adhere to strict bus-idling guidelines. Over two tons of waste 

were recycled in one school year by the recycling club, run by third-, fourth-, and 

fifth-graders. The cafeteria transitioned from Styrofoam trays and bowls to paper 

trays. The trays are made of 20 percent recycled pulp and 80 percent paperboard, 

manufactured from wood pulp grown in the U.S. from certified forests. GES reduced 
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water use by 13 percent in the past year, and three water-bottle filling stations were 

installed. The stations are expected to eliminate over 3,000 plastic bottles. 

School leadership partnered with Southern Soccer Academy Savannah United to 

increase the diversity of students’ participating in soccer programs and provide

additional education in health and fitness. Golf clinics are offered on the weekends 

through Camp Explore where students gain experience in the sport and are 

educated on increasing the quality of their health. Through Gadsden’s 21st Century 

after-school program, students participate in daily fitness classes. A running club 

was established for students to 

exert energy before the school 

day. Curtis V. Cooper Primary 

Health Care, Inc. is a nonprofit 

community health center that 

provides services (including 

primary care, dentistry, 

behavioral health, and patient 

assistance) to Gadsden students 

through an on-site clinic. This 

helps reduces the amount of 

valuable instructional time that 

would be required for 

appointments off-site. 

Students engage in five-minute 

brain breaks throughout the day 

to move their bodies and 

subsequently increase focus. 

Safer, Smarter Kids is an annual 

training session for students in 

kindergarten through fifth grade, 

teaching students how to better 

protect themselves from physical

and mental abuse. A Character 

Counts program has been 

implemented, with six pillars of 

character development to help 

students exemplify appropriate 

behaviors and to provide a positive school climate. Coordinated Early Intervening 

Services and Dare to Be King programs focus on mental health, helping students 

learn how to deal with trauma and daily stressors. Gadsden’s faculty and staff also 

participate in an annual “The Biggest Loser” wellness project to promote healthy 

Students at Gadsden have water bottle filling stations 

available to them to encourage healthy hydration and 

reduced single-use plastic bottle use.
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eating and living. In addition, Village Community Garden of Sylvester, Georgia, and 

the local YMCA partnered with GES to grow garden produce. 

Students explore various career pathways related to agriculture and farming not 

normally presented to students from urban communities. Through an established 

partnership with Savannah State University, Gadsden has implemented a curriculum 

that exposes students to marine science, urban farming, horticulture, and other 

agricultural sciences and careers. This curriculum has contributed to improved test 

scores on fifth-grade state assessments. The partnership is essential to 

groundbreaking research focused on reducing and eliminating food deserts in lowincome communities surrounding the school that have limited access to affordable 

and nutritious food. In addition, an integrated greenhouse and aquaponics lab has 

been built through this unique relationship. 

Prekindergarten students visit Oatland Island Wildlife Center each year to explore 

wildlife, conservation, and habitats. Kindergarten through fifth-grade students learn 

about the environment and coastal wildlife through a Tybee Island Marine Science 

Center partnership. The energy efficiency education coordinator from Georgia 

Power designed a curriculum for the school to educate and empower students to 

play an active role in reducing global warming. 

An outdoor learning experience, “When are We Wasting Water?,” from the Green 

Education Foundation, teaches students the effect that washing hands has on water 

sustainability. Students conduct outdoor scientific investigations to learn about 

water conservation when washing hands, how to prevent the spread of diseases, 

and how water can be better managed. This experience builds an understanding of 

measurement, scientific inquiry, health management, and global environmental 

issues. The #GadsdenGives initiative allows students to apply all they have learned 

through their environmental and sustainability curriculum to give back to their 

community to maintain its vitality and beauty and ensure it remains sustainable.

Sharon Elementary School, Suwanee, Georgia

This school D.I.G.S. hands-on environmental education!

The greatest asset to the environment surrounding Sharon Elementary School 

(SES) — to safeguarding student and staff health and to providing effective 

environmental education — is D.I.G.S. (Discover, Discover, Inspire, Grow, 

Succeed). This is an outdoor classroom, a habitat, and an area to explore all things 

related to science. This once-barren space evolves each year as SES students 

acquire more knowledge of the earth, climate, and their responsibilities as citizens. 
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The area is a Certified Wildlife Habitat® through the NWF, and it is an Atlanta 

Audubon Society Wildlife Sanctuary. 

The outdoor classroom includes a pergola with American Disabilities Act-compliant 

tables; a concrete path stamped with native Georgia animals and plants; a Georgia 

limestone amphitheater for outdoor lessons; a native rock garden containing 

marble, sandstone, limestone, and granite; a butterfly garden with organic milkweed 

for monarch butterflies; the beginnings of a loofah garden; a three-sided barn made 

of reclaimed wood; signage for self-directed learning; a tool shed; and a 

WeatherBug Station atop the school. 

The compost bins provide nutrients for the garden. 

An erosion table is used to teach third- and fifthgraders the importance of protecting the land. The 

school created a landfill exhibit of student trash in 

May 2017 and began allowing students to observe 

the changes in decomposition of materials over 

following year. The outdoor classroom features a 

mobile whiteboard to use in different locations. 

SES recently installed an in-ground sundial ellipse 

to teach shadows based on Earth’s position in 

relation to the sun. The school has constructed a 

sensory path made of various materials for 

students to walk on barefoot. Other D.I.G.S. 

projects include a water-wicking bog with sundew, 

a Venus flytrap and pitcher plants, and a 

dinosaur/archaeological dig site. 

This outdoor hands-on environmental science 

learning space facilitates a curriculum covering 

erosion, types of soil and proper drainage, 

composting, clean water, water collection, beneficial insects, crops, lifecycles, and 

weather. Students in all grades look forward to lessons in D.I.G.S. as well as annual 

D.I.G.S. Days, with stations covering a variety of topics, including pollinators, eating 

local, plastic bag use, and limiting pesticide use. 

Indoors, fifth-grade recycling ambassadors manage collection bins and recycling 

education efforts; oversee TerraCycle product collection; and share news with the 

entire school population. The green team raises awareness of walk-to-school days, 

adopt-a-road days, community-sponsored events like cleaning up a local river or 

recycling electronics, and the new student-driven undertaking of Crayola ColorCycle. 

Cross-curricular instruction occurs to combine what students learn about waste 

reduction, reuse, and recycling with their observations over time of the nearby 

Students take measurements in the 

Sharon Elementary School Discover, 

Inspire, Grow, Succeed (D.I.G.S.) 

outdoor classroom.
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landfill. Cross grade-level teaching allows older students to share their knowledge 

with younger students about decomposition and the importance of recycling. 

Students walk to the recycling center across the street to see firsthand and better 

understand recycling processes and rationales 

Another well-visited location is C.A.S.T.L.E. — Collaborative and Social Technology 

Learning Environment — which serves as the school’s media center and library. 

Besides being the leader of the school’s Makerspace, the librarian tweets out 

information about new texts offered for checkout, and she highlights the increase 

over the past few years of nonfiction texts covering habitats, climate change, 

recycling, landfills, garbage, composting, scientists, geology, Earth, and 

environment. Last year, the SES team placed third in the First LEGO League 

Robotics State Competition by removing microplastics from drinking water. In 2019, 

the team is recycling plastics using a 3-D recycler by grinding up plastic waste and 

turning it into 3-D filament to become a 3-D product. 

The science lab uses an outdoor nature walking trail along a creek to teach habitats, 

food chains, food webs, and benefits of decomposers. The lab hatches a new bird 

species each spring, so far including Indian Runner ducks, Ayam Cemani and Top 

Hat chickens, quail, and emu. SES also hatches and raises a variety of praying 

mantises, butterflies, moths, worms, and Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The 

second-graders hatches chickens annually. Primary classes hatch a variety of 

insects. Students provide daily care for a bearded dragon, two eyelash-crested 

geckos, and two White’s Dumpy tree frogs. 

Sharon has received several awards for its farm-to-school participation, including 

one for its recipe contest using ingredients from the school garden. An indoor tower 

garden adds salad to daily lunches, and D.I.G.S. vegetables grown in the facility’s 10 

raised beds and in two 20 x 20-foot plots are used in school lunches. The school’s 

chicken coop has seven hens, whose eggs are used in the cafeteria and offered to 

staff and families. 

The cafeteria provides nutrition education through a “Harvest of the Month” program. 

SES offers after-school yoga and weight loss competitions for staff. The school 

provides Blessings in a Backpack for needy students and celebrates no homework 

Wednesdays to decrease stress and anxiety. Families receive physical activity 

calendars, and the school celebrates students’ participation in physical activity 

outside of school with a display of photos. The parent-teacher organization sponsors

a dance-a-thon. Nursing students work with the school’s registered nurse to provide 

additional care and education to students.

Sharon has switched to green cleaning products, implemented the EPA’s IAQ Tools 

for Schools and partnered with Georgia Commute schools to promote anti-idling. 
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SES collects water in a 200-gallon cistern buried underneath its outdoor classroom 

area, which is used to irrigate the crops. The school has seen a reduction in energy 

use of 12 percent and in greenhouse gas emissions of 6 percent over the last two 

years and received ENERGY STAR certification in 2015.

Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, Georgia.

Smart money leads to sustainability-smart students

Georgia College & State University (GC) is committed to the stewardship of natural 

resources and exploring ways to enhance the sustainability of the campus and its 

community. GC has implemented initiatives, projects, and procedures that promote 

its sustainability goals. Accordingly, it has achieved the Association for the 

Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Sustainability Tracking, 

Assessment, and Rating System (STARS) Bronze Level. 

The Office of Sustainability (OOS) is responsible for campus sustainability initiatives; 

promoting education and outreach; and offering opportunities for internships, 

volunteering, service learning, and community service. The OOS has provided 

some 30 internships with over 10,000 hours of service, including opportunities for 

experiential learning, leadership, and professional development, all while having a 

positive and tangible influence within the campus community. Partners include the 

Sustainability Council, the Sustainability Fee Program, the Campus Kitchen at 

Georgia College (CKGCSU), the gardening club, and the environmental science 

club.

Georgia College and State University students bring recycling into the community during the Deep Roots 

Festival.
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Through the Georgia Power Energy Efficiency Incentive Rebate Program, 42 

projects have resulted in over $200,000 in rebate awards and 3 million kilowatts per 

hour saved. Projects include LED conversions, reflective roof installations, heating 

and air optimization, as well as occupancy sensor installations. LED conversions 

alone have contributed to a savings of over 2 million kilowatt-hours, with a continued 

effort to have 100 percent of the entire campus in LEDs by the year 2020.

Through the SFP, competitive grants are available to current GC undergraduate and 

graduate students to implement projects that advance sustainability through 

education, research, service, and campus operations. Successful projects have 

addressed waste reduction, responsible use of resources, sustainability education 

for the campus community, and behavior change, as well as provided research data. 

The program has provided some $600,000 to fund 106 student-led projects, such as 

retrofitting electric golf carts for solar power, and creating a rooftop solar array, 

installed in 2016, which generates four kilowatt-hours to the existing building.

The college received the 2015 bronze level Bicycle Friendly University award from 

the League of American Bicyclists. GC provides bike stations and shuttles with bike 

racks. Shuttle services and TapRide (similar to Uber) accommodate residents and 

commuters with rides to on-campus facilities and off-campus conveniences. 

The recycling initiative, which began in 2013 with a recycling rate of 3 percent (three 

tons), has seen a slow increase to 23 percent (47 tons). These efforts help to divert 

plastics, paper, paperboard, cardboard, and metal cans from the landfill. In 2011, 

refill retrofit kits were added to water fountains with 14 Brita filters and 11 hydration 

stations to allow refilling of reusable bottles and glass containers. Some 2,500 

reusable bottles were distributed across campus, and their use is encouraged.

The campus community garden, established in 2016, provides a place where 

students, faculty, staff, and community can interact, learn about gardening, harvest 

produce, and simply relax. For 20-plus years, lawn material collected has been 

used for compost and returned to the campus grounds and landscape. In 2016, the 

compost program began processing post-consumer food waste from the dining hall 

to make compost for the campus garden and grounds and landscaping. Within the 

last year, compost interns converted 20,000 pounds of food waste, reducing landfill 

costs. CKGCSU, launched in 2018, recovers food designated for disposal and 

contributes it as a supplement to meals provided to those in need. Combining the 

efforts of the compost program with CKGCSU, GC expects to reduce food waste to 

the landfill by 50 percent. 

The Office of Environmental Health & Safety and Fire Safety (EHS&FS) is the point 

of contact for all environmental health and safety compliance issues. The use of 

chemical pesticides is kept to a minimum through an integrated pest management
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plan. A local pest control partner treats each building as needed instead of multiple 

times a year. As a conditionally exempt small-quantity generator, GC manages 

universal waste through proper disposal of pesticides and recycling of used oil, 

mercury-containing lamps and equipment, batteries, and non-polychlorinated 

biphenyls-containing ballasts eliminating this waste from the landfill. 

The wellness and recreation center, a LEED Silver-certified building, is home to 

resources for students to improve their fitness with a walking track, basketball 

courts, exercise equipment, climbing wall, and an indoor pool. GC’s Continuing 

Education Office also offers programs encouraging exercise, from a variety of dance 

classes to yoga. The Puppy Time Program is available to students during finals 

week, allowing students to reduce their stress levels by interacting with puppies 

brought onto campus. Since 2009, GC has become a leader in Live Healthy 

Baldwin, a communitywide initiative with a goal of reversing the childhood obesity 

epidemic. The purpose of the program is to increase opportunities for healthy eating 

and physical activity by providing access to healthy and affordable foods and 

bicycles for children. Off-campus health and wellness programs have been 

developed with community partners to encourage engagement of students, faculty, 

and staff within the community. Partners include local farms, the Harrisburg

Community Garden, the Life Enrichment Center, the Boys & Girls Club, and 

Milledgeville Cares. 

A sustainability certificate, implemented in fall 2017, provides students with the 

ability to describe the global manifestations of sustainability across culturally diverse 

regions; examine specific applications of social, environmental, and economic 

policies and their influence on human societies; model the world, including 

ecosystems, economic systems, and sociopolitical systems; evaluate the effect of 

individual and collective lifestyles and identify political and ethical variations; 

characterize energy and material systematics from physical, ethical, and economic 

viewpoints; assess campus and community sustainability strategies and actions; 

describe issues of sustainability within the geographies of contested spaces; explore 

the campus and community through service learning and community outreach; and 

demonstrate and advocate environmental responsibility in a human context.

The EHS&FS has partnered with GC’s Department of Biological and Environmental 

Sciences and the Department of Chemistry and Physics to develop an internship 

program. This program is a tool that works with students interested in a career in 

the field of environmental health and safety. The program focuses on using the 

knowledge gained within the environmental science degree program and converting 

it into a real-world application concerning regulatory compliance with the rules and 

standards that govern environmental health and safety. In addition to the internship 

program, the EHS&FS provides training and a state license to senior-level students 
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in the field of erosion and sediment control, qualifying them to identify environmental 

concerns on construction sites that could contribute to water quality degradation.

Hawaii

Kapālama Elementary School, Honolulu, Hawaii

Mission, vision, and resolve integrating Hawai’i’s unique culture into sustainability 

learning

A modest school in a bustling working-class neighborhood, Kapālama Elementary 

School (KES) is multiethnic, with a substantial number of students who come from 

outside the school’s normal attendance area. The mission, vision, and resolve at 

KES is to provide students a nurturing educational environment built on mutual 

respect that inspires each student to achieve their full potential, to be a contributing 

caring citizen, and to become a successful steward in an ever-changing global 

community.

Kapālama has reduced its footprint and expenses with a statewide, multidimensional 

energy program called Ka Hei, which includes energy-efficiency measures, 

renewable energy additions, and behavioral change. KES has reduced 

nontransportation energy use over two years by 68 percent and greenhouse gas 

emissions by 45 percent.

The first facet of the 

Ka Hei project was 

lighting upgrades. 

This project was 

organized to “right 

size” the school’s 

photovoltaic system, 

first by identifying 

energy conservation 

measures that 

concurrently would 

reduce the school’s 

electric load. The 

project was able to 

install 1,294 new 

dimmable LED 

fixtures, which 

created an 18 

percent reduction in 

Kapālama Elementary School students participate in an annual campus 

beautification day.
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energy consumption. Building occupants learned about the importance of efficiency 

through in-classroom lessons throughout the school year in which the upgrades took 

place. KES features 480 270-watt solar photovoltaic modules that generate 129.6 

kilowatts (direct current) of clean power on site, which represents nearly two-thirds of 

the school’s energy needs, as well as enough power for the school’s electric vehicle 

charger. The data collected from the solar panel can be accessed online and 

complements hands-on energy education.

Landscaping with drought-resistant plants has reduced irrigation. An annual campus 

beautification encourages students to keep the campus clean every day. KES uses 

campus vegetation to provide shade and reduce the need for air conditioning. Firstgrade classes maintain planter boxes and a small vegetable garden. KES water 

quality is monitored by the Hawai‘i Department of Education.

Kapālama has reduced paper use by 80 percent using online communication tools. 

Families bring in paper and magazines that can be used for upcycled projects on 

campus. Eliminating Styrofoam from the cafeteria also has reduced waste. The 

administration encourages students to walk home together, and has created a safe 

path for students to get to school by entering campus through a less-active road 

behind the school.

As part of the improved health and wellness of students and staff at Kapālama, there 

are numerous ongoing preventive efforts at the school. For example, effective 

cleaning on a regular basis and a monthly measure to prevent mold and moisture 

helps to control asthma triggers. Staff and custodians watch for wet spots and 

condensation, and they maintain gutters and storm drains to prevent flooding and 

moisture retention. Classrooms with air conditioning have filters that are inspected 

and cleaned monthly to reduce dust particulates. Outdoors, the grass is cut 

regularly and seeded to prevent dust bowls. To avoid pests, the KES staff conducts 

management efforts outside of school hours and only as necessary. Each building 

has walk-off mats at the entrance to reduce the amount of soil and dust that gets 

tracked into school buildings.

Families regularly are offered health-related workshops, including on nutrition and 

asthma education. KES sponsors outdoor fitness challenges and a field day, and 

provides flu shots and vision screenings. Students are reminded to drink water and 

wear hats when playing outdoors. School counselors have set up a program to 

support positive behaviors at school, involving earned tickets that can accumulate to 

earn items from the school store.

Every spring for over a decade, KES has hosted a dance-a-thon. Healthy eating 

options are available to students through the fresh fruit and vegetable program. 

Campus produce comes from a local vendor, and the principal offers a lesson on 
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each new fruit and vegetable. Eating more local fruits and vegetables has inspired 

KES students to encourage their families to do the same at home. Fifth-grade 

students participate in intramural volleyball and basketball leagues with eight to 10 

other elementary schools from the island. The Lions Club offers yearly vision 

screening, flu vaccinations are made available to the school community, and the 

nurse provides training on EpiPen use and other medical procedures.

Teachers are using Hawaiian history paired with NGSS to offer culturally appropriate 

cross-curricular learning. Students learn about water birds that live near the Kalihi 

stream, which runs through the community and to the ocean at the Pearl Harbor 

Hono‘uli‘uli Wildlife Refuge. After visiting the wildlife refuge, students stencil drains 

with “drains to ocean” logos to prevent rubbish from making its way into the stream. 

On a geology bus tour, students learn about the island’s cultural tradition and the 

volcanic history for each stop of the tour, participate in a rock hunt, and learn 

folktales. Students can see different parts of the land and learn to identify the 

importance of these spaces to Hawaiian culture. The Hawaiian studies program 

provides students with the opportunity to engage in service learning that supports 

the environment. At the Lyon Arboretum, students engage in hands-on learning. At 

the Hawai‘i Plantation Village, students learn about the sugar plantation, 

immigration, and the influence that culture has on the islands. One of the most 

memorable experiences for fifth-graders is the annual trip to attend Camp Erdman 

for three days and two nights, where students experience team-building activities 

and the scientific process.

Illinois

Meadowview Elementary School, Grayslake, Illinois

Becoming habitat heroes in the adjacent woodland

When the Meadowview School was built, it was outfitted with water sensors on all 

sinks and toilets. More recently, sensors also were added to lighting in all 

classrooms. A complete building automation system regulates elements such as 

boiler temperature and heating throughout the school. All hot-water heaters are shut 

down at night. The building has been recommissioned completely to ensure that all 

fans operate at optimal efficiency. Lastly, plans are underway at Meadowview to 

add a new roof and solar panels. The school currently purchases two-thirds of its 

energy from renewable sources. For irrigation, Meadowview has installed a rain 

barrel in the outdoor classroom, and it uses recycled containers to water plants in 

need during the hotter months or to support new growth.

First-graders oversee recycling collection. Students plan waste-free lunches and 

conduct educational campaigns through a morning broadcast. Third- and fourth-
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graders all have Chromebooks, reducing the amount of paper waste. All 

construction paper used is recycled and certified by the Sustainable Forestry 

Initiative. Third-grade students made a quilt out of recycled materials that hangs 

inside the school, reminding occupants of the importance of recycling.

Forty percent of Meadowview students walk to school, and 60 percent are 

designated as bus riders. Meadowview uses cold-water-based cleaning supplies 

that are green star rated, with metered dispensers. No pesticides are used on 

campus. 

Health education and wellness is another priority at Meadowview School. Monday 

Morning Fitness is a whole-school weekly exercise program. The occupational 

therapist and physical education staff designed a movement and learning lab. 

Classroom teachers take the students to the lab for movement breaks, which focus 

on fine motor, gross motor, balance, cross-midline, and visual motor integration 

activities. The physical education staff sends home a family challenge in which 

students focus on being 

active with their families. 

Challenges to date have 

included a family onemile walk, a play in the 

snow, and a tracking of

the fruit and vegetables 

eaten over the weekend. 

Students return each 

week with their 

challenges completed 

and with pictures of their 

families exercising 

together. Partnerships 

with local businesses 

facilitate free physicals, 

vaccines, vision checks, 

and dental exams.

Meadowview’s outdoor 

classroom is a center for 

outdoor learning. This 

space includes hardscape, a seat wall, nature path, native plants, a rain barrel, a 

bird bath, bird feeders, a bee house, a sundial, picnic tables, a mulch path wetland 

observation ledge, and a weather station. A schoolwide woodland project has 

students restoring the woodland by removing invasive buckthorn adjacent to the 

outdoor classroom space. A schoolwide “habitat hero” project helps students learn 

Through a partnership with the Lake County Forest Preserve, 

Meadowview Elementary School fourth graders learn about invasive 

plant species and cut down buckthorn in the campus woodland each 

fall.
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their role in taking care of the world around us. Meadowview has worked over the 

years to plant new trees and take care of the existing trees on campus. Each grade 

level has had a chance to help plant trees in collaboration with the local park district. 

Tree conservation has been a focus of Meadowview’s work and a part of many 

schoolwide Arbor Day celebrations over the years.

Each Woodland Day includes research, activities, and lessons linked to the grade 

level’s area of focus: for kindergarten, this is birds; for first grade, insects; for second 

grade, plants and trees; for third grade animals; and for fourth grade examining 

animal adaptations. Forest preserve educators bring invaluable resources and 

knowledge to enhance learning, including a live-animal experience; an exploration 

and identification activity in the wooded area; artifacts such as furs, bird nests, and 

insect displays from the forest preserve collection; glacial and erosion simulation 

activities; and invasive plant studies.

The Meadowview Sprouts is a group of parents dedicated to helping the school 

community by researching and guiding efforts with students. Areas in which parents 

have become involved include environmental education, woodland restoration, 

buckthorn eradication, and tree health and maintenance. In addition, the Sprouts 

work to bring enrichment experiences to students, including lessons on the butterfly 

life cycle, growing microgreens, music in nature, bees, and organic farming. 

The Woodland Advisory Group is made up of educators from all areas of 

Meadowview. This group studies standards, examines individual planning specific 

to grade levels, sets the vision for the schoolwide environmental education focus, 

and finds resources to support this work.

Bloomington Public School District 87, Bloomington, Illinois

Energy efficiency upgrades: a 9 percent return on investment

Situated in a central Illinois community, Bloomington Public Schools District 87 is 

home to more than 5,300 students in its nine schools from prekindergarten through 

high school. The district is one of the oldest and most diverse in the state, with a 

mission to challenge, support, and inspire all students to learn and achieve to their 

highest potential in order to become productive citizens and lifelong learners. 

Through this mission, the district is committed to enhancing and maintaining 

sustainable practices and education in every building.

Over the last decade, District 87 has made numerous effective changes within its 

nine schools to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste, and increase the health 
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and fitness of students and staff. The most innovative project implemented at 

Bloomington Public Schools has been a districtwide cafeteria composting and 

recycling initiative that was introduced in 2014. After every school meal, students 

empty the contents of their trays into three waste receptacles: compost, recycle, and 

trash. Any unopened food or uneaten produce is placed on a share table for 

students to take, and remaining leftovers are donated to local food pantries. Local 

companies — Midwest Fiber and Better Earth Compost — collect the recycling and 

compost. Disposable lunch trays and plasticware were replaced with reusable trays 

and flatware, saving each school approximately $4,700 per year. Since the start of 

the new waste management program, the district has reduced dumpster sizes by 

half, preventing over 50 tons of waste from entering area landfills. 

To further reduce waste and help students in need, the high school hosts a resource 

room with donated clothing so students can borrow items as needed, like formal 

dresses and tuxedos, or professional clothing for job interviews. Art teachers 

recycle materials to turn into art. Family and consumer science class students 

recently collected t-shirts to turn into t-shirt quilts. A districtwide virtual backpack 

reduces the amount of paper waste sent home to families.

Since 2015, the district has reduced electricity use by an average of 34 percent 

annually and reduced gas use by an average of 47 percent annually, resulting in a 

total energy savings in excess of $500,000 each year. This energy efficiency was 

made possible 

through a multistep 

process —

gradually upgrading 

HVAC equipment, 

controls, and 

lighting in each 

building. District 87 

partners with 

contractor Alpha 

Controls to monitor 

temperature 

controls in every 

building and assist 

with HVAC services 

and upgrades. 

Alpha Controls 

maintains a summary chart of monthly ENERGY STAR scores. In 2013, the 

ENERGY STAR scores in the district were between 0 and10 out of 100. Today, the 

scores are between 40 and 50 out of 100 and continue to rise. 

At Bloomington Public Schools’ Bent Elementary School staff members help 

direct students to recycle, landfill, and compost bins.
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Beginning with a life safety survey in 2014, Bloomington Public Schools District 87’s 

director of facilities presented findings of aging mechanical and control systems to 

the chief finance and legal officer and superintendent. District officials then sent an 

application to the Illinois State Board of Education for health life safety funding, and 

the district was awarded $10 million in bonds to address these systems. Assisted by 

contractors and design professionals, a multistep process was implemented to 

analyze, interpret, and measure the sustainability of each building’s performance. 

This led to upgrading the lowest-performing elementary school the first year, 

followed by three additional schools the following year. The upgrades reduced 

greenhouse gas emissions 41 percent for the four facilities, equivalent to the 

environmental impact of taking 400 cars off the road. This corresponded to the 

economic benefit of saving $155,000 annually despite rising utility costs, a 9 percent 

annual return on investment. 

The district created a 10-year comprehensive facilities improvement plan in the early 

2000s. Since then, several major projects have been completed. All buildings have 

been extensively renovated, and infrastructure components have been upgraded. 

More than $70 million was spent on facility improvement and renovations and 

infrastructure upgrades. The largest and most recent construction project occurred 

at Bloomington High School in 2018. Due to growing participation in music 

programs, students were outgrowing the music education space. A new 10,000-

square-foot fine-arts expansion was added to the school, and former classrooms 

were remodeled. At the same time, a synthetic-turf field was installed at the high 

school outdoor stadium. The new synthetic field allows for water to drain below 

ground instead of causing mud and puddles. This state-of-the-art irrigation system 

greatly reduced grounds maintenance for the field, eliminated the need for chemical 

use, and is safer for students.

More than 50 percent of toilets, sinks, and hand dryers are motion-activated in 

school restrooms. This reduces water consumption and waste from paper towels 

and improves sanitation.

The district highlights a harvest of the month, which is served in school meals and 

showcases produce from a local farmer. District 87 also partners with Midwest Food 

Bank to organize a weekly backpack program, sending bags full of pantry items 

home with low-income students. District 87 launched a unique branch of the 

summer feeding program, offering a mobile feeding unit in partnership with the local 

housing authority. District staff members drive a van to low-income neighborhoods 

and housing projects, which is parked for an hour every weekday to provide 

nutritious sack lunches to students. The district has partnered with local 

organizations like the Bloomington Public Library to offer educational enrichment at 

each stop.
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Each school offers unique fitness activities, including Heart Start, a before-school 

activity allowing students to run or walk around the gym before the first bell; morning 

yoga before classes begin; and outdoor fitness activities on the weekends for 

students, staff, and families. Most buildings have an outdoor green space separate 

from the playground, which is used as a garden or outdoor classroom. The junior 

high offers a Junior Master Gardeners Club. Free dental clinics and health 

screenings are regularly offered at schools.

At one elementary school, students spent a day “camping” on school grounds. 

Classes learned how to set up a tent and cook food, while participating in outdoor 

learning and games. Many elementary school classrooms take all-day field trips to 

nearby Funks Grove Nature Center. Teachers can choose from a variety of 

programs at the nature center to tie into current curriculum, including Tracks, Scat, 

and All of That; Dead Tree Biology; Meet the Critters; Incredible Insects and 

Invertebrates; and Plants, Flowers and Seeds. Classes also go on nature hikes, 

explore the creek, and play in the outdoor learning space known as Imagination 

Grove.

Sustainability and the environment are often woven into STEM teaching. Teachers 

worked with employees from State Farm to create STEM activities for each class, 

including ones that focused on natural disasters and the use of scarce natural 

resources. The Children’s Discovery Museum brought in lessons about 

aerodynamics and wind power. The Ecology Action Center, a local nonprofit 

environmental organization, sends representatives to visit District 87 schools to 

teach about environmental responsibility. 

All seventh-grade students attend an outdoor education program. Students visit a 

local camp for a week, where the outdoor instruction includes classes on 

environmental art, archery, canoeing, mountain biking, pond investigations, Dutch 

oven cooking, journaling, and silk-screen art. Representatives from the University of 

Illinois Extension Office work with teachers during outdoor education courses to 

boost understanding of commercial agriculture, horticulture, energy and the 

environment, and local food and small farms. Students in the high school can 

participate in the environmental club, and the junior high has a green team.

High school students can enroll in an environmental science course, where they 

investigate how current human activities are harming the environment, and they 

learn about changes that must be made to attain a sustainable world. Alternatively, 

they can enroll in an AP version of the class, which covers scientific analysis, 

interdependence of the earth’s systems, human population dynamics, renewable 

and nonrenewable resources, environmental quality, global changes and their 

consequences, society and decision-making vs. trade-offs, and environmental 

choices for the future.
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Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Sustainability as part of a mission of social justice in the community

Loyola University Chicago has made a commitment to address climate change and 

the associated disruptions to natural and social infrastructure and systems as a key 

aspect of its mission of social justice. Announced as part of a series of events 

around the release of Laudato si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical letter on ecology, Loyola 

released “A Just Future,” a university climate action plan with a carbon neutrality 

goal of 2025. Loyola is a gold-rated university in the Association for the 

Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s STARS program. As a 

Catholic, Jesuit, urban university, Loyola addresses climate through three main 

strategies: campus, curriculum, and community engagement.

A transformation of the Loyola campus infrastructure has reduced carbon emissions 

by 38 percent from a 2008 baseline. Loyola is now home to 11 LEED-certified 

buildings across three campuses, and it has more green roofs than any other 

university in the Midwest. Loyola features dashboards, signage, and a “campus as 

lab” program that allows students to work on improving the infrastructure all around 

them. Loyola’s student-run biodiesel program fuels shuttle buses and provides 

restroom soap, both made from waste vegetable oil. Two campuses feature largescale geothermal installations.

Due to the urban nature 

of Loyola campuses, 

over 95 percent of 

students and 70 percent 

of employees take a 

sustainable 

transportation option 

while commuting, such 

as public transit, biking, 

or walking. Loyola 

supports these efforts 

with discounted bike 

share and transit 

benefits. The Lake 

Shore campus of Loyola 

is on the shores of Lake 

Michigan; it is a model 

for coastal development 

One of Loyola’s student-run businesses, Chainlinks is a full-service 

bike shop and rental program. Loyola also encourages alternative 

transportation with electric vehicle charging, protected bike corrals, 

transit passes, and discounted bike share participation.
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and stormwater management, with green infrastructure including rain gardens, 

permeable paving, and native gardens.

Loyola’s green cleaning policy assures that over 95 percent of all cleaners are lowor no-toxicity to keep residence halls safe and sustainable and protect workers. A 

Green Labs program addresses exposure to harmful products while encouraging 

waste diversion and energy efficiency. Transportation-related programs such as 

GoMove! and Bike2Campus Week support healthy lifestyles and provide students 

and employees with incentives to participate. Dining halls provide nutrition 

information and vegetarian and vegan options, and Loyola just opened a new dining 

hall to accommodate those with allergies, or with religious or other special food 

needs. Through its LeanPath program and other initiatives, the university has 

reduced food waste by 30 percent with tray-free dining, smaller portions, and a foodrecovery network chapter.

Loyola’s Ramble Outdoors program takes students on outdoor excursions including 

kayaking and camping trips, including to its own Retreat and Ecology campus in 

McHenry County, Illinois. This campus is set up for retreats by including a studentrun farm, ongoing ecological restoration, and a low- and high-ropes course for teambuilding and physical activity.

Loyola offers over 1,300 courses that address sustainability, and the University’s 

Institute of Environmental Sustainability is creating solutions to the major issues of 

climate change and environmental justice by combining environmental science with 

policy, business, and public health. The Institute of Environmental Sustainability

recently hosted its fourth annual Climate Change Conference. The event focused 

on the economics of climate, and it convened faculty and students from nine 

different countries as well as 13 of the 28 Jesuit colleges in the United States. 

Loyola offers nine different degrees that incorporate sustainability, including 

bachelor’s degrees, graduate dual degrees, and minors.

A greenhouse living and learning community for 70 first-year students combines 

residence life and learning to improve academic outcomes within and outside of the 

classroom. The undergraduate core curriculum was updated in 2012 to incorporate 

foundational environmental literacy concepts for all students. In a survey of 

incoming first-year students, 47 percent said that Loyola’s commitment to 

sustainability was important or very important in their decision to attend Loyola.

Academic efforts are not limited to the classroom or lab. Learning communities 

incorporate sustainability with the Greenhouse learning community, First Year 

Research Experience, and the Social Justice learning community addressing 

environmental justice and sustainability topics. Immersive learning experiences are 

offered in sustainability-focused study-abroad programs to Belize, China, Sweden, 
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and Iceland. The engaged-learning requirement was recently expanded to explicitly 

identify sustainability efforts, and there are some 200 sustainability-related 

internships available both on campus and with off-campus partners each year. 

Student-run enterprises including the Loyola Farmers Market, Biodiesel Program, 

ChainLinks Bike Shop, Urban Agriculture, and the Retreat and Ecology Campus 

Farm all blend learning and work experiences in support of academics.

Loyola employees engage in sustainability efforts through direct service days in 

neighboring Chicago communities. Human resources-based programs such as Bike 

to Work Week, Go Move Challenge, and Fall EcoChallenge encourage wellness and 

sustainability. Recognized for community service and engagement by the Carnegie 

Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service, all students 

participate in engaged-learning requirements, serving the community directly 

throughout the year. 

Loyola consistently is ranked in the top 10 universities in the nation for its 

commitment to sustainability through engagement with students, faculty, and the 

community. Loyola students helped develop a climate action plan for the Edgewater 

neighborhood in suburban Chicago. More recently, Loyola organized a new 

sustainability committee consisting of high-level administrators to oversee and 

implement the climate action plan and student sustainability fund. The Green 

Initiative Fund, a Community Sustainable Action Scholarship, the Compost Network, 

Storm-water Stories, food donations, and other sustainability programs bring 

Loyola’s sustainability strengths into surrounding neighborhoods.

To address its endowment management, Loyola has updated its investment policy 

with new responsible and sustainable investing principles. These are being 

introduced to the school’s money managers in order to remove any exposure to 

fossil fuel investments and create effective investments into emerging clean energy 

and socially just companies. This work builds off Loyola’s shareholder advocacy 

committee, which led shareholder action (filings and co-filings) on several issues, 

including water privatization and fossil fuel extraction financing. 

Loyola continues to broaden and deepen engagement efforts with the neighboring 

community and with the development of Lake Shore Community Partners, an 

initiative to develop relationships in four priority areas: health, business, education, 

and safety. A community clinic addresses health disparities; RogersEdge, a 

campus-community business improvement district, supports local small businesses; 

partnerships with area schools address education challenges; and partnerships with 

police and community groups create safe communities. All four of these initiatives 

have environmental elements that are community-driven and Loyola-supported. At 

Loyola, sustainability isn’t just something that stays on campus; it is a critical part of 

the university’s commitment to be an agent for social justice in the community.
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Indiana

Goshen Community Schools, Goshen, Indiana

An energy cost avoidance of over $4 million

Goshen Community Schools (GCS) is a public-school system in northern Indiana, 

consisting of nine school buildings on nine campuses. GCS is a suburban district of 

approximately 36 square miles located in the city of Goshen in Elkhart County. The 

district has a combined enrollment of 6,655 students in prekindergarten through 12th 

grade, 65 percent of whom are eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch. Sixty-one 

percent of students identify as minorities, and 23 percent are English language 

learners. Each of the school buildings focuses on sustainability in its own unique 

way, but remains part of a larger unified district team. A staff representative from 

each building serves on the district green team, which works together to promote 

sustainability.

In 2009, district administrators implemented an energy conservation program in 

collaboration with Cenergistic, and they have hired a full-time energy education 

specialist to guide the program. During the first year, Goshen gathered baseline 

data including weather 

information and utility use. 

Each Goshen school building 

has received an ENERGY 

STAR award. In, 2012 the 

district received an ENERGY 

STAR Leader recognition. The 

GCS energy conservation 

program has resulted in an 

energy cost avoidance of $4.4 

million, representing a 25 

percent savings. Seven of the 

nine GCS buildings have an 

average ENERGY STAR 

rating of 88, and GCS is 

resolving energy issues in the 

remaining two buildings. 

Thermal comfort is addressed 

by a comprehensive 

automated energy 

management system, which is used to remotely operate and monitor all buildings.

Goshen High School Super Mileage Team goes beyond the 

usual shop class. Cars are designed to achieve 1,000 miles per 

gallon.
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In addition to looking at the mechanics and the envelope of the building, the energy 

conservation program educates staff on how to reduce consumption of electricity, 

natural gas, water, and other utilities. Waterford Elementary School has 1,173 solar 

panels, each with 260 watts of capacity for a total system size of 304,980 watts. 

Goshen High School has 1,242 solar panels, each with 260 watts of capacity, for a 

total system size of 322,920 watts. High school students can access the data from 

the solar array as part of their curriculum. 

The district has installed water-bottle filling stations. Every school has a purposeful 

recycling program that includes student involvement and education. A select few 

GCS campuses are equipped with irrigation systems, which are equipped with rain 

sensors, and they are closely monitored by groundskeepers to assure water-use 

efficiency and conservation. Due to the city’s thoughtful planning and foresight, 

students attending Goshen schools have the option of walking and riding bikes on 

well-cared-for walkways and trails.

The GCS custodians in each building use carefully chosen, eco-friendly cleaning 

solutions manufactured to limit caustic chemicals. Microfiber cloths are used to 

reduce the use of chemical cleaners. High-traffic carpeted areas are vacuumed 

daily to remove potential allergens and to control asthma. A proactive pest 

management system is in place that uses sticky strips; the system also assures that 

any building cracks are immediately filled, and that door sweeps are repaired. Strict 

no-vehicle-idling policies are in place. When a fertilizer is needed to enhance the 

soil in specific greenways, groundskeepers use a fertilization mixture that is twothirds organic.

A coordinated school health committee addresses and evaluates ways to improve 

the health and wellness of students and staff. Active members of this committee 

include community health professionals, parents, mental health professionals, Latino 

Health Coalition representatives, and school representatives from each of the eight 

coordinated school health components. GCS has its own health and wellness 

center, staffed by a physician, nurse practitioner, nurses, and medical assistants. 

Additionally, wellness screenings and health risk appraisals are available each year 

in each school building. Free nutritious snacks are available during after-school 

hours to students in all grades attending any after-school activity.

From 2016 through 2018, Goshen Health sponsored a community garden. Goshen 

Middle School students planted, tended to, and harvested garden produce. Goshen 

College athletes visit elementary schools to teach sports skills and nutrition. The 

college also offered a heart camp for students to focus on nutrition and physical 

activity. Indiana University dental school comes to Goshen schools yearly to check 

teeth and offer sealants to second- and third-graders. Since 2013, GCS schools 

have participated in a run the halls program, which encourages students to track 
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their time and/or miles in after-school running and walking. GCS has used its 

purchasing power to advocate for healthier lunch options from vendors. Local foods 

have been showcased.

Students identify real-world sustainability problems and work to find solutions for 

them. Often, the results of their inquiries, projects, and findings are presented as 

solutions to the GCS board or at community events. Students have built an electric 

car through Greenpower, an electric car challenge for middle and high schoolers; 

addressed sediment from stormwater runoff as a major cause of pollution in 

waterways; and designed prosthetics for a calf born with malformed hooves. Other 

notable projects at the high school include the development of a super-mileage 

urban concept car and a solar-powered automatic chicken coop door for a local 

veterinarian. High school students who are fascinated with the oceanic world can 

travel to the Florida Keys to study marine biology over spring break.

From Early Years International Baccalaureate to project-based to expedition 

learning, elementary schools use a range of methods to offer environmental 

education. They study the nature of tornadoes, the damage they can cause, critical 

statistics, and other relevant points of inquiry. They prepare severe weather kits, 

host a meteorologist, and invite the community in for a presentation of their findings. 

They have participated in a carbon footprint reduction challenge, looking for 

opportunities to conserve and reduce waste. They researched having a school 

garden, wind turbine, and replaced all low energy-efficient light bulbs in the building.

Music classes repurpose common castoff items such as toilet paper tubes for 

percussion instruments and empty tissue boxes with rubber bands for stringed 

instruments. Partnering with Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen 

College, one school celebrates an annual environmental learning day, during which 

students study geological features such as peat bogs, a marl pit, and glacial and 

gravel formations. At another school, students have tackled the problem that the 

wind can create sweeping across a treeless prairie. Their inquiry was followed by 

their proposal for a row of evergreen trees and the planting of a natural windbreak.

Northern Indiana Public Service Company has partnered with the GCS over the past 

six years, providing every fifth-grade student with an energy-reduction kit as part of 

their curriculum. The kits include LED lights, LED night lights, an air filter aerator, 

high-efficiency kitchen and bathroom sink faucet heads, high-efficiency shower 

heads, a water bag so that students can measure and record how much water 

shower heads and sinks are using in the house, and a digital thermometer. 

At the middle school, over 500 eighth-grade students benefit each year from a 

partnership with Elkhart County Soil and Water Conservation District, which provides 

an outdoor learning day at the nearby Environmental Center and River Greenway 
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Trail. Groups rotate through outdoor stations to study the river’s macroinvertebrates 

and what they reveal about the health of the river. Students analyze the river’s 

riparian vegetation, hike to discover terrestrial biomes, and learn the history of the 

landscape. They participate in hands-on fish identification, and they learn what the 

presence of various fish means about the river’s pollution level. They study the river 

flow and velocity, and they perform in a civil-service project while learning about and 

removing invasive plants. 

Goshen Middle School science classes problem-solved a drain-water issue and 

erosion on their school campus. Students developed proposals for applicable 

solutions, resulting in the use of rain barrels, water gardens, and drainage filters to 

stop sediment from entering the drain. Every summer, eighth-grade students may 

earn a high school physical education credit by participating in a trip to the Rocky 

Mountains in Colorado, where they camp, hike, and explore the great outdoors. The 

middle school also contains a challenge education course, an indoor climbing wall, a 

climbing cargo net, and a swimming pool.

Iowa

Davenport Community School District, Iowa

A utility benchmarking behemoth

Davenport Community School District currently uses Utility Manager software and 

two benchmarking tools to monitor its natural gas, electric, and water consumption 

— ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager beginning in 2000, and B3 Benchmarking 

beginning in 2010. Davenport uses SchoolDude to manage its facility work orders, 

helping to address issues quickly and return buildings to optimal performance with 

less waste. Fourteen Davenport schools have geothermal systems, and the district 

currently is reviewing solar proposals for several schools.

Analysis of data and trends has informed planning and decision-making districtwide. 

This has led to systemic upgrades; energy-efficiency projects; use of maintenance 

management software; adoption and implementation of temperature guidelines; new 

school board policies and administrative regulations; long-range facilities plans that 

use sustainability as a guiding principle; and an energy-management plan. Many 

schools have received LED fixture or light bulb replacements in the past several 

years. Davenport also incorporated occupancy sensors that control not only lights, 

but also HVAC in classrooms. Davenport has the lowest gas and electric cost per 

square foot of over 34 Iowa public school districts reporting utility data in B3 

Benchmarking. 
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Davenport Schools has offered recycling in all school buildings since 1998. Tracking 

districtwide recycling showed that participating schools increased their recycling by 

104 percent between the 2016–17 school year and 2017–18 school year. The 

district has saved over $8,000 in just three years by reducing use of disposable trays 

in cafeterias. 

During demolition projects, the district’s construction team repurposes items where 

and when possible. Other usable items, such as old doors, windows, and light 

fixtures, are taken to the local Habitat for Humanity’s Restore Center to be used or 

recycled. Previously an intermediate school, the J.B. Young Opportunity Center 

(JBYOC) was renovated in 2018 with energy-efficient upgrades and repurposed to 

provide a collaborative learning space for community organizations.

The JBYOC has a commercial kitchen, which is available to the community for 

cooking classes. Students can volunteer and learn about food safety and sanitation, 

customer service, food preparation, menu planning, and barista skills. The addition 

of an outdoor classroom as a formal learning space on every campus is required as 

a standard educational specification in the district’s long-range facilities plan. 

Davenport uses biophilic design approaches in all major improvement projects.

In 2015, the district began offering every student a Chromebook or tablet for use 

during their learning career. With some 25,000 devices being used across the 

district, the introduction of this technology has meant a significant reduction in paper 

use. For over 10 years, all elementary, and many intermediate and high schools, 

have used interactive whiteboards, projectors, or Smartboards. By using the online 

platform Virtual Backpack, teachers communicate with students and parents without 

distributing paper flyers.

Davenport began offering food-share tables in September 2017. During cafeteria 

breakfasts and lunches at all schools, students are encouraged to place unopened, 

prewrapped items on a designated share table located in the cafeteria. Other 

students then are welcome to take those items for themselves. Food service staff 

members, teachers, and cafeteria posters remind students to take only what they will 

eat, allowing the district to donate thousands of pounds of food to local food 

pantries. 

Davenport offers students free CitiBus services on all City of Davenport transit 

routes every day of the week. This has helped families organize their transportation 

needs, habituated students to using public transit, and reduced transportation 

emissions. Davenport started a pool-vehicle program to provide safe and efficient 

vehicles for employee and student travel. Through this program, employees may 

reserve a car, van, or SUV from the district's fleet, free of charge. This program is 

widely used, and it has significantly reduced the number of single-occupancy 
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vehicles on Iowa roads. By rerouting district bus routes, Davenport reduced the 

number of miles buses traveled in the 2017–18 school year by 333,122.

Several sites include native plant gardens that reduce runoff. A few Davenport 

teachers have developed curricula focused on water management. These curricula 

are used in several science classes throughout the district, from elementary schools 

to high schools. Recognizing the value of stormwater management and waterquality conservation education that Davenport students are receiving, the City of 

Davenport Public Works Department has waived thousands of dollars of the district’s 

stormwater fees.

The fresh fruit and veggie 

program provides students with 

the opportunity to sample some 

not-so-common fruits and 

vegetables. Students have been 

able to try rutabaga, turnips, 

jicama, watermelon radishes, 

parsnips, colored cauliflower, 

rainbow carrots, black grapes, 

and grapefruit. Educational 

menus are handed out to 

teachers so they can provide 

nutritional information to students 

when passing out the fruit or 

vegetable. Through Pick A Better 

SnackTM, elementary schools 

offer gardens and nutrition 

education.

Davenport Schools has 

implemented a school-based 

mental-health model. Through 

face-to-face contact, as well as 

phone calls and email, 

Davenport’s learning supports 

specialist for prekindergarten 

through 12th grade, as well as a 

the Project AWARE mental health 

manager, coordinate with several 

community organizations to make 

referrals, provide consultations, and/or discuss collaborative efforts to meet the 

needs of students and families Davenport also has a partnership with the Vera 

The wood for these Davenport Community School District 

gym floors came from a processing mill in Merrill, 

Wisconsin; and these maple trees came from Wisconsin 

and Michigan. Sourcing wood regionally cuts transportation 

distance, and, therefore, emissions.
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French Community Mental Health Center for professional mental health services in 

schools.

Davenport participates in Iowa Local Food Day, supporting local farmers and 

procuring produce through the lowest-emission method possible. A FoodCorps

service member assigned to elementary schools works to improve student health 

and wellness by offering educational programming through school garden clubs that 

introduce and encourage healthy food choices. Other lessons lead students through 

preparing a healthy and delicious dish to enjoy afterward.

Efforts spearheaded by the District Wellness Committee, including the District 

Wellness Policy, aim to improve student and staff health and wellness by integrating 

education into daily life in different and creative ways. Practices such as green 

cleaning, integrated pest management, and use of the EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools 

Action Kit reduce student exposure to harmful chemicals and particles and provide 

healthy learning environments. 

Project-based learning and new outdoor learning environments have allowed 

Davenport teachers to teach their students that environmental concepts can be 

integrated into ideas beyond those provided in a textbook. Some Davenport high 

schools offer the opportunity for students to self-develop a capstone project, while 

others have several classes in which sustainability-related projects have been 

integrated and are ongoing. One high school offers a college-credit course that 

explores a range of environmental issues through project-based learning.

Davenport Community Schools have created outdoor classrooms and gardens in 

which lessons can be demonstrated. There are 10 outdoor classrooms, five school

gardens, and two greenhouses, as well as several additional settings in which 

schools have created a hands-on learning experience for their students. These 

include the MidCity High School Urban Farm. This high school’s environmental 

studies class runs the school farm during the school year, integrating engineering, 

plot planning, planting and harvesting, critical thinking, and collaborative learning.

The FarmBot was a collaborative STEM project developed with West High School 

technology students, who created a robot; Mid-City High School building trades 

students, who constructed garden beds; and Buffalo Elementary students, who 

benefit from a learning garden supporting their fourth- and fifth-grade STEAM 

curriculum. The FarmBot is used in the Buffalo Elementary school garden to plant 

seeds, measure soil moisture content, and water crops. 

Kenya Water Project is a partnership between one Davenport high school and a 

village in Kenya to create water-filtration systems with regional materials. The 

collaborative STEM project gives students an opportunity to work on a real-world 
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environmental problem that requires a sustainable solution. In another project, 

engineering and architecture students are transforming a teacher’s home into a netzero residence with solar panels.

In all Davenport middle schools, science classes are required to participate in an 

environmental project during the spring term. Sixth-graders work on a watershed 

project; seventh-graders focus on a local environmental issue of their choice; and 

eighth-graders are challenged with choosing a project centered around a global 

environmental issue. Outside of the classroom, students have become engaged in 

environmental and sustainability learning through clubs and events. 

The district has partnered with the University of Northern Iowa Green Iowa 

AmeriCorps’ Sustainable Schools Program to host two full-time volunteer 

sustainability coordinators, as well as to offer high-school students summer positions 

and scholarship opportunities working on sustainability-related projects. These 

volunteers, who are situated within the district’s curriculum department, have 

focused on integrating climate-change teachings and sustainability-based student 

projects into classrooms.

Sioux City Community Schools, Sioux City, Iowa

Super savers! 

Sioux City Community Schools has implemented an energy-management program 

using best conservation practices, human behavioral change, a culture of 

sustainability, and the latest, cutting-edge green technologies. Since September 

2012, Sioux City Schools has become established as a leader in energy 

conservation in the state of Iowa. Over six years, the district has saved some $3.75 

million in energy costs, representing 28.3 percent of an expected energy expenditure 

of $13.21 million, according to Energy CAP. 

From 2013 to 2015, the district invested nearly $2.5 million in retrofitting windows, 

replacing insulation, adding covers to high school pools, adding frequency drives to 

motors, and retrofitting lighting with more efficient, lower wattage bulbs. The district 

replaced 50,000 lights with higher-efficiency bulbs in 18 buildings, and it opened the 

district’s first all-LED building, contributing to a 22 percent reduction in energy used 

in lighting. Since 2012, the district has engaged in a wholesale cultural and 

behavioral management program that has reduced the annual electrical 

consumption from approximately 19 to 14 million kilowatt-hours annually.
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To save natural gas, the district has built five new geothermal elementary buildings, 

with one more currently under construction. To save water, the district has 

developed water conservation purposefully, managing irrigation by having most 

practice fields watered naturally by irrigation wells. Sensors are used in more than 

90 percent of the district’s handwashing stations to conserve water. Automatic pool 

covers at the high schools that are deployable and retractable in 90 seconds have 

saved thousands of dollars on chemical usage, natural gas for heating, and the 

evapo-transpiration loss of water that otherwise would occur.

The Sioux City Community School District participates concurrently with the 

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and Energy CAP to track utility use. 

Sioux City has six propanefueled buses, and it is 

thoroughly committed to 

preserving the environment 

by mitigating waste. 

Throughout the district, 

water-bottle filling stations 

save hundreds of thousands 

of plastic bottles. In 2012, 

the district began saving 

$95,500 annually by initiating 

the use of hard plastic 

reusable and washable trays.

The district monitors 

humidity, carbon dioxide 

levels, and thermal comfort to 

save energy in accordance 

with EPA recommendations 

and guidance.

More than 1,000 staff 

engaged in free biometric 

screening and wellness 

programs offered by the 

district and incentivized by the health insurance company UHC. Some 500 staff 

members took advantage of a weight-loss program, collectively shedding more than 

1,340 pounds. As a result of health-focused programs ranging from workplace 

safety education to flu shots to smoking cessation, hospitalization and time loss has 

decreased over the last five years.

In Sioux City Community Schools, North High students engage in 

a safely conducted prairie burn in order to study its ecological 

effects.
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For students, a robust physical education and sports program has been 

supplemented by a walking school bus program and grant-funded fun equipment, 

such as climbing walls and innovative exercise equipment. The district has had a 

JROTC program in which students engage in physical training weekly. Students are 

offered salad bars, and several schools are home to community gardens that allow 

students to taste the “fruits” of their labors. The district uses the I-Smile@School 

program, which provides dental screenings, dental sealants, fluoride treatment, and 

education to second- and third-grade students with a licensed dental hygienist and 

dentist. 

The operations and maintenance staff use guidance from the EPA Energy Savings 

Plus Health: IAQ Guidelines. Staff discern proper humidity levels in new 

construction constant volume units by using humidistats. The also ensures plenty of 

fresh air in accordance with ASHRAE 62.1 through best practices, as well as by 

using carbon dioxide sensors to monitor levels in many areas of new construction. 

With the district’s guidelines, thermal comfort is carefully considered, while balancing 

the goals of the energy conservation program. In the construction of new buildings, 

window design and “daylight harvesting” help provide natural sunlight, which has 

been shown to improve not only ambience but student test scores. Contaminant 

controls include high-quality Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value-rated filters in all 

HVAC applications. The district’s Presto X integrates comprehensive, preventive 

pest management control with scheduled programmatic reviews to ensure the 

healthiest of classroom environments across all schools. All district chemicals, 

except for disinfectants, are green-certified by the EPA.

Teachers and staff consistently teach the value of conservation. West High students 

take a Future Ready course, in which they analyze the energy efficiency of their own 

school building, as well as of businesses in the community, with a cost-payback 

analysis in energy saved. The North High School Prairie Project has planted a 

short-grass prairie as an example of sustainability, as it requires zero maintenance, 

while students benefit from its aesthetics, biodiversity, and studying the economics 

of its production and maintenance. Several elementary teachers in the district 

provide aerospace lessons using educational materials from NASA, teaching the 

mechanics of gravity and allowing students to develop their own theories. 

Districtwide, fourth-grade students participate in a program called KidWind, in which 

they learn about the importance of wind energy as they research, design, test, and 

improve wind turbine blades. Students in elementary schools work on Earth Day 

activities such as learning about the efficiency of cars, nature activities, and 

recycling. At all levels, the energy specialist for the district engages students and 

staff to see the quantifiable effect of their efforts.
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Kentucky

Tates Creek Elementary, Lexington, Kentucky

A Green Creek Team leads environmental learning

Tates Creek Elementary (TCE), on the southeast side of Lexington, is home to 659 

students and over 100 faculty and staff members. The student population is 33 

percent white, 42 percent black, and 12 percent Hispanic. Almost 79 percent of 

students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, enabling all students to receive free 

and reduced-price breakfast and lunch through the Community Eligibility Provision. 

The TCE community includes 16 percent English-language learners and 18 percent 

special-education students.

Tates Creek has received several district sustainability honors and formed a Green 

Creek Team, which meets during the school day and includes students in grades 

one through five. The school also has hired a wellness coach and environmental 

coordinator.

The campus has a fully staffed pediatric health clinic on site for students and the 

surrounding community. The clinic, which offers flu shots, vaccinations, and checkups, sees some 400 students per month. Dental and vision screening also are 

conducted on a regular basis. TCE has a resource center that provides clothing for 

students, food bags, and home visits to help with truancy issues. Wellness is a 

special class in the curricular rotation to help students focus on physical and mental 

health. TCE is the first school in its district to have a full‐time wellness coach, and 

each classroom has a “wellness corner” to help students feel calm and focused. 

TCE offers yoga to adults after school and Girls on the Run for fourth- and fifthgrade girls. The faculty and staff receive Trauma Informed training.

Students cultivate a vegetable garden in the courtyard. In the spring, each class 

receives seedlings to plant. The physical education teacher, along with parent 

volunteers, students, and district representatives, help to prepare the beds. The 

produce goes to the cafeteria and to students’ families. 

The school is colocated on a campus with middle and high schools. When Tates 

Creek Middle and High work on rain gardens and sustainability initiatives, 

elementary students have the chance to collaborate on volunteering, advanced 

learning, and the sharing of resources. TCE was remodeled in 2012, putting more 

sustainable measures into place. Lights are on automatic shut-off. Bathrooms 

feature air dryers. New energy-efficient windows replaced the old windows, and 

more natural light was added. Rubberized nonslip flooring lessens the need for 

chemical waxing.
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Tates Creek planted trees on school grounds in partnership with the local 

government, school district, and the University of Kentucky’s Urban Forest Initiative. 

The Urban Forest Initiative met with the Green Creek Team to teach about the parts 

of a tree and tree adoption. 

A regular recycling 

schedule has been 

established on 

Tuesdays and 

Thursdays. Small 

recycling bins have 

been replaced with 

large outdoor 

municipal waste 

receptacles that the 

school converted to 

recycling dumpsters. 

TCE ordered more 

class bins and now 

has one in every 

classroom and 

office.

Two water-bottle 

filling stations have 

been added, and 

students are encouraged to use refillable water bottles. A container for recycling 

plastic bags is in the front hallway and is emptied and taken to Kroger recycling bins 

about every two weeks. Faculty, staff, students, and parents have added a container

to collect plastic lids, which will be used to create a third upcycled plastic bench.

The Green Creek Team has worked hard to learn what is and is not in Lexington, 

Kentucky. The team has visited a materials recovery facility, where Lexington’s 

recyclables are sorted and sent off to recycling centers. The students have worked 

in teams to develop PowerPoint presentations on recycling to show to each class at 

TCE. 

Instead of an open container with napkins, the cafeteria now uses napkin 

dispensers, as well as reusable or biodegradable plastic trays rather than ones 

made from Styrofoam. Straws at lunch have been eliminated. At events, the school 

has moved to cloth tablecloths, which are washed in our energy- and water-efficient 

washer and dryer. The school has implemented Chromebooks in grades two 

The Tates Creek Elementary Green Creek team visits the materials 

recovery facility in Lexington, Kentucky, to see how the school’s recycling is 

sorted and shipped.
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through five, with first grade on the way, and faculty uses Google Docs and Google

Classroom to further reduce paper use. 

Tates Creek celebrates a walk-to-school day in the fall to inspire more alternative 

transportation use.

Each month the Green Creek Team conducts an energy audit of each classroom. 

They give the classrooms a note on how they are doing concerning energy 

conservation. Each class has light switches labeled to remind students to turn off 

the lights. Each teacher receives a checklist to complete during school breaks to 

reduce energy consumption. Appliances in the school are ENERGY STAR-rated. 

The school has reduced water consumption by 18 percent over four years.

The environmental curriculum has been coordinated with Bluegrass Greensource for 

supplies, information, and guest speakers, as well as with the NEED (National 

Energy Education Development) Project. 

The Green Creek Team also had a visit from a community member who uses plastic 

bags on a loom to make rugs and upcycles old clothes to make items to sell at craft 

fairs. 

In the fall of 2018, Bluegrass Greensource, along with the city of Lexington, offered a 

teacher environmental academy for five days. Several TCE faculty attended, from 

classroom teachers to special education teachers to math interventionists, as well as 

the STEM and environmental coordinators. Each day the academy focused on a 

different aspect of the environment. Water testing was done in conjunction with the 

wastewater treatment plant tour. Solid waste tours of a landfill, including leachate 

filtering and yard waste to mulch, was covered. Public transportation information 

was given to each participant, including details about electric buses, energy usage, 

and natural gas engines. The last day covered Project Wild, Project WET, and 

resources to use in class with all student levels. At the conclusion, each teacher 

received funds for a classroom project using information learned from the academy. 

Bluegrass Greensource has an educator assigned to TCE. This educator’s job is to 

help teach lessons on the environment, share information and supplies with 

classroom teachers, coordinate recycling pickup or questions, work with any grade 

level on projects to learn about the environment, and connect educators to 

community resources. 

Tates Creek has formed a Kentucky Energy for Youth team. Students read a 

fictional story about using coal for electrical power. Then, students took an overnight 

trip to a coal town and toured a coal mine no longer in use. Several teachers also 
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have attended NEED workshops to learn about energy sources and forms of energy. 

During a NEED workshop, teachers performed the same activities that students will 

do and received supplies for use in a classroom setting.

Saint Agnes School, Louisville, Kentucky

Passion for the environment leads to partnerships and big project plans

Saint Agnes School (SAS) is a private Catholic elementary school in the 

Archdiocese of Louisville. Founded in 1914, and with a current enrollment of 453 

students in prekindergarten through eighth grade, SAS’ mission is to shape young 

minds to be good stewards and to lead faith-based, mindful lives.

Saint Agnes shares a 32-acre campus with Saint Agnes Church, the Passionist 

Monastery, and the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center. The collective grounds offer 

a natural classroom to raise awareness; learn, discuss, and experience the local 

environment; and see how students’ positive actions can improve the communal 

space and provide a springboard to the local community and beyond. The SAS 

campus is home to a student-built and maintained pollinator garden, extensive 

wetlands that students helped create, a composting facility, and a center focused on 

Earth literacy.

A major focus for fourth-grade students is energy and environment. Students are 

taught about energy efficiency with the NEED (National Energy Education 

Development) curriculum, which focuses on what energy is, how it is generated, and 

how to use energy wisely. All aspects of energy efficiency are taught, from 

monitoring usage, to retrofitting existing spaces to increase efficiency, to building 

science. Students use project-based learning to make energy-usage measurements 

that directly influence energy efficiency policies around the school. These fourthgraders are then tasked as efficiency ambassadors, who teach other students about 

energy conservation.

Saint Agnes uses washable trays, glasses, and flatware in the lunchroom and 

encourages students to bring their own water bottles to school. Coffee grounds and 

vegetable waste are composted on site. Each classroom has dedicated recycling 

bins, and students oversee the recycling process. The middle-school grades have 

implemented the use of "digital lockers" to share documents, school flyers, and other 

large files, eliminating the need for excessive printing or emailing.

Recycling is integrated into SAS community events, as well. Saint Agnes hosts a 

carnival fundraiser each summer to support campus capital projects. Students from 
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the Saint Agnes Boy Scout Troop 4 play a significant role in recycling materials from 

the carnival. The scouts walk the grounds of the carnival, collecting and separating 

waste from recyclable items. In 2018, 420 pounds of aluminum cans, 370 pounds of 

plastic bottles, 385 pounds of cooking oil, 450 pounds of cardboard, and 810 pounds 

of sheet iron were recycled from the carnival. In addition, 138 pounds of food scraps 

were composted.

All students take part in a structured physical fitness curriculum. More than 70

percent of students participate in an organized sport at some point during the school 

year, with many students doing so every season. Saint Agnes has a no-cut policy, 

so every student can play on a team, regardless of ability or financial need. 

Prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first-grade students take part in the Minds in 

Motion curriculum, a kinesthetic approach encouraging students to integrate motion 

into the learning process, both in the classroom and on the campus green space. In 

the morning before the first 

bell, students are 

encouraged to use the gym. 

SAS takes part in the 

FitnessGram and the 

Presidential Youth Fitness 

Program.

All school employees are 

enrolled in Go365, a health 

and wellness program 

sponsored by Humana 

Health. Flu shots are offered 

to all staff, and 100 percent 

of the faculty is trained in 

CPR, first aid, and basic 

lifesaving techniques. 

Mindfulness classes are 

provided to all interested 

faculty, who in turn are 

encouraged to teach these 

practices to their students. Basic yoga is taught to prekindergarten and kindergarten 

students.

In the cafeteria, a salad bar is available every day. Sugary juices and soft drinks are 

not offered, and sweet treats are limited to special occasions.

Saint Agnes encourages neighborhood students to walk, bike, or carpool to school, 

offering crossing guards and bicycle racks. Students also learn about bike safety 

In their science curriculum, Saint Agnes students learn about how 

wetlands act as natural buffers, provide critical habitat for wildlife, 

mitigate flooding and help improve water quality. Saint Agnes 

students in grades 3-5 created and now maintain natural wetlands 

on campus.
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through an annual Bicycle Rodeo sponsored by Louisville’s Norton Hospital. 

Students participate in some walking field trips. Saint Agnes is an "idle-free" zone 

for all cars and school buses. In addition, indoor air filtration systems are used and 

maintained continuously, and cleaning agents used in the school are chosen based 

on their safety profile. Positive mental health is supported by a multifaceted 

counselling program. One-on-one and group counseling services are available to all 

students and families. Students are taught coping skills to deal with everyday life 

issues such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.

The school uses environmental concepts and ideas of sustainability to help teach 

science and engineering and to foster mathematical thinking across all grades. The 

science and math curricula rely on environmental examples to demonstrate the 

ideas that are taught. Students in prekindergarten and first and second grades use 

natural materials gathered from the campus to create art and learn about their 

environment, and they use recycled materials to learn about simple machines. 

Saint Agnes has a step-by-step stewardship program that begins in kindergarten 

and continues through the eighth grade, with each grade having a different focus. 

The fifth-grade stewardship focus is on people who are thirsty. Throughout the 

school year, students learn about challenges the planet faces in getting access to 

safe water, as well as simple steps and solutions we can take to mitigate these 

issues. Through a partnership with WaterStep, a nonprofit organization with a 

mission to provide safe water to communities in developing countries, Saint Agnes 

students hear from speakers and take a field trip to the Louisville Water Towers for a 

day of activities focused on water purification. Students also create and promote a 

shoe collection drive across the community each fall. These shoes are donated to 

WaterStep to help fund safe drinking water projects all over the world, and to help 

keep unwanted shoes out of landfills.

Younger classes learn about trees and their important role in the environment. Each 

year, students get their own tree to take home, plant, and nurture. In 2016, the thirdgrade class created a pollinator garden in conjunction with the Louisville Nature 

Center, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the University of 

Louisville. The students learned about the importance of pollinators in the 

environment, identification of indigenous Kentucky plants that attract pollinators, and 

threats from invasive species.

Students who take part in the daily after-school care program partnered with 

Common Earth Gardens and the Kentucky Refugee Ministries to build a garden with 

recently arrived refugees from Burundi in East Africa. Using a plot of land at the 

Earth and Spirit Center, the students and refugees learned from each other how to 

create an edible garden. During this process, participants were taught the concepts 

of sustainability, composting, nutrition, and self-reliance, and put them into action.
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The middle grades use recycled aluminum in science class to build boats to learn 

about volume measurement and water displacement, dissect owl pellets to learn 

about the food web, and build roller coasters out of discarded foam and paper rolls 

to learn about force and motion. Eighth-grade students select from several art 

electives as part of their curriculum. The Project Planning and Design class 

remodeled a school bathroom and was able to restore and reuse old bathroom tiles 

for the remodel.

Louisiana

Brookstown Middle School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Aquaman would be impressed by these aquaponics superheroes

Brookstown Middle School (BMS) is a Title I, urban, neighborhood school located in 

North Baton Rouge within the East Baton Rouge Parish school district. It is home to 

184 students in sixth through eighth grade, all of whom are eligible for free or 

reduced-price lunch. The student body is 96 percent African American, and 83 

percent of the students are identified as economically disadvantaged.

Brookstown replaced an 80-percent-efficient atmospheric boiler with a 95-percentefficient high-efficiency condensing boiler. T8 lightbulbs are used in all classrooms. 

Each room and hallway is equipped with lighting-occupancy motion sensors. Air 

conditioning and heating is turned off after school and during all weekends and 

holidays. All computer screens, Smartboards, and technology screens turn off after 

two minutes of non-use. The major school appliances, such as the faculty copier, 

school washing machine, school dryer, and refrigerator have ENERGY STAR labels. 

These upgrades, practices, and purchases have helped reduce energy consumption 

by 29 percent in the past three years, and they have reduced greenhouse gas 

emissions by 27 percent, as calculated in Portfolio Manager. 

The school uses sinks and handwashing stations with motion sensors and 

automatic-timed water faucets. Water fountains require students to apply hand 

pressure to run. Outside water connections and valves are kept locked except when 

in use and contain supervisory switches. BMS has reduced water consumption by 

14 percent over three years. All classes have moved to a paperless model, using 

Chromebooks to replace textbooks and assignments for students.

A large percentage of BMS students use alternative forms of transportation, such as 

bus riding (63 percent) and walking (21 percent). Sixteen percent of BMS students 

carpool to and from school. Athletic events are scheduled by the district middle 

school athletic director on the same day and at the same location for both boys’ and 
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girls’ teams so that teams travel together to maintain optimal school bus fleet 

efficiency.

Brookstown, which recently installed a water-bottle filling station, has designated a 

green team comprising students, faculty members, and parents or guardians. The 

green team has sponsored recycling drives for items such as BMS sweatshirts and 

bottle caps. The team sponsors a Green Week, during which teachers focus 

lessons in their subject on an environmental theme. 

The school follows EPA and Healthy Schools Campaign green cleaning guidelines. 

Routine cleaning is done when the building is unoccupied. Product inventory is 

maintained, copies of safety data sheets are kept, and product labels are read and 

followed. Products are inaccessible to students, are fragrance free, and meet Safer 

Choice standards and criteria. The city of East Baton Rouge and Brookstown also 

follow the EPA Tools for Schools criteria. 

Forty-six percent of students are 

enrolled in health classes that 

teach students about portion size, 

dietary guidelines, and the physical 

and mental problems that can be 

associated with poor dietary 

choices and lack of exercise. All 

students are enrolled in physical 

education or U.S. Army JROTC, 

which provide physical and outdoor 

activity to students. Grades 

participate in the Presidential Youth 

Fitness Program. Students and 

faculty have joint athletic 

participation, with organized events 

such as the student/faculty 

basketball and volleyball games 

supporting activity together.

Nutrition also is supported through 

the school’s robust aquaponics 

program. During the 2017–18 

school year, students harvested 21 

different types of lettuce from the 

aquaponics program, resulting in 

over 120 pounds of lettuce grown 

and served to students in the BMS 

At Brookstown Middle School, the aquaponics class 

oversees all water quality testing, data recording, and 

calculations.
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school cafeteria, guests at school functions, school board members, and East Baton 

Rouge parish staff and faculty members. During the first semester of the 2018–19 

school year, BMS harvested more than 140 pounds of leaf lettuce, helping to provide 

fresh, nutritious meals to students.

Students take ownership of the aquaponics program and labs. Students research 

the crops grown, water quality, effect of pollution on water, plant nutrition 

requirements, fish nutrition and health, environmental requirements for sustainability, 

crop diseases, fish diseases, growing mediums, and components of a successful 

aquaponics system.

The aquaponics class has a testing manager that assigns and oversees waterquality testing. A communications/media manager maintains an aquaponics website, 

takes photographs and videos, edits the videos, and submits a weekly “AquaChat,” 

which highlights achievements and challenges. The class chief operations manager 

oversees all management positions, maintains biosecurity and lab safety, and meets 

and greets lab visitors. The class systems manager ensures that the clarifiers and 

rooms are clean and all standard operating procedures for the aquaponics systems 

are followed. The class botanist is responsible for overseeing all harvesting, 

planting, transplanting, measuring and weighing, observing, and documentation 

procedures involving the plants (including cafeteria delivery and scheduling). The 

class zoologist is responsible for overseeing all activities that involve the fish, 

ranging from calculation food requirements to weighing to harvesting the fish when 

they are ready. 

The aquaponics class promotes STEM interest, confidence in STEM skills, and 

enhances students’ value of and access to STEM careers. This class focuses on 

real-world issues, applies rigorous math and science in context, immerses students 

in hands-on activities, uses open-ended exploration guided by the engineering 

design process, allows for student creativity and choice, and involves students in 

productive teamwork and leadership skills.

In addition to hydroponics, aquaponics, and health courses, the school’s Junior 

Cadet Corps has an environmental component that includes participation in 

community cleaning projects. Environmental careers in the military are an area of 

focus. The school’s speech course integrates environmental debates, while the 

marketing class addresses how companies are addressing sustainability issues 

when advertising.

English Language Arts teachers also use environmental articles in their reading 

lessons when teaching reading and writing skills. Writing topics are assigned to 

students throughout the school year. In art class, students design posters to 

participate in annual district environmental outreach competitions. The social 
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studies curriculum includes units on the history of oil spills and their environmental 

impact, human and natural disasters affecting the environment and ecosystem, 

farming, and agriculture.

The science curriculum includes environmental and sustainability-focused units on 

energy, food webs, ecosystems, coastal erosion and preservation, the water cycle, 

body systems, diseases, climate and weather, natural disasters, human effect on the 

environment, natural resources, renewable and nonrenewable resources, 

conservation of energy, plants, and animals. The student-centered instruction 

develops skills such as asking questions and defining problems, developing and 

using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting 

data, using mathematics and computational thinking, constructing explanations, and 

designing solutions.

Maryland

Captain James E. Daly Elementary School, Germantown, Maryland

Our neighborhood, our watershed 

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) was a 2013 U.S. Department of 

Education Green Ribbon School District Sustainability Awardee, with 206 schools in 

the district. Of that number, a handful stand out for their sustainability pursuits. 

Captain James E. Daly Elementary School (Daly) is a Title I school, with 75 percent 

of its students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch, and 45 percent in the 

English for Speakers of Other Languages program. Daly’s motto, recited every day 

during morning announcements is “A = Act responsibly; B = Be respectful; and C = 

Care for ourselves, others, and the environment, because if we do then you will be a 

Daly success!”

Daly students and staff focus on energy conservation, reusing and recycling, water 

conservation, and living healthy lives in harmony with the environment, while 

simultaneously teaching and learning environmental education through formal and 

informal instruction. Daly was first certified a Maryland Green School in 2012 and 

recertified in 2016. The school now is working on its second recertification, due in 

2020. The school celebrates an annual Earth Day Fair and it is the recipient of 

multiple awards for energy conservation and recycling. 

Kindergartners study mealworms to learn the life cycle of the dark wing beetle, plant 

grass seeds and lima beans. Students also compare life cycles of various living 

organisms and visit the MCPS Kingsley Environmental Center (KEC) to observe 

plants and animals. Kindergarten students observe bird beaks and build model 

beaks. First-graders use the story of the “Three Little Pigs” to study sustainable 
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structures as they build houses and test strength. They also make art from recycled 

materials, learn about the Chesapeake Bay watershed using the Enviroscape 

program, and look at ways to protect the environment. To focus on conservation, 

students learn about and build animal habitats, grow plants from seeds, and even 

measure the water needed to wash hands. 

Second-grade students learn science and nutrition as they plant salad greens, care 

for them, collect data on them, and, finally, eat them. They learn about different 

ecosystems, and they visit the KEC to study the effects of erosion on forest and 

streams. They also learn about protecting the environment, and they produce 

informational writing regarding the water cycle and water conservation. Thirdgraders learn the positive and negative effect of human-made items on the 

environment. They observe organic and 

inorganic materials and observe 

decomposition rates; learn about 

reducing, reusing, and recycling; and visit 

the KEC to learn about invasive species.

Fourth-grade students learn 

environmental sustainability through a 

project-based learning unit called Our 

Neighborhood, Our Watershed. They 

research renewable and nonrenewable 

resources and compare the 

environmental impacts of each. Fifthgrade students study human effect on 

environments, and they build robots out 

of trash to practice resource 

conservation.

Some 90 percent of Daly staff has 

participated in professional development 

in environmental and sustainable 

education, including Project WET, Project 

WILD, and Project Learning Tree. The environmental field is well represented 

during an annual career day for young pupils.

Daly has one of the strongest and largest school-based School Energy and 

Recycling Team (SERT) groups among all elementary schools in MCPS, which 

consists of 40 fourth- and fifth-grade students and is led by a school counselor and 

the building service manager. While all schools in MCPS have school-based 

SERTs, Daly consistently has had the largest and most active school-based team. 

Green team student leaders wear SERT aprons and go through the building 

Second grade students at Captain James E. 

Daly Elementary School learn science and 

nutrition as they plant salad greens, care for 

them, collect data, and eat them.
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collecting recyclable products. They visit classrooms to teach other students about 

proper recycling, post signs about water conservation, and recycle crayons. 

Annually, SERT students visit the local recycling center to witness the full process of 

recycling. Students come back to school highly motivated to continue their efforts.

Many teachers use task lamps at their desks instead of overhead lighting when the 

classrooms are not occupied. The staff and students monitor to ensure that doors 

and windows are kept closed to avoid outside air from entering. The school reduced 

its electricity use by 16 percent over two years.

Hazardous chemicals from Daly are picked up by a licensed hazardous waste 

contractor for disposal in accordance with applicable regulations. The school’s 

green team works diligently to make sure all school discarded material, including 

lunch trash and recycling, is separated and placed in the proper bins to eliminate 

contamination. Ninety percent of all cleaning products in use are Green Sealcertified.

To manage IAQ, the school’s HVAC systems are equipped with MERV 8 air filters. 

Air filters are changed quarterly to ensure optimum filtration and good IAQ. To 

manage elevated humidity, portable dehumidifiers are provided where necessary. 

Wi-fi sensors that monitor temperature and humidity remotely also are placed in 

areas where excessive indoor moisture has been documented. Through the 

implementation of an integrated pest management program, exposure to asthma 

triggers is reduced. 

Daly uses the Whole School, Whole Child, and Whole Community model, which 

encompasses all of the eight critical components of coordinated school health. A 

school wellness committee has overseen mindfulness, yoga, and restorative justice 

initiatives. Teachers encourage students to participate in the breakfast-in-theclassroom program, which is available to all students at no cost. In addition, the 

school offers flexible seating in all classrooms; a Girls on the Run club; and dental, 

vision, and counseling clinics on-site.

Daly collaborates with the Audubon Naturalist Society, which provides an afterschool 

environmental club, called Unplug and Play, and assists with the salad table 

instruction for second-grade students. Another partner, Manna Food, a local food 

bank, sends a special bus to Daly school a few times a year to teach nutrition and 

present healthy recipes to students and their families. An important partner for 

Hispanic students at Daly is Identity, from which students receive assistance with 

academics, including environmental literacy.
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Calvert County Public Schools, Prince Frederick, Maryland

A generation of environmental education on the Chesapeake Bay

Calvert County, Maryland. is a mixture of rural and suburban areas. The district 

encompasses some 2.5 million square feet of facility space and has a $3.25 million 

electricity budget. Calvert County Public Schools (CCPS) currently enrolls 16,077 

students in prekindergarten through grade 12 and is the largest employer in Calvert 

County.

The first Calvert County school was certified as a Maryland Green School in the 

spring of 2009. Now all 24 prekindergarten through grade 12 schools, as well as 

and one technical academy in the district, are certified Maryland Green Schools, 

making Calvert the only county in the state to have 100 percent of its schools 

certified in this statewide 

program. The vast majority also 

participate in at least one other 

green school certification 

program. NWF’s Eco-Schools 

USA is an internationally 

recognized school sustainability 

program. A school striving to 

become an NWF Eco-School 

can pursue sustainability 

pathways as it progresses 

through the seven-step process. 

There are 22 CCPS institutions 

currently registered as NWF 

Eco-Schools.

The district reduced energy 

consumption 17 percent over a 

10-year period. CCPS has 

three schools that use geothermal energy as the source of heating and cooling, and 

it has one geothermal school under construction. The district also has one school 

under construction that is expected to become LEED Silver-certified. CCPS 

employs a dedicated energy and environmental specialist, whose priority is to 

reduce energy consumption. Projects include LED upgrades, HVAC upgrades, and 

the promotion of behavioral change. Nearly all CCPS schools and administrative 

offices operate on a building-automated system that helps to reduce energy 

consumption.

Calvert County Public Schools seventh grade students 

prepare to rake for submerged aquatic vegetation on 

Cocktown Creek. 
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Two full-time water specialists are on staff for all testing of nonpublic water systems 

in the district. Individual schools work toward water conservation and education 

through storm drain stenciling, rain gardens, cisterns, native plantings, public 

awareness posters, announcements, and erosion and sediment control.

Paperless initiatives to reduce costs and waste have increased CCPS’ recycling rate 

by 4 percent over one school year. The district has acquired laptops for all thirdand sixth-grade classes for a one-to-one device experience. CCPS has 

implemented an online learning management system called Schoology that teachers 

use to post classwork and homework electronically.

As a rural community, CCPS relies on buses to help reduce the number of vehicles 

on the road. Over the past two years, CCPS aggressively has replaced its aging 

maintenance fleet with more fuel-efficient vehicles, and the district purchased its first 

electric vehicle in the summer of 2018. Schools post no-idling signs.

The whole district pest 

management policy permits 

pesticides to be used only after 

determining that the nontoxic 

options are unrealistic or have been 

tried unsuccessfully. The least 

hazardous pesticide is then 

selected, with the potential for 

exposure minimized. All school 

custodial cleaning agents are 

nontoxic.

Each school has a wellness policy, 

and all negotiated labor 

agreements offer a stipend for 

employees through a partnership 

with the local hospital and fitness center. In addition to participating in an annual 

farm-to-school celebration, CCPS has worked to increase its local food offerings 

every year. Local meats, corn-on-the-cob, and an assortment of dark leafy greens 

have been incorporated into school meals with overwhelming acceptance. Other 

nutrition efforts include fruit and vegetable bars, a food backpack program for needy 

students, and student food shows.

Environmental education began at CCPS over 25 years ago as a single-grade-level 

program collaboration between the local department of natural resources and the 

school district. This collaboration has grown into the CHESPAX districtwide 

environmental education program through which students in kindergarten, first, 

Calvert County Public Schools third grade students 

seine to look for potential sources of food for 

diamondback terrapins to determine whether Flag Pond 

would be an appropriate release site.
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second, third, fifth, seventh, and eighth grades engage in field experiences 

connected with their class-based science curriculum. Students in fifth and seventh 

grades engage in a MWEE. In this way, CHESPAX programming works with 

approximately 10,000 students each year. 

The first-grade student service-learning project allows students the opportunity to 

learn about the importance of pollinators. Students use their schoolyard site to 

become familiar with the basic elements of insect needs and structures. They travel 

to Battle Creek Cypress Swamp or Ward Farm for more advanced study. At these 

sites, students learn how different pollinators have their needs met and pollinate the 

food we eat. As another component of the lesson, students engage in an 

“Engineering is Elementary” unit to create a hand pollinator.

In fourth grade, students learn through science instruction about energy and the 

amount needed to run various electrical devices. Students then apply that 

understanding in language arts classes in a unit related to their energy footprint. 

They read the book Energy Island, and then investigate their school as an “energy 

island.” They use the energy reports created in the facilities department to see how 

their school’s current energy use compares to prior years’ energy use.

The middle school science service-learning curriculum provides a meaningful 

service to the community. For over 20 years, seventh-grade students in Calvert 

County have helped the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a study of submerged 

aquatic vegetation throughout the Chesapeake Bay. These underwater grasses 

play a critical role in the health of the bay as a filter for nutrients and sediment, which 

can be detrimental to the environment. Additionally, these plants serve as important 

habitat for crabs and spawning fish in the bay and its tributaries. 

All eighth-grade students learn about biodiversity. To increase relevance and 

connections, students investigate the macroinvertebrates from a stream near their 

school. Students participate in a 10-day, inquiry-based science unit centered on an 

environmental concern. Students can self-select an environmental interest, and they 

are provided with structured materials related to biodiversity, natural resources in the 

waste stream, water quality, and energy consumption. 

The district student service-learning coordinator works with high school teachers to 

create a menu of opportunities to give biology students an environmental 

educational experience and a service-learning experience.
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Massachusetts

Boston Green Academy, Brighton, Massachusetts

Exhibiting all things green

Boston Green Academy (BGA) serves a diverse population: 80 percent of students 

are considered high needs; 67 percent are economically disadvantaged; 32 percent 

are students with disabilities; 35 percent are students for whom English is not their 

first language; and 93 percent are students of color. BGA is an example of how a 

community of staff and students can use partnerships, relevant and engaging 

curriculum, and leadership opportunities to transform a turn-of-the-century building 

into an environmentally sustainable one. 

The BGA green building advisory committee created an action plan with the goal of 

making BGA a sustainable building model for the Boston Public Schools and 

beyond. This committee comprises the director of sustainability at BGA, the 

sustainability manager at Boston Public Schools, the energy manager of the city of 

Boston, and a host of green building experts from the private sector.

Boston Green Academy is an ENERGY STAR building with a score of 94. Boston 

Green Academy receives 48 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Boston 

Public Schools, National Grid, and Steam Trap Systems recently repaired and 

replaced 203 steam traps at BGA, yielding a 25 to 30 percent savings. All 

classrooms and offices have been equipped with occupancy sensors. 

Students in the Career Technical Education (CTE) program are conducting a costbenefit analysis to explore retrofitting current school lighting with LED bulbs. They 

also are learning to use thermal-imaging cameras to collect internal and external 

readings of the facility in order to assess the building envelope and window 

efficiency. Students in middle school use Kill A Watt meters to figure out which 

devices in BGA use the most electricity. They make sure these devices are only 

plugged in when in use and that all vampire devices are unplugged on weekends 

and holidays. Ninth-grade students are working with the city on a solar feasibility 

study for a solar array on the building.

All 23 BGA bathroom sinks are equipped with faucet aerators that reduce the flow of 

water. In addition, all bathroom sinks are equipped with self-closing metered 

faucets. Students in the Urban Ecology class, as well as CTE students collect and 

reuse rainwater in the garden, and custodians do not irrigate lawns. When BGA first 

moved into its building in 2014, it did not have access to tap water and received 

weekly bottled water delivery. The school worked with the district environmental 

division to test the tap water supply and installed 11 water fountains and refillable 
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bottle stations throughout the building. All BGA students receive a free stainlesssteel water bottle at the beginning of the school year.

Boston Green Academy is registered as a Massachusetts Department of 

Environmental Protection Green Team school, and the academy works with the 

agency yearly to update recycling equipment, signage, and curriculum. BGA 

maintains a single-stream recycling system. The recycling program is managed by 

the school’s Learning for Independence program as a way of integrating math and 

life skills. CTE students started a composting initiative in the lunchroom. A share 

table in the cafeteria helps reduce untouched food waste. Students and staff 

compost all waste in the garden, and all yard waste produced by landscape services 

is composted through the Boston Public Works Department.

Twenty percent of students walk or bike to school because they live within a mile of 

BGA. Another 63 percent of students take public transportation. The remaining 

students require door-to-door transportation and take a school bus.

The school adheres to district policies for green cleaning, integrated pest 

management, environmental audits, and no-idling, among other areas of school 

environmental health. BGA's chemistry teacher is trained and supported by Beyond 

Benign, a nonprofit that provides educators with the skills and tools to teach green 

chemistry in their classrooms and laboratories. The Office of Counseling and 

Wellness consists of social workers, guidance counselors, counseling interns, and a 

school nurse. To support school culture, BGA incorporates restorative justice 

approaches and other social-emotional learning models.

During an annual project week, 

students spend an entire week 

off campus — hiking, biking, 

cooking, meditating, teaching, 

dancing, sailing, painting,

protecting, exploring, 

discovering, and engaging —

with the greater Boston 

community and beyond. Each 

BGA middle school grade 

stays on Thompson Island for 

an immersive three-day 

outdoor environmental science 

learning adventure each fall 

and participates in a one-day 

teambuilding and leadership 

experience each spring. The 

2The Boston Green Academy outdoor club gives students the 

opportunity to experience the natural world through 

participation in camping, hiking, canoeing, cross country skiing, 

and snowshoeing.
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entire eighth-grade class visits the White Mountains in New Hampshire every spring 

for a three-day, two-night outdoor leadership experience. All sixth-graders visit Hale 

Reservation in Westwood, Massachusetts, for a day of outdoor teambuilding and 

leadership training. 

The school’s entire south-facing lawn has been converted into an outdoor classroom 

and garden for students, which was designed, built, and is still maintained by 

students. There are 11 4 x 8-foot raised beds for growing produce, eight outdoor 

tables for working and eating al fresco, and six work benches for planting, growing 

seedlings, and collecting the harvest. During the fall and spring, students plant, 

grow, and cook with produce from the garden, all while developing healthy recipes 

and nutritional practices. The Learning for Independence program created and 

manages the BGA Café, in which students develop menus and cook healthy meals

for staff members every Thursday. The program builds life skills and basic culinary 

skills and teaches nutrition.

Boston Green Academy employs a full-time director of sustainability to oversee all 

sustainability-focused courses, programs, opportunities, trainings, committees, and 

green building updates. 

The director of sustainability created Green Milestones, a continuum of greenfocused academic and career opportunities. The directors work with each gradelevel team to ensure that all students (1) establish a meaningful relationship with the 

community and earth; (2) grapple and engage with real world, sustainability issues; 

and (3) engage with leadership opportunities that promote sustainability. The 

school’s director of sustainability also works with the director of teaching and 

learning to create at least 10 hours of sustainability professional training per year.

Each year, all grade levels and all content teams in the high school complete a termlong interdisciplinary project focused on sustainability called Green Exhibitions. 

Students explore important environmental, social, and economic issues while feeling 

empowered to create change in their own lives and beyond. All juniors and seniors 

complete a four-hour job-shadowing experience in a sustainability field, and all 

seniors complete a six-week, 150-hour sustainability internship. All BGS high school 

students create an online green portfolio that shows their challenges, growth, and 

development from freshman to the end of their junior year, which they present and 

defend in front of a panel of judges and the community.

Urban Ecology is a required class for all sixth- through eighth-grade students. 

Students study energy and water systems, investigate climate change both locally 

and globally, engage with the food system and food justice, and solve engineering 

challenges through the lens of sustainability. BGA offers environmental science and 

technology and sustainability management pathway programs. All ninth-grade 
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students take Environmental Science, an interdisciplinary, project-based learning 

course that embraces topics including geology, biology, environmental studies, 

environmental science, chemistry, and geography. All 12th-grade students take 

Green Physics. Green Engineering and AP Environmental Science are elective 

classes offered to 11th- and 12th-grade students. 

The school leverages the following STEM tools for sustainability learning: a weather 

station, a classroom observation beehive, aquaponics system, a bike that converts 

human energy into electrical energy, a parklet (a sidewalk extension that provides 

more space and amenities for people using the street), and a Makerspace.

Ipswich Middle-High School, Ipswich, Massachusetts

Putting green-er every year

Ipswich Public Schools owns one-third of a wind turbine that is located about three 

miles from the Ipswich Middle-High School (IMHS) building. The school district sells 

this energy to the town's electric light department, which then uses the energy to 

power the electricity needs of the school buildings. The IMHS was constructed in 

1999 and is heated by a boiler fueled by natural gas. The boiler also heats the hot 

water for the facility. Only 30 percent of the building is air-conditioned, and all the 

classrooms can open windows to cool the rooms naturally. All windows and doors 

are fitted with weather stripping. A new air-conditioning system was installed in 

2016 and boasts a 90 percent efficiency rate. The months of October and May are 

“zero energy months,” when the building does not use heat or air conditioning. As 

interior lights stop working, they are replaced with energy-efficient, long-lasting LED 

lights. The parking lot lighting has been upgraded to LED, and timed motion sensors 

are in every classroom.

As part of the curriculum, students in engineering and environmental science 

classes tour the town’s wastewater facilities, where they read and analyze water 

quality. Working together, the high school Environmental Club and the middle 

school green team raised funds with which they purchased and installed four waterbottle refilling stations around the school. The school's outdoor garden is hand 

watered using rainwater collected in rain barrels. Athletic fields do not require 

irrigation or fertilizer. The main athletic field is made of synthetic turf, which was 

installed in 2016. 

Composting has been in place for eight years, and food is served on compostable 

plates. Students recently audited waste and negotiated four more compost bins and 

a second weekly pickup. They also held a mandatory waste-sorting educational 
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assembly. Students are not allowed to bring in single-use plastic or Styrofoam 

bottles or cups; they must instead use reusable mugs or cups. The IMHS 

technology department recycles old electronics, working with a company that resells 

the old electronics to be used or broken down for parts. Twice a year, IMHS holds 

an electronics drive, where town residents can drop off old electronics for recycling. 

These drives benefit partner Ipswich Sustainable Education.

Bike to School Day is an annual event, and always results in an increased number of 

bikers and increased enthusiasm. The Environmental Club is working with the 

physical education department to increase participation in this event. 

Every three years, the building is tested for overall air quality. The school also has 

been tested for radon, and no issues have been found. There are rarely problems 

with humidity; in the few instances when a mold or mildew has been discovered, the 

area has been quarantined and safely treated. All custodians are trained in the 

proper use of cleaning supplies and dilute products appropriately. Students began 

working with the town 

facilities director and 

the school committee 

in 2017 to start using 

cleaning supplies that 

are more 

environmentally safe. 

In 2017, the middle 

school green team 

raised more than 

$20,000 to build a 

school garden in front 

of the building. The 

garden consists of 

raised beds for 

vegetables and 

flowers, as well as 

fruit trees and an 

outdoor classroom. 

Food grown in the school's garden is brought directly into the cafeteria for 

consumption, and extra produce is delivered to a local food pantry. In the IMHS 

cafeteria, salads and soups use the kale, chard, and carrots from the garden, which 

food service workers pick and serve the same day. The school also purchases 

locally from nearby farms.

Seventh grade students at Ipswich Middle-High School spend two weeks 

on field trips learning about the history of the coastal town and how the 

environment has impacted it, including two days canoeing, conducting

water quality tests, and learning conservation values.
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Social-emotional health is supported by the guidance department, a school 

adjustment counselor, and a clinician, who is grant-funded through the Lahey 

Behavioral Student Assistance Program. This assistance program hires graduatestudent clinicians to be on site at local middle and high schools for 30 hours per 

week.

Many courses throughout the IMHS curriculum incorporate topics in environmental 

issues, renewable and nonrenewable energy, and human systems. The

Environmental Science class studies the integration of physical, biological, and 

informational sciences by examining the ecology, physics, chemistry, economics, 

and social implications of human effect on the environment. The Earth and Space 

class examines natural resources, climate change, and energy use. The Marine and 

Coastal Science class looks at human effect on the environment. The AP seminar 

class has a unit titled Science and Nature, which incorporates topics from the latest 

report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the fate of island 

nations such as Kiribati in light of rising sea levels. The Global Studies course 

introduces students to the past, present, and future trends of globalization with a unit 

on sustainability, which discusses population, energy, and the environment.

Sustainability is the theme of the sixth grade, in which all projects and units have a 

component of sustainability. The high school offers a sustainability course, in which 

students spend the year working individually or in small groups to tackle local 

sustainability issues. Students analyze wind turbine data; improve waste 

management in the cafe and on athletic fields; conduct feasibility studies for solar 

panels; reduce straw use townwide; create art from recycled materials; intern with 

the town recycling coordinator; build a hydroponic station; and advocate to amend 

local plastic bag and Styrofoam bylaws. Currently, students are working on a crossdiscipline project between the art club and the sustainability class to paint a mural, 

featuring themes of pollinators, on a wall bordering the main parking lot in the 

downtown business area of Ipswich. 

The high school racing team allows participants to drive the 3-D printed and handbuilt remote-controlled race cars, which they used in competitions one year. Each 

year, their challenge is to create a new way of charging the vehicles sustainably. 

One year they used a solar panel, and the next a human gerbil wheel, to charge the 

batteries. 

With the town located right on the Atlantic Ocean, students arrive at school with a 

natural curiosity about the environment. In the seventh grade, students spend two 

weeks on field trips learning about the history of the coastal town and how the 

environment has affected it. Students visit Crane's Beach, which is owned and 

managed by the Trustees of Reservations, a group for which many students work 

during high school. Students also visit Appleton Farms, and they go on a whale 
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watch, where they learn about whale migration and get to see whales up close. One 

of their favorite outings is the two days they spend canoeing on the Ipswich River. 

There, they study the natural habitat of the river, perform water- quality tests, and 

learn to conserve local natural treasures. Students have been presenters at the 

Coastal Science Conference for the last 22 years.

Another popular middle school STEAM project involves the putting green 

assignment. In this innovative project created by the art department, sixth-graders 

create a mini-golf-style putting green using math concepts (angles and equations), 

topography, writing, and science (effect on wetlands, using pesticides and fertilizers, 

maintaining habitats). After students complete the mini-golf course, students in 

other grades are invited to test it out.

A favorite tradition in Ipswich is Crane's Beach Day. In 1911, the Crane family 

invited the entire town to Crane's Beach for their son Cornelius' birthday. Every year 

since, elementary- and middle-school students and families all go to the beach 

instead of school one day in June. The love that Ipswich students learn for their 

environment is evident even in small details such as senior portraits, which students 

often take on protected lands such as the local beaches, Strawberry Hill, and the 

Crane Estate.

Wellesley Public Schools, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Developing heads, hearts, and hands through sustainability

Wellesley Public Schools (WPS) serves more than 5,000 students at one 

prekindergarten school, seven elementary schools, one middle school, and one high 

school. The WPS system recognizes the importance of reducing environmental 

impact; to do so, it has collaborated with many town departments, students, faculty, 

parents, and local nonprofits. 

Student involvement, interschool collaboration, and sustainable planning provide the 

driving force to reduce greenhouse gases. All sustainable systems and projects 

complement and enhance the district's mission of developing the heads, hearts, and 

hands of its students; together, these systems and projects have inspired them to be 

the critical thinkers, problem-solvers, artists, and innovators who contribute to their 

communities, our nation, and the world. 

The efforts to conserve and reduce energy throughout WPS have been motivated 

and supported by many factors: the city’s adoption in 2011 of municipal energy 

codes that go beyond state requirements; its fuel-efficient vehicle policy; its goal to 
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reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent below 2007 levels by the year 2020; 

and its 2017 designation by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources as 

a Green Community. WPS has reduced greenhouse gas emissions 19 percent over 

10 years.

Energy-saving measures in WPS include using MassEnergyInsight to identify and 

improve the district’s least energy-efficient buildings; identifying energy-saving 

occupant behavioral change; and launching programs aimed at encouraging such 

changes. The district has decreased the exterior lighting used overnight, and it has 

put computers on automatic standby/hibernate settings. Wellesley High School has 

a demonstration solar array and geothermal system.

Wellesley students have actively focus on energy conservation. High school 

students "green-certify" elementary school classrooms. This is a way for older 

students to inspire, empower, and educate younger students on ways to reduce their 

environmental footprint.

Wellesley does not apply any fertilizer to school lawns, which keeps both surface 

runoff and groundwater cleaner. Elementary students learn about water

conservation during the green classroom certification process.

The WPS Bates School was the first in 

New England to participate in the EPA's

Food Recovery Challenge. After 

assessment, goal setting, and project 

implementation, the resulting recycling 

and food waste diversion project 

resulted in a 40 percent reduction of the 

school's cafeteria waste. Now, the 

program has been expanded to two 

more elementary schools, which are 

implementing share tables, aiming to 

eliminate food waste, and providing 

food to those in need. In addition, all 

WPS cafeterias across the district now 

collaborate with area colleges as part of 

a Food Recovery Network to donate 

unused, cooked food to Food For Free, 

a Cambridge-based nonprofit. Food 

For Free distributes single-serve meals 

to people who are food insecure, 

including students at MassBay Students and parents have worked on no idling 

campaigns at pick-up lines across Wellesley 

Public Schools. 
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Community College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. 

Wellesley switched from plastic straws to biodegradable straws, which are available 

upon request. Reusable "clamshells" are being used for cold lunches instead of 

plastic containers in several schools. Some 700 pounds of food scraps from the 

Wellesley Middle School kitchen go to the town recycling and disposal facility as part 

of a food compost to bio-gas pilot project.

The “Banquet in a Box" program allows the Wellesley school community to borrow 

reusable tablecloths and large water containers for various school-sponsored and 

team events. Wellesley Green Schools also catalogued event supplies and other 

items that can be reused at events across the district. Wellesley Green Schools has 

used resources through Massachusetts’ Safe Routes to School to encourage safer 

biking and walking to school. A fuel-efficient vehicle purchasing policy is in place.

Environmental health and safety, including IAQ, are among the highest priorities for 

Wellesley's facility management department, which provides custodial and 

maintenance support for all schools in the district. IAQ in all school buildings is 

monitored by a building management system (Metasys), which provides remote 

supervision of all HVAC systems. This allows an immediate response to correct 

problems that may affect student comfort, including ventilation, temperature, and 

humidity. The district is committed to providing appropriate IAQ on a long-term basis 

through its capital projects, which includes comprehensive HVAC "recommissioning" 

at all schools on a regular five- to seven-year cycle. 

Wellesley uses an ionized water system for cleaning. This state-of-the-art system 

uses plain tap water for most cleaning applications. Not only is this a low-carbonfootprint system, but it also eliminates harsh chemicals and associated off-gassing, 

which can affect students and staff. The custodial staff uses "team-cleaning" in the 

middle and high schools to improve efficiency, as well as vacuums with HEPA filters, 

strategically placed walk-off mats, and "auto scrubbing" machines that eliminate the 

use of mops and buckets throughout the district. All schools use third-party-certified 

sustainable products, including paper and trash-can liners. 

The WPS food service team purchases local rainbow chard, tomatoes, sweet 

potatoes, cauliflower, apples, squash, carrots, cheeses, butter, yogurt, eggs, and 

milk. Cafeterias offer meatless Mondays. Food service has partnered with eighthgrade students to serve hydroponic greenhouse garden greens the students have 

grown. A Tufts University doctoral degree recipient is working with Wellesley Food 

Services to identify ways the school menu can assist in further lowering the district’s 

carbon footprint. 
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More than half of the schools in the district have gardens, and many have 

landscaping and outdoors clubs, offering alternative and unique outdoor time. 

Outdoor club activities include hikes on trails and visits to organic farms. Nonprofit 

programs provide physical activity before and after school, including yoga, flag 

football, basketball, dodgeball, spike ball, and cornhole.

Wellesley's educators have added new, thoughtful science curricula across the 

district. Each curriculum is based on the Massachusetts standards, and all curricula 

also reflect increased environmental awareness. This allows students to engage in 

dialogue about current events and have respect for, and understanding of, dynamic 

environmental, energy, and human systems. 

Prekindergarten launches the development of young environmentalists with topics 

such as “made by humans, versus found in nature.” Kindergarten through fifth grade 

have new units specifically related to environmental awareness — such as having 

kindergarteners explore ways that humans affect the environment (particularly 

through trash, air, and water pollution) and how some effects can be minimized by 

reducing, reusing, and recycling. Second-grade students investigate natural and 

human-made solutions to problems of erosion. Fourth-grade students research 

nonrenewable and renewable energy sources. Fifth-grade students study the 

availability of fresh water on Earth; design water filters to clean polluted water; and 

consider how to reduce human effect on the environment by changing agricultural, 

industrial, or community practices. 

The middle-school science department continues to improve and refine the 

curriculum, with topics such as climate change, weather, and energy, as well as with 

an engineering elective (hydroponic gardening). AP Environmental Science is 

offered at the high school. In this course, students partner with the local recycling 

and disposal center.

The High School Evolutions program (an innovative school-within-a-school 

educational program) allows students to work throughout the year on sustainabilitythemed projects, including investigating solar installation, aquaponics, tree canopy, 

renewable energy, and single-use plastic water bottle reduction.

Michigan

Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan

Celebrating the interconnectedness of built, natural, and artistic environments

Established in 1962, Interlochen Arts Academy (IAA) became the nation’s first fine 

arts boarding school. IAA is situated on a pristine 1,200-acre campus that 
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comprises largely native forests, spectacular lakes, full and diverse prairies, and 

abundant native wildlife. Interlochen’s student body today consists of over 530 

students from 49 states and some 31 countries around the world. Over the past five 

years, the academy has made substantial advances in sustainability efforts. IAA 

continues to identify ways to reduce its environmental footprint and make decisions 

that will help the environment, as well as to improve the health and wellness of 

students, staff, and community.

Reducing environmental impact and costs has become extremely important to IAA. 

The school has a sustainability coordinator to monitor, document, and manage 

energy consumption on the campus. New and existing buildings are being upgraded 

with energy-efficient infrastructure, appliances, and utilities. LED lighting has been 

installed, along with lighting controls and sensors. Temperature controls also have 

been installed, as have efficient heating systems to reduce natural gas usage. The 

IAA greenhouse is powered with solar panels, and geothermal flooring heats the 

facility, allowing year-round growth in this northern Michigan climate.

Interlochen has three wells on the property that provide potable water, as well as its 

own water-treatment facility. IAA tests for bacteriological-quality levels monthly, and 

annually tests for E. coli, nitrates, nitrites, chloride, ammonia, phosphorous, lead, 

and copper. Initiatives to reduce water usage at the academy have been put in 

place as well, such as low-flow showerheads, low-flow toilets, and an efficient 

dishwasher in the cafeteria that alone will save 600,000 gallons of water a year. IAA

has installed seven water-bottle filling stations to encourage healthy hydration and 

minimize single-use plastic bottles. IAA uses lake water for the limited irrigation 
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required on a mostly native-plantings landscape. A small rain garden and water 

cisterns offer native wetland habitat and garden irrigation.

The school has made some major steps to reduce the amount of landfill waste 

produced on site. IAA recently installed an $80,000 on-site composting system that 

will allow the entire campus to compost its food scraps, organic landscaping 

material, grass clippings, compostable dishes, cutlery, and napkins. IAA actively 

encourages recycling, providing 

various receptacles around 

campus for staff and student use. 

IAA only purchases compostable 

disposables for the coffee shop 

and cafeteria. Employee offices 

are equipped with recycling bins, 

and each major office space has 

a composting bucket. Student 

residence halls are equipped with 

recycling bins, with plans to 

encourage recycling in 

dormitories as well.

Interlochen is a certified Monarch 

Waystation; has been certified by 

the National Wildlife Federation 

as a schoolyard habitat; and is a 

Michigan Native Perennial 

certified garden. The school has 

committed to sustainable logging 

practices on campus when any 

trees need to be felled. Trees 

are hand-cut, and then dragged 

out by horse-pulled logging rigs. 

IAA does not employ chainsaws 

or motorized logging rigs, in order to minimize the effect on the environment and the 

natural rhythm of the surrounding ecology. IAA hosts a yearly tree-planting on 

campus to restore some of the trees that have been felled.

The school views the health of the environment, students, faculty, and staff as an 

incredibly important pursuit. The academy has taken steps to maintain campus 

grounds to ensure that any contaminants or chemicals are identified and removed as 

efficiently as possible. Interlochen has recognized that the systems of human, built, 

and natural environment are interconnected, and it has taken steps to promote 

overall wellness by opting for organic compost and natural cleaning supplies, 
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conducting water quality tests, and maintaining their facilities in good condition 

through inspections and renovations. As a fine arts school, Interlochen ensures that 

humidity control and building-wide exhaust fans are operational in order to maintain 

the high quality of expensive instruments, and the school removes any contaminants 

that may otherwise have an adverse effect on students’ health.

Interlochen’s new recreation center and gym, the Dennison Center, focuses on 

physical and nutritional health and wellness by offering classes in yoga, TRX, 

Pilates, advanced ballet, and nutrition. Interlochen has monthly programs that 

encourage students and staff to integrate holistic practices of mindfulness, healthy 

eating, and physical activity into their daily lives. Special events include 

Planksgiving, Go Red for Heart Health, Movember, Wellness Bingo, Elf for Health, 

Health Week, Interlochen Triathlon, the Interlochen five-kilometer run, Holiday Hold 

Out, and Go the Distance.

Certain majors focus even more intensely than others on health, wellness, nutrition, 

and physical activity. For example, each dance major spends upwards of six hours 

in dance classes every day. Understanding how to nurture and care for their bodies 

is a key component of the students’ study. Students involved in theatre also are 

involved in intensive dance, movement, and technique courses that require a 

tremendous amount of physical stamina. They also spend a considerable amount of 

time learning about health, wellness, and nutrition.

Interlochen’s garden and greenhouse consist of a 20 x 40-foot hoop house, nine 

raised beds, a permaculture scape, a 20 x 40-foot greenhouse, and a functional fish 

and plant aquaponics system. Students in agricultural science classes meet in the 

greenhouse for each class, where they learn about the importance of sustainable 

farming practices, pollination, composting, aquaponics, botany, and soil science. 

The IAA greenhouse and garden space constitute one of two school garden areas in 

the nation that is Certified Naturally Grown. The garden supplies food for students 

and staff in the school cafeteria.

The school is home to a gardening club that hosts meetings of community members 

and classes on beekeeping, natural dyeing, seed saving, permaculture, and campus 

cuisine. Employees can participate in a discounted and payroll-deducted 24-week 

community shared agriculture vegetable share through a local farm.

Several IAA classes focus entirely on the importance of the environment and 

sustainability. In chemistry classes, students explore the laws of conservation of 

mass at the atomic level to better understanding disposal and recycling. The 

classes also include units on air pollution, petroleum use in plastics and fuel, 

alternative fuels, and water and air quality. In ecology lessons, students explore 

streambeds and research macroinvertebrates and microinvertebrates, raise salmon 
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in the classroom for a release program, study wetlands and native habitat 

restoration, and learn about freshwater aquatics. In agricultural science, students 

learn about composting, tilling, soil conservation, water quality, organic principles for 

growing sustainable crops, beekeeping, and pollination. Ecology and biology 

students are often outside in the field, conducting research and applying lessons 

from the classroom into the real-world environment. Astronomy class requires 

students to do evening observation journals of the night skies.

Art and ecology classes work hand in hand with the Wilson Arts project to create an 

art installment in the woods as a feature of a natural restoration and reforestation, 

combining both art and environment into two separate features that work hand in 

hand. Many theatre shows are related to the environment; and many poems in 

poetry classes address energy consumption, natural disasters, industrial 

catastrophes caused by humans, and the like. History classes examine equitable 

access to safe drinking water. In political science classes, students explore the 

major oil pipeline that conveys petroleum from western Canada to eastern Canada 

via the Great Lakes states.

Outside of the classroom, a student-led sustainability club encourages students to 

explore ideas or problems present in the Interlochen community and to present their 

solutions to the academy’s administration. Students are encouraged to take 

ownership of their knowledge and experience of the environment and to discuss 

ways to contribute to sustainability.

Minnesota

Forest Lake Area High School, Forest Lake, Minnesota

Natural resource management and outdoor education 

Forest Lake Area High School (FLAHS), located 30 minutes north of Saint Paul, 

Minnesota, serves nearly 2,000 students. Recently, the high school underwent 

significant construction, expanding and renovating spaces with a focus on 

environmental sustainability. In the fall of 2018, student enrollment increased as a 

ninth-grade class was added to the school. Even with a larger building and 500 

additional students, the renovated high school saw reduced energy use per square 

foot and energy use per student. 

New and renovated spaces now include glass windows and doors, six refillable 

water bottle stations, and flexible spaces for collaborative student learning. The 

new, two-story addition added small group conference rooms, significant amounts of 

natural light, and science and agricultural spaces.
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Energy-efficient LED lighting with motion 

sensors are in classrooms, hallways, and 

throughout the entire building. 

Approximately 1,500 solar panels (418 

kilowatts of power) on the high-school 

rooftop provide 5 percent of the school’s 

energy usage and save the school district 

some $70,000 per year. Energy-efficient 

boilers and an updated HVAC system use 

remote monitoring and zonal setbacks to 

reduce energy use. The motion sensors 

in each room identify occupied versus 

unoccupied spaces and automatically 

adjust room temperature. Occupied 

zones are set between 70–72 degrees 

Fahrenheit and unoccupied zones are set 

at 65 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter 

and 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the 

summer. The cumulative environmental 

impact of these energy-efficient 

renovations is a 39 percent reduction in 

greenhouse gas emissions on a squarefootage basis over five school years. 

FLAHS uses the B3 Benchmarking 

program to track energy and water 

consumption in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager automatically, most recently 

receiving a score of 78.

Water conservation saved over 4 million gallons of water over six years. Changes in 

irrigation equipment (rain detectors) and practices (programmable sprinklers) 

significantly enhanced water conservation. A stormwater reuse project underway 

will use retention ponds for water storage before filtration and irrigation on athletic 

fields. Not only does the stormwater reuse project save on potable water use, but it 

also reduces stormwater pollution that otherwise would have been added to nearby 

Clear Lake. Further, the school’s education curriculum will integrate reuse 

technology and water conservation concepts into biology, agriculture, and Earth and 

space science courses.

High-visibility, four-gallon blue recycle bins are in all classrooms, and products for 

recycling are collected daily by students in the special education department. The 

cafeteria staff composts approximately 75 gallons per week of leftover and unusable 

food through the Food to Hogs program. Students implemented a lunchtime foodshare table to reduce the disposal of unopened quality food. A Safe Routes to 

Forest Lake Area High School environmental 

club members plant native plants in the pollinator 

garden.
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School grant for $471,795 provided walking path connections along nearby 

thoroughfares and connected Forest Lake with several neighboring schools.

Forest Lake proactively monitors and manages campus environmental health. 

Some efforts include carbon monoxide monitors, long-term radon testing, regular 

testing for asbestos, a new HVAC system, and a no-polychlorinated-biphenyls 

policy. A student from the environmental club is training custodians on sidewalksalting best practices. Through recent renovations, the school has added more than 

440 square meters of exterior windows in classrooms and hallways, contributing to a 

60 percent increase in natural light in the buildings.

Staff and student well-being are supported through wellness activities, mental and 

physical health supports, and a diverse group of clubs and activities. Positive 

Behavioral Interventions and Supports is being implemented at Forest Lake over the 

next several years to improve overall school culture. Each fall since 2013, the 

school has screened incoming students for depression to identify those with mental 

health needs and provide them with the necessary support. One hundred and fortynine junior and senior student leaders serve as mentors for ninth- and tenth-graders. 

Student volunteer hours, measured through an online recording system and 

organized by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, surpassed 3,000 

hours in the fall of 2018. Most of these hours supported the Sustainable 

Development Goals of quality education, sustainable cities and communities, and 

good health and well-being. In November 2017 more than 150 students participated 

in the global Paper Crane Project, celebrating the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize awarded 

to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

All graduating students participate in a science-based climate change education 

curriculum that includes both science and solutions. Environmental literacy, 

integrated in both required and elective courses, focuses on human interaction with 

Earth’s four spheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere). In the 

required world history course, students read primary sources, weigh evidence, and 

apply their own findings to the present day. The theme of environmentalism versus 

economic development is crucial to discussions about the Industrial Revolution and 

the link between health and environmental quality. Required biology, Earth and 

space science, and physical education courses regularly use the natural 

environment for learning. Biology students conduct field analyses, Earth and space 

science students evaluate climate data, and physical education students engage in 

outdoor lessons.

Agricultural courses include fish and wildlife management, natural-resources 

science, alternative energies, and animal-science courses. The annual agriculture 

day showcase allows all students to explore a hydroponics trailer with Central Lakes 
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College, information tables, and live animals. Science courses include 

environmental science and meteorology. In these courses students participate and 

initiate research projects that examine all aspects of environmental stability and the 

complexity of natural systems. Students collect data outdoors and analyze the way 

humans interact with their environments.

Forest’s Lake’s physical education offerings include two outdoor education courses. 

The fall- or spring-season course includes activities such as bicycling, canoeing, 

water safety, and orienteering. The winter season activities include Nordic skiing, 

Alpine skiing, snow caving, winter survival, broomball, and other outdoor recreational 

activities that promote physical fitness. The influence of recreational activity on the 

environment receives special attention in both courses.

The school’s environmental club educates others on recycling practices, volunteers 

with local organizations, and collaborates with Youth Eco Solutions to complete 

projects, including the installation of an on-campus pollinator garden. Students in 

the environmental club partnered with Climate Generation, a Minneapolis-based 

nonprofit organization, to host a youth convening at the high school in the spring of 

2019. For this event, students planned and facilitated a public community-wide 

event that focused on climate change science and provided local stories and 

solutions. The club also planted 128 native pollinator plants on campus; hosted an 

environmental film screening; collected over 600 pounds of old holiday lights during 

three seasons; planted more than 200 seeds in repurposed milk cartons to give 

away on Earth Day; and removed invasive buckthorn in nearby parks. Invited 

speakers have included a solar-panel technician; a volunteer from the local 

watershed district; a city government representative; an arborist; a forestry fire 

technician and a forester; a professor of fish, wildlife, and conservation biology; a 

horticulturist; a landscaper; a conservation officer; and various environmental 

nonprofit speakers.

Missouri

Claymont Elementary School, Ballwin, Missouri

Test drilling for geothermal

Claymont Elementary School has reduced its energy use by 6.8 percent kBtu per 

student per year since 2015. The school has reduced its non-transportation 

greenhouse gas emissions by 5.7 percent of metric tons of carbon dioxide per 

student per year since 2015. Energy savings come from conservation, including 

interior and exterior LED lighting, dimmable exterior lighting, a centralized PC power 

management system for desktop computers, and HVAC systems controlled by a 

centralized building automation system that allows for setback schedules and 
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advanced sequence of operations. Claymont underwent a retro-commissioning 

service and implementation for the HVAC systems, resulting in energy savings. The 

school has a 25-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array on the roof. There is an online 

monitoring platform that actively displays the energy production levels throughout 

each day, providing an educational opportunity for students, staff, and community 

members.

A comprehensive single-stream recycling program has been in place for several 

years. Prior to that time, a source-separated recycling program had been in place 

since 1992. Commercial composting services are provided daily for the school’s 

food scraps, compostable lunch trays, compostable cutlery, and more. The school 

has eliminated the use of plastic straws unless needed by a student who requires 

them for accessibility purposes. The school has a water-bottle filling station to 

encourage the use of reusable water bottles instead of single-use plastic ones.

Students worked with the Parkway School District director of sustainability and 

purchasing to conduct an audit of waste materials from a given day at Claymont 

Elementary School. Students weighed trash, recyclables, and compost and resorted them to determine the percentage of improperly sorted materials. This data 

was then compiled and shared with the student body and staff as a way to improve 

waste management behaviors within the building. In addition to student-led 

initiatives, Claymont has adopted many district-led programs that include LED 

lighting, solar panels, and single-stream recycling/commercial composting.

Water faucet aerators were installed on all restroom faucets, limiting water flow to 

half a gallon per minute. No outdoor irrigation is provided to the school grounds. 

Since 2015, water use has been reduced. Removal of invasive wintercreeper and 

honeysuckle is ongoing. A butterfly garden hosts plants native to Missouri, including 

common milkweed, swamp milkweed, elderberry, and flowering plants that support 

pollinators.

The Claymont school bus fleet has completely phased out all older diesel engines 

with higher emissions (model year 2007 and prior) and participates in the EPA’s 

Clean School Bus program. In addition, 57 percent of the buses used at Claymont 

are fueled with compressed natural gas.
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District programs ensure that building 

materials meet volatile organic 

compound (VOC) standards, while 

lead and asbestos management plans 

and an IAQ task force ensure that 

Claymont is a healthy place to learn 

and work. Physical and mental 

wellness programs for both students 

and staff help to ensure needs are 

being met with support. The green 

team has begun work on an indoor 

tower garden to bring fresh produce 

choices to the daily lunchroom salad 

bar. Claymont offers the staff a 

variety of wellness activities, as well 

as Pilates and yoga classes. 

Additionally, staff benefit from a book 

club, flu shots, and healthy luncheons.

Claymont partners with Comtrea to 

provide school-based oral health

services to students, including 

screenings, cleanings, sealants, digital 

x-rays, diagnostic exams, and 

remediation services. Students can 

receive vision services through a 

partnership with the Kids Vision for 

Life van. Girls on the Run encourages 

physical fitness and life skills for girls.

Students have opportunities in kindergarten through fifth grade to read, write, and 

collaborate with others on environmental and sustainability topics. In upper grades, 

students develop written and oral arguments around various environmental topics, 

such as recycling, straw usage, composting, water consumption, and protection of 

the school’s ecosystem. Teachers at Claymont provide all students, at every grade 

level, with opportunities for meaningful outdoor learning experiences tied to 

standards and content curriculum. Highlights of these experiences include the third 

grade Nature Unleashed program in collaboration with the Missouri Department of 

Conservation, kindergarten through fifth grade biodiversity walks, and a census of 

campus wildlife. Student groups regularly interact with community leaders and 

experts, who provide new perspectives and industry insight into real-world problems. 

The students in grades three through five on the green team met with Trane 

engineers, geologists, and district personnel to understand a local energy problem 

Students worked with the Parkway School District 

Director of Sustainability and Purchasing to conduct 

an audit of waste materials from a given day at 

Claymont Elementary School.
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and learn about sustainable solutions for the future, which included test drilling for 

geothermal energy.

Ecology club members and other students also have spent weekends in the spring 

and fall, and summer during the past two years, redoing a nature trail that originally 

was built by the class of 1978 behind the district’s middle school. Students help with 

maintaining the wildflower garden on school property during the fall and spring. 

Students collect persimmons and wild grapes from the trees on the school grounds, 

and they make jam, cookies, natural dyes, and homemade paper for holiday cards to 

give to staff.

Highcroft Ridge Elementary School, Chesterfield, Missouri

Young conservationists set an example with recycling and waste reduction

Highcroft Ridge has reduced its energy use by 17 percent per student since 2015 

and its non-transportation greenhouse gas emissions by 18 percent per student 

since 2015. Funding mechanisms to support energy-efficiency upgrades have 

included utility incentive rebates and a Missouri Department of Economic 

Development Energy Efficiency loan. The school benchmarks performance with 

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and the use of the Energy CAP software 

package; it has been awarded the ENERGY STAR award for several years, 

performing among the top 25 percent of comparable buildings for efficiency. 

Highcroft Ridge Elementary has a 25-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array on the roof of 

the main school building, with an online monitoring platform that offers an 

educational opportunity for students, staff, and community members. The array 

produces 5.2 percent of the school’s energy needs.

Water faucet aerators were installed on all restroom faucets. Dual flush valves have 

been installed on all restroom toilet fixtures. Highcroft Ridge has a raised garden 

that was built by a former student for his Eagle Scout project. Students in second 

grade plant vegetables, flowers, and herbs for their science lessons. They are 

irrigated with the water collected in a rain barrel that was designed and installed by 

Girl Scouts. Classes use the wooded area in the back of the school for nature walks 

that are integrated with curriculum.

Highcroft Ridge uses a comprehensive single-stream recycling program, which has 

been in place for several years. Prior to its introduction, a source-separated 

recycling program had been in place since 1992. All the school’s food waste is 

composted daily, along with its compostable lunch trays and cutlery. There is a 

water-bottle filling station to encourage the use of reusable bottles, and plastic 
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straws were eliminated except for accessibility purposes. All school surplus either is 

recirculated within the district, or is auctioned online, so that the equipment, 

materials, or products can get a second life. All paper towels and toilet tissue are 

Green Seal-certified and made with 100 percent recycled content.

Every year, physical education teachers coordinate a Walk to School Day. More 

than 85 percent of students use buses to get to school. The district has completely 

phased out all older diesel engines that had higher emissions (model year 2007 and 

prior) and participates in the 

EPA’s Clean School Bus

program. In addition, 50 

percent of the buses used 

at Highcroft are fueled with 

compressed natural gas. 

Excluding floor finishers 

and sealers, 96 percent of 

cleaning products used are 

third-party-certified. All 

paint purchased for the 

school is zero VOCcontaining. Office furniture 

purchased is certified by 

the Business and 

Institutional Furniture 

Manufacturers 

Association’s nonprofit 

association. The school has implemented a lead-in-drinking-water program using 

EPA’s 3Ts (Training, Testing, Taking Action) for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in 

Schools Program. In 2018, the school doubled recess time for all grade levels. The 

staff has participated in many wellness programs, including classes in yoga, Zumba, 

and barre. Highcroft Ridge partners with several organizations to provide schoolbased oral health and vision services.

During the 2017–18 school year, students voted to have the environment as their 

theme for the year. Highcroft Ridge hosted a speaker from the Missouri Botanical 

Gardens who helped students learn more about sustainability projects that would 

benefit the school and community. In groups, students brainstormed ideas for 

projects and then held an environmental day in spring 2017. Students completed 

various projects such as building birdhouses, planting trees, picking up trash, 

tracking the use of reusable snack containers, cleaning flower beds, creating an 

upcycled water-bottle chandelier, creating soda-bottle terrariums, and creating light 

Highcroft Ridge Elementary School students work with community 

members to complete a tree planting project.
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switch plates to remind everyone to turn off the lights. A new club, EcoBuds, grew 

out of this event.

During the first year of the program, the school’s EcoBuds participants educated 

school community members about “reduce, reuse, recycle,” which included a 

student-led effort to reduce the number of paper towels used by the school. 

Students researched hand-drying techniques and educated students and staff about 

better ways to dry hands to reduce paper towel usage in the restrooms. Highcroft 

replaced the towel dispensers with high-efficiency hand dryers in the summer of 

2018. Students planted trees on school grounds in coordination with the city of 

Chesterfield. The club was involved in educating the Highcroft community about 

environmental issues during a STEM Night event. In its second year, EcoBuds is 

focusing on understanding, calculating, and reducing the school’s carbon footprint. 

Club members have started a marker-recycling program through Crayola’s 

Colorcycle initiative, where old markers are turned into clean energy. Other efforts 

improve waste sorting, encourage alternative transportation, and help students take 

these changes to their homes.

Second-grade students take field trips to Rockwoods Reservation and the Butterfly 

House to increase student engagement in STEM. Kindergarten and fourth-grade 

students take trips to the St. Louis Zoo to further engage students in the outdoors 

with animals while learning about their ecosystems.

Herculaneum High School, Herculaneum, Missouri

A clothing closet gives new life to outgrown articles and helps families

To reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, Herculaneum High School 

installed solar panels that reduced emissions by a total of 1,700 to 2,000 pounds of 

carbon dioxide each month. A new high-efficiency HVAC unit was installed in the 

gym; instead of running constantly, it only turns on when certain conditions are met, 

saving considerable energy. To conserve water, the school now has low-flow, autoflush toilets. The Ecology Club wrote a grant to fund the creation of a 325 squarefoot space to plant wildflowers and plants attractive to butterflies. The club also has 

worked with community volunteers to restore a trail originally established in the 

1970s and to remove invasive plants on school grounds. To conserve material 

resources, the school installed a water-bottle filling station and provides an option for 

students to purchase refillable bottles at school. To reduce paper use, all students 

have a computer so they can complete and turn in assignments online.
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In 2018, each classroom installed radon detectors. The school’s maintenance 

department implements regular checks for mold as part of IAQ checks. The 

contractor uses natural and least-toxic materials for pest management whenever 

possible and sprays only in the summer when students are not present.

Herculaneum has a high 

poverty rate. In ninth 

through 12th grade home 

economics classes, 

students learn how to 

purchase healthy foods on 

a budget and create 

healthy weekly menus. 

They also learn how to 

remake leftovers. The 

school recently received a 

grant to have a dentist 

and psychologist in the 

district, whom students 

and their families can visit 

any time during school 

hours. Families are 

encouraged both to 

donate and take any 

clothing items from the 

school’s sharing closet. 

Herculaneum has an 

exchange program for 

household goods, where 

families are encouraged to volunteer or use to get items they need. Free breakfast 

is offered to all students. For staff, there are 3,000-steps-a-day and weight-loss 

challenges.

Herculaneum offers a new research-based course, an outdoor learning space, and a 

community fair. The research course includes and expands upon the protocols from 

MO Dirt – Missourians Doing Impact Research Together, a statewide curriculum on 

soil health. The ecology department has created and maintains a butterfly garden to 

educate about nature and provide a peaceful study area. In March 2019, several 

departments came together along with members of the community and 

organizations to hold the second annual Green Fair at the school. More than 50 

percent of the students at the school will be involved in composting efforts, recycling, 

repurposing projects, a recycled art fair, grant writing for green projects, 

environmental poetry writing, environmental statistics presentations about the 

Working with her father, a Herculaneum High School student 

repurposed a muffler into a watering can.
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school, and environmental student videos. The fair is open to the community and 

focuses on sustainability practices and environmental education.

Raintree School, St. Louis, Missouri

Nurturing inner scientists in wild landscapes

Raintree School is a private Reggio Emilia-inspired forest school serving children 

ages 2 through 8. The school was founded on the belief that civically minded 

outdoor experiential education is a vehicle for community change and personal 

transformation. Raintree aims to guide students in developing civic character, a 

sense of place, and depth of knowledge through inquiry-based thinking and studentdriven projects within the context of wild nature.

For Raintree School, the native landscapes that surround the school serve as the 

foundation for every child’s experience, the curriculum, and the approach used in 

every classroom. On the nearly 11-acre wooded campus, creating and protecting 

the habitats of insects, birds, and other wildlife has been a priority. Raintree works 

to remove invasive species from the woodland while adding pollinator gardens and 

tall grasses in all landscaped zones and student-use spaces to develop school 

grounds as a haven for wildlife. The diverse landscape, created in collaboration with 

DJM Ecological Services, maximizes the campus’ ecological benefit and adds value 

to the educational program as well as the community.

Raintree’s focus is its grounds; however, the school also has made significant 

progress on the sustainability of its buildings. Raintree installed a 51-kilowatt solar 

array with 170 solar panels, which cover 75 percent of its rooftop and are projected 

to provide 80 percent of the school’s electricity. Motion-activated lightning is 

installed throughout the building. The 2017 campus addition has 100 percent LED 

lighting. Ultra-efficient water heaters with exhaust recovery features serve the 

campus. 

The establishment of native plant communities instead of lawns has allowed a 55 

percent reduction in irrigation water use. All impervious surfaces, including paved 

surfaces and roof, drain to an engineered water retention basin with a native rain 

garden. This filters all stormwater runoff using native plantings and engineered soil. 

Two other highly effective green features on campus are (1) a one-acre-plus prairie 

for overflow parking in lieu of impervious parking surface and (2) plantings on every 

slope.
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Raintree’s greatest waste-reduction efforts come from composting 53 percent of 

food waste for use in the gardens. All paper, plastic, and glass are recycled or 

reused on campus. More than 50 percent of school supplies are made from 

repurposed material from recycled goods warehouses. Kitchen policies have 

stopped the use of plastics and no disposables and ardently support reusing 

leftovers. One-third of the paper on campus was once-used and is supplied by area 

businesses and schools. 

The content of all 

purchased paper is100 

percent post-consumer 

recycled. Raintree’s 

recordkeeping and 

administrative operations 

are paperless. In 

February 2014, the 

campus ended use of 

paper towels in 

bathrooms, replaced by 

electric hand dryers 

powered by solar panels.

Raintree has two electric 

car chargers on site that 

are free and accessible to the public. Five percent of parking stalls are reserved for 

electric vehicles only. An online carpool database on the school website’s parent 

portal provides parent driving schedules and addresses to aid in coordinating 

carpools.

The campus is a pesticide-free property. Only green-certified cleaning products are 

used. Raintree School does not use laboratory chemicals or solvents. All furniture 

is wooden; there is no plastic equipment indoors or out; and rugs are natural fiber. 

All paint and wood finishes in building are zero- or low-VOC. Radon is tested biannually.

At the center of the campus, the kitchen and dining room at Raintree School reflect a 

model school food program. School produce is purchased from local farms during 

in-season growing times, and it is frozen for use in winter and early spring to reduce 

or eliminate reliance on purchasing food out of season. School breakfast, lunch, and 

snack menus are based on farm availability. Dairy, bread, tofu, honey, pasta, eggs, 

and poultry are purchased from local suppliers who use only local products. Ninety 

percent of all food on campus is locally sourced. All students are required to eat 

food prepared in the school kitchen. Students are not permitted to pack a lunch, 

which reduces disposable bags and packaging and ensures that all food on campus 

Raintree School students participate in circle time in a forest clearing.
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is in line with the standards. Raintree aims to serve “adult” food and avoids cookies 

and treats. The school also prohibits juice on campus and reduces liquid milk with 

meals. Two full-time chefs are dedicated to preparing nutritionally balanced, locally 

sourced meals on campus. Both chefs hold degrees in dietetics and nutrition and 

oversee all aspects of Raintree School’s food culture. They facilitate regular cooking 

and wellness classes for parents.

The entire school curriculum has been built to incorporate Raintree’s forest 

landscape. Every semester, every student on campus is engaged in action projects 

that focus on the woodland or the neighborhood surrounding the forest. Raintree 

students’ learning is guided by the needs of nature and the community, reflected in 

campaigns to protect waterways for toad populations and a public service 

announcement touting the effectiveness of a new, nonlethal technology to reduce 

deer-car collisions in town. 

Though it has eliminated physical education class, students have a minimum of 18 

hours a week of supervised, sustained gross-motor activity. As a forest school, 

Raintree has made play in wild outdoor spaces a regular, consistent part of the 

school week, year-round, rain or shine. Student outdoor gear policies ensure all 

students readily participate whatever the weather conditions. Students are required 

to have a wide-brimmed hat and sunblock on campus year-round, and sunglasses 

are encouraged. During the four non-forest school days each week, the school day 

begins and ends with a one-hour recess. A lunchtime recess of 45 minutes also is 

part of every school day.

A faculty and parent exercise group meets three times a week, and forest school 

sessions with students are a time of sustained exercise. The faculty meal program 

provides complimentary meals on campus and leftovers to take home for healthy 

dinners. Events that engage the school community include the Father’s Day Hike, 

Mother’s Day Hike, Grandparent’s Planting Day, family lunch dates, forest school 

mornings in local parks, and school participation in locally organized mud runs. 

All inquiry, art, science, math, and literacy instruction takes place outside in local 

habitats. Surrounded by homes, the woodland is the impetus for provocations of 

human environmental impact, which are documented and presented as part of 

formal project outcomes. All summer camps also are focused on the forest school 

pillars. Nursery school students study the evolution from seed to plant, exploring 

what food needs to grow in a garden and counting seeds. Preschool students use 

tracks, scat, feathers, field guides, and clues to determine the animal population in 

the woodland. After setting up motion-activated video cameras, preschool students 

write short nonfiction narratives on the activities of turkey vultures on campus. 

Kindergarten students use modern and art-based mapping techniques to create a 

usable map.
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The first forest school established in Missouri, and consultant to new forest schools 

in the region, Raintree is a model in child-initiated, long-term community project 

work. To share lessons learned and keep the momentum going throughout the 

region, every member of the Raintree School faculty connects with other efforts in 

the region in a variety of ways, providing a pop-up outdoor school in local parks 

called Wildkin, and participating in the Gateway Children’s Nature Connection, 

Missouri Environmental Literacy Advisory Board, and the Development Committee 

of Experiential Education Exchange. Raintree also founded the Forest School 

Congress of the Midwest, Vaskebjorn. Finally, Raintree produced a documentary, 

Forest Hymn for Little Girls, a film that challenges adults to make space for little girls 

to take risks, roll in the mud, hunt mysteries, and nurture their inner scientist 

outdoors in wild landscapes.

New Jersey

Holland Brook School, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey

Everybody buses to the Brook

While strong leadership is critical for sustainability progress, ongoing success 

requires the buy-in of staff and students. Holland Brook School (HBS) students 

actively promote sustainable behaviors throughout the school community. Working 

with the Schools for Energy Efficiency program, student leaders assess classrooms 

on walk-throughs to see whether students and staff are following energy 

conservation behaviors by turning off lights and electronic devices and closing blinds 

for temperature regulation. These efforts have paid off, with the school reducing 

energy use by over 30 percent in four years. HBS purchases 21 percent renewable 

energy and generates 64 percent on-site with solar. A large monitor has been 

installed in the main hallway, relaying information about electricity generated by the 

array. Providing daily feedback about the energy being generated keeps the topic of 

solar panels and alternative energy in the forefront of students’ minds.

Providing feedback to the staff goes a long way toward modifying teacher behavior 

and empowering students. Students in the environmental club raise awareness 

about the importance of recycling; they provide information how, what, and where to 

recycle; create bird feeders and organize recycled materials; and initiate voluntary 

recycling programs for hard-to-recycle items with TerraCycle and Crayola 

Colorcycle. In the cafeteria, the use of reusable trays and composting of food waste 

greatly reduces solid waste. Fifth-grade students lead composting efforts during 

their living systems unit of study in science. One hundred percent of paper is Forest 

Stewardship Council-certified. Upcycling and sustainability are infused into 

Innovation and Design and Discover Lab classes, in which students create race cars 
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from 100 percent recycled materials and take apart old electronics to learn how they 

work before upcycling components into new items.

News Crew, the student-run news show, incorporates sustainability features in its 

monthly news shows. Students have embraced the HBS Chromebook 1:1 initiative 

and use Google suites to receive, complete, and submit assignments electronically, 

which, along with switching to electronic newsletters and report cards, has 

dramatically reduced paper use. HBS uses 80 percent environmentally preferable 

cleaning products. Due to the school’s rural location and 48-square-mile service 

area, most students take a bus to school, and under 10 percent are driven by 

parents or in carpools. Bus routes changed from a three-tier to two-tier system, 

resulting in improved efficiency, reduced fuel usage, and reduced emissions, and 

reduced wear and tear on vehicles.

Student and staff health, safety, nutrition, and fitness are enhanced through multiple 

partnerships, such as Healthy Schools, Healthy People for handwashing and 

hygiene; the Weller Health Education Center for sex education; Hunterdon Medical 

Centre for the Sunwise program; the New Jersey State Bar Foundation for 

professional development workshops related to harassment, intimidation, and 

bullying; MyFriendRyan to promote understanding of autism; and physical fitness 

through partnerships 

with Girls on the Run, 

Let me Run, Firefly 

Tennis and First Tee 

Golf. The HBS turkey 

trot two-mile fun run 

and full-day 

inflatables field day 

are a beloved part of 

HBS’ fit and fun 

traditions.

Food-centric birthday 

and holiday 

celebrations have 

been eliminated, and 

children are 

encouraged to stay 

hydrated by refilling 

their reusable water 

bottles at water-bottle 

filling stations. Student recess time has been doubled, and all teachers incorporate 

brain breaks, with activities such as GoNoodle, into classroom learning, a bonus to 

Fourth-grade students at Holland Brook school go on a river field trip and 

evaluate water quality based on organisms present.
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both physical and mental health. The social-emotional learning initiative, HBS 

Bobcats ROCK (respectful, outstanding, caring kids) provides students with a 

yearlong program focused on self-awareness, self-management, responsible 

decision-making, relationship skills, and social awareness. The HBS cafeteria 

celebrates farm-to-school week and offers local produce choices year-round.

Student learning is not restricted to the classroom. Eighty percent of the HBS 

grounds are green spaces that include grassland; areas of forest, native, or 

regionally appropriate trees and landscaping; a solar field; an outdoor running track 

through the forest; a naturally seeded retention basin; a preserved meadow; and an 

outdoor classroom. The HBS outdoor classroom and rural location lends itself to 

nature walks, which provide brain breaks and can be connected to classroom 

lessons. The fourth grade, in partnership with Raritan Headwaters, visits the river to 

learn about the interconnectedness of ecosystems by analyzing the surrounding 

environment, water quality, and biodiversity of wildlife present in the water. This 

involvement led to HBS becoming a river-friendly certified school. Open air learning 

is an option with an outdoor classroom, allowing teachers to move regular lessons 

outdoors. Students collect leaves for classification, observe the sun, and find 

Fibonacci sequences and spirals in nature.

Lessons about the environment and the importance of sustainability initiatives are 

infused throughout the curriculum. Students interconnect ecosystems, global

warming, and plants; in science classes; they learn to read and draw graphs using 

climate change data in math; they discuss the problems caused by deforestation in 

music class. They learn about engineering houses with modifications to withstand 

natural disasters, and they plan a green redesign of the Township of Readington (in 

which the school is located) to reduce environmental impact and reliance on cars. 

Science units involving weather are enhanced by using data from the HBS weather 

station, which is posted on the school website daily, along with local air quality data.

Students also learn through assemblies focused on sustainability, which have 

included a presentation by solar provider Ameresco. Environmental and 

sustainability literature is required reading and is infused into many subject areas. 

For example, nonfiction reading units in language arts may be included in science or 

social studies instruction.

At a higher level, Readington Township wholeheartedly embraces sustainability, 

from the board of education and superintendent to the youngest students. The 

district’s strategic plan includes reducing energy use, developing environmentally 

responsible facilities, enhancing sustainability education, adding sustainability 

electives, recycling and composting at every school, and having all schools earn 

Sustainable Jersey certification. The district not only has achieved those goals but 

has exceeded them, and these accomplishments have been featured in a local news 
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report. In support of the Readington Township Schools’ green initiatives, the board 

of education hired an energy efficiency coordinator who has increased energy 

consumption awareness, tracked energy consumption, and reduced usage 

dramatically. She provides sustainability lessons to students, professional 

development to teachers, and advice to principals, and discusses with the larger 

community how to incorporate energy savings into daily lives.

Saint Leo the Great School, Lincroft, New Jersey

Phasing in sustainability through faith-based learning

Saint Leo the Great School (SLGS) is a nonpublic, Catholic school with the mission 

of developing youth entrusted to its care through spiritual, educational, social, and 

athletic activities. Its daily mission reinforces Pope Francis’ teaching of personal 

responsibility for local and global environmental stewardship. Between 1960 and 

today, SLGS has grown from a school with 201 students in grades one through 

grade four to a school with 600 students in preschool through grade eight. The 

administrators, faculty, and staff guide the student body to a deeper knowledge and 

faith practice. The parish green team is under the leadership of the pastor, business 

administrator, and principal, as well as the leadership of the Diocese of Trenton. It 

has been implementing sustainable initiatives over the past five years with the aim of 

raising awareness of them and reducing the school’s environmental footprint. 

In 2017, the school established the position of director of operations, who, in 

collaboration with the New Jersey Building and Grounds Association, has brought 

expertise to SLGS’ Clean School Initiative. SLGS focuses on grounds improvement, 

building management, and expanding the school’s environmental practices, 

programs, policies, and curriculum. With the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager as 

its tracking mechanism, the school is using a holistic approach to view the 

interrelationships among policies, curriculum, utility usage, and facility management 

operations. 

Significant campus projects are underway that already have produced cost savings 

and other efficiencies. A phased program is in progress to replace rooftop HVAC 

equipment with high-efficiency ENERGY STAR-rated units. A phased program to 

replace lighting with LED lights is underway. In addition, the school installed highefficiency fans in classrooms and has begun a phased program to replace windows 

and insulation. Lastly, SLGS has installed a half-acre solar field, which produces 85 

percent of the school’s fossil fuel power needs. SLGS has started to reduce the 

amount of energy used and its costs from many of the measures described above. 
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The school uses water judiciously and continues to make efforts to reduce 

consumption further. The school grounds are home to over 22 native species of wild 

flowers, shrubs, trees, and grasses. The school uses plantings for erosion 

protection and slope retention as well as for natural/grass high-traffic parking area 

preservation. Also, a rooftop drainage system feeds into the courtyard for 

subsurface watering. In 2016, SLGS installed a well that irrigates the entire 17-acre 

campus. Underground irrigation in garden beds reduces water use. The SLGS 

athletic fields were rebuilt to be graded to drain off of a planted berm that feeds 

down into an outdoor picnic, chapel, and forested area, reducing irrigation demand.

Saint Leo the Great has installed water-bottle filling stations and has side-by-side 

trash and recycling bins around campus. The school has begun a pilot curriculumbased composting project, managed by students, in the cafeteria. One hundred 

percent of purchased paper is Forest Stewardship Council-certified, and all cleaning 

products are green-certified. SLGS switched to reusable cafeteria trays over a 

decade ago. Grass clippings and leaves are mulched in the cutting process. The 

school uses a printer vendor that reduces cartridge costs by approximately 12 

percent, and it keeps cartridges out of the trash cycle. 

Because students come from 28 different communities, 82 percent of them ride the 

bus. The bus routes are shared, however, with between five and 11 other schools in 

the area to consolidate routes. This makes for greater efficiency and lowers fuel use 

for all the schools and bus companies. Pest management and landscaping 

companies use 

natural solutions 

whenever possible, 

including cedar oil, 

citric acid, 

citronella, linseed 

oil, sodium chloride, 

white pepper, neem 

oil, boric acid, and 

diatomaceous 

earth.

In 2014, the 

school’s nature 

courtyard, located 

in the center of the 

school building, 

was designated by 

the National Wildlife 

Federation as a 

Saint Leo the Great students design and build wind turbines.
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Certified Wildlife Habitat®, serving as a living classroom for students. Many 

varieties of birds, insects, and other small animals visit the courtyard, which also 

serves as a meditation garden used for individual solitude and prayer. 

The SLGS athletic facilities are home to an interscholastic sports program that 

involves over 60 percent of students. In every grade, the school integrates The 

Positivity Project, a national program model designed toward building character 

strengths on values found in the Scriptures. The Positivity Project establishes 

benchmarks and guidelines for character building. With the Gospel as its 

foundation, SLGS teaches total well-being in mind (meditation and coping 

techniques), body (physical fitness and nutritional wellness), and soul (spirituality 

and Catholic faith). The preschool and kindergarten program is connected with The 

Positivity Project and combines the character-building traits with physical exercise, 

good health, wellness, nutrition, and yoga; as well as providing simulations for 

skiing, ice skating, group dance, and stretching to open hearts and minds.

Preschoolers grow butterfly habitats and release the butterflies into the courtyard 

wildlife sanctuary, while older students study New Jersey’s native species and the 

role they play in the environment. Younger students build miniature wind fields and 

study the parts and lifecycle of seeds by planting pumpkins and watermelons, 

celebrating with fall and spring harvests. Third and fourth grades plant evergreen 

seedlings on Earth Day and transplant them around campus each fall.

Older students simulate oil spills and cleanups, studying the domino effect on 

affected life forms, and they research waste reduction and its effect on the planet. 

Students also construct functioning robots and design playground equipment and 

dams from recycled and upcycled materials. A STEAM lab has been outfitted with 

S+B USA’s SpaceStation Science Lab to promote collaborative group learning with 

seating. 

The school is particularly proud of the religious education program is provides, which 

extends SLGS’ faith-based Catholic history through environmental learning 

experiences. The school reinforces Pope Francis’s teaching of personal 

responsibility for local and global environmental stewardship. For example, SLGS 

led students through an African village environmental stewardship lesson, which 

included a water-scarcity relay race. The lesson demonstrates the issues of global 

clean water scarcity, as well as how the social justice teachings of the Catholic 

Church can help change this problem. The relay teams were given an empty 

bucket, and each team member was given a three-ounce paper cup, with 

instructions to collect clean water and return it to their village and fill the bucket in 30 

minutes. In another example, the school provided a “brick building” exercise, which 

used environmental, engineering, and scientific principles by simulating the 

experience of the enslaved Israelites. Using top soil, straw, water, aluminum loaf 
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pans, and large buckets, students recreated the mixture ancient Israelites used to 

make bricks during their enslavement in Egypt. Approximately 100 summer 

students from schools throughout the area formed building teams and used the raw 

natural material to make the bricks. They then placed them in the courtyard to bake 

into a hard brick in the summer sun. The children formed their own teams, allocated 

their own resources, and formed their own processes for work distribution.

New York

Sanfordville Elementary School, Warwick, New York

A school that embodies green living and learning ― while educating children to do 

the same

When visitors arrive at the Sanfordville Elementary School campus and peek 

through a grove of newly planted pine trees, one thing becomes immediately clear: 

This is a school that’s serious about reducing environmental impact.

The school’s 120-acre campus is home to a 9,000-panel solar panel array — an 

array powerful enough to offset most of the electrical costs not only for Sanfordville 

Elementary School itself, but also for the entire Warwick Valley Central School 

District. The array is the largest solar farm operated by a school district or public 

agency in the state; conservative estimates indicate that it is producing a minimum 

of 2.9 kilowatt-hours of power per year. It’s just one of many environmental 

initiatives at the school, which provides educational and support services to 710 

students in kindergarten through grade five.

Sanfordville students are empowered environmental leaders. More than a dozen 

are members of the school’s Green Cub Club, which meets regularly with a green 

team facilitator, green team teacher leaders, and district administrators to put forth 

ideas for new environmental projects. Recently, club members developed a 

composting program for every classroom in the school, as well as for the school 

cafeteria. These student activists designed and created public service 

announcement videos focused on water conservation and recycling; the videos were 

shared at the school and posted on the district website. Sanfordville’s Green Cub 

Club members also are known to take their message of reducing environmental 

impacts into the community. During Warwick’s Earth Day Festival, they 

enthusiastically interacted with community members, encouraging them to opt for 

reusable bags rather than plastic ones. 

Reusable containers for food topped the list of environmental goals during 

Sanfordville Elementary School’s Waste-Free Lunch Day Challenge. Students were 

encouraged to pack reusable containers and strive for zero waste on that day. As a 
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result, the trash generated during lunch periods decreased from 16 bags of waste 

down to eight. Pupils were able to see how their efforts resulted in a 50 percent 

reduction in waste, and the school’s goal is now to host a waste-free day every 

month! 

To further reduce environmental impact, Sanfordville Elementary School monitors 

every single room through a virtual private network, meaning heating, cooling, and 

lighting can be adjusted remotely to save energy and maximize efficiency. The 

school also uses the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manage and has a score of 97.

Additionally, Sanfordville Elementary School is an integral part of districtwide efforts 

to minimize environmental footprint. This includes replacing all fluorescent light 

bulbs with energy-conserving LED bulbs, reconfiguring routes to reduce bus runs by 

30 percent, purchasing propane-powered school buses, and adopting a broadreaching, districtwide sustainability policy. This sustainability policy carries a 

requirement to integrate environmental and sustainability topics into all curricular 

areas in all grade levels, including the school’s multiage classrooms. Sanfordville 

Elementary School supports this requirement by working with the Children’s 

Environmental Literacy 

Foundation to provide 

professional learning 

opportunities focused on 

weaving environmental 

themes into class 

activities.

Sanfordville teachers 

approach the integration 

of environmental lessons 

in many ways. Some 

educators develop Earth 

Day projects related to 

net zero concepts in 

which students can 

become engaged. 

Others arrange field trips 

to farms, and other sites 

appropriate for environmental learning. Still others integrate sustainability themes 

into art projects and English language arts writing assignments. 

Other environmental education-related initiatives at Sanfordville Elementary School 

include educators’ use of the Engineering is Elementary curricular units on 

sustainability, which include fun and engaging project-based learning activities. The 

Students at Sanfordville Elementary sign a pledge to reduce, reuse, 

and recycle.
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solar panel array provides invaluable opportunities for students to learn firsthand 

about green culture and technology, as they can access solar information kiosks 

through the district’s website. The array also enables them to study the power that it 

generates and track past and current power usage. 

Sanfordville’s green education activities extend far beyond the classroom. Students 

partner with Sustainable Warwick, a local organization that focuses on 

environmental stewardship and sustainability, to carry out projects in the community 

that raise awareness of environmental issues. New in the 2018–19 school year is a 

project in which pupils are working with artists to create a grove of trees in a local 

park using “plarn” (plastic bag yarn) and 3D printed materials; the activity was part of 

a communitywide Arbor Day celebration and the start of new environmental learning 

opportunities in the community.

An array of health and wellness programs complement Sanfordville’s commitment to 

improving the environment. The school uses produce and fresh foods from local 

farms, thanks to a cooperative purchasing agreement with other schools in the 

region. Under this agreement, local farmers are given preference when produce is 

purchased. Sanfordville Elementary School students, staff, and volunteers also 

maintain an organic garden, where food is grown that can be used in the school 

cafeteria. Inside, the school stocks only healthy snacks in vending machines, and 

classroom celebrations no longer include sugar- and fat-laden foods such as 

cupcakes and candy. Sanfordville has installed water-bottle refilling stations, so 

students and staff can stay hydrated while they cut down on the purchase of singleuse plastic water bottles.

The school maintenance personnel are partners in the environmental stewardship, 

focusing on creating healthy educational settings by closely following green 

procurement policies for custodial and cleaning products. The school buys products 

through a cooperative purchasing process that ensures adherence to the strict 

requirements of New York’s Green Clean program.

Sanfordville Elementary School has a full-time school nurse, as well as an active 

wellness and child nutrition committee. Students’ social-emotional needs are 

supported through the services of a school counselor, as well as daily access to 

either a social worker or psychologist. Sanfordville educators also are integrating 

mindfulness-based, stress-relief activities into classes, and they often spend quiet 

time with children in a garden area that features a “peace wall” dedicated to those 

affected by the events of 9/11. 

A partnership with the community-based Warwick Valley Prevention Coalition means 

students receive information on making healthy choices. Moreover, the school 

presents a regular series of anti-bullying activities, and it follows all requirements of 
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the state’s Dignity for All Students Act. To improve physical health, Sanfordville 

educators encourage nature walks and outdoor physical education activities; the 

school property has beautiful woodlands and streams, along with a cross-country 

running area and lacrosse fields. Sanfordville Elementary School even has found a 

way to blend physical activity and learning with its kinesthetic learning lab, which is 

based on research showing a strong link between movement and academic 

performance. Pupils in the lab can be moving through an obstacle course, tossing 

bean bags, or exercising on a stair- stepper while they’re reviewing spelling words, 

solving math problems, or engaging in other learning activities that are good for the 

body and good for the mind.

Taken together, Sanfordville Elementary School’s countless daily activities devoted 

to reducing environmental impact, integrating ecological stewardship into education, 

and improving student and staff wellness are the embodiment of green living and 

learning.

Warwick Valley Middle School, Warwick, New York

A major EPA award propels environmental education to the next level

Warwick Valley Middle School is nestled in a charming rural landscape 

approximately 55 miles north of New York City. The school, which has 1,075 

students in grades five through eight and close to 100 staff members, is considered 

an environmental beacon in the local community and beyond, thanks to its 

commitment to ensuring a sustainable future for all.

This commitment is evidenced by the seemingly endless educational opportunities 

presented to students. Each eighth-grader is required to participate in 20 full weeks 

of sustainability education, which provides a foundation for developing 

environmentally and socially conscious citizens. As these students progress through 

middle school, they can opt to take such classes as Energy and the Environment 

and/or Computer Science for Innovators and Makers. A sequence of Project Lead 

the Way courses provides valuable additional hands-on STEM experiences for 

middle school students, too; these are complemented by the real-world learning 

about power usage and net zero energy usage that occurs when Warwick Valley 

Middle School students access and analyze data generated from the district’s 9,000-

panel solar farm.

Warwick Valley Middle School educators and students are breaking through 

traditional assumptions about what constitutes a learning space. In fact, classroom 

walls might well be considered a thing of the past, thanks to the school’s newly 
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constructed outdoor classroom. This is a place that provides the perfect setting for 

science experiments and observations, but also is a setting to promote creative 

thought, expression, contemplation, and appreciation of the planet.

Learners spend time in an outdoor courtyard area accessible from the school; this 

area provides space for students to plant gardens and test theories about 

environmental factors that affect plant growth. Students take advantage of many 

community-based learning experiences, as well. For example, pupils in the Green 

Architecture class visit historic structures in the Warwick area to get a firsthand look 

at best practices for restoring buildings using sustainable construction practices. 

Fifth-grade students spend time at the Greenkill Outdoor Education Center each 

autumn, where they can take nature hikes, explore water and forest ecology, and 

participate in team-building activities.

Civic-minded endeavors for Warwick Valley Middle School students include cleaning 

up local parks, engaging in environmental projects in the community for Earth Day, 

and translating their classroom knowledge into social media campaigns focused on 

increasing sustainability and green living activities throughout Warwick. Pupils even 

can travel to virtual communities with one of the school’s most high-tech and 

innovative activities. Using virtual-reality goggles, they immerse themselves in an 

endless array of biomes and environments — without ever leaving the classroom.

Warwick Valley 

Middle School 

educators, like 

their colleagues 

throughout the 

district, are 

required to 

incorporate 

sustainability and 

environmental 

concepts into 

curricula and class 

activities — and 

do so with 

creativity and 

enthusiasm. They 

often receive 

training and 

guidance from the 

Children’s 

Environmental Literacy Foundation and Sustainable Warwick (a local organization 

On the Warwick Valley Central School District’s grounds is a 8800-panel solar 

field that generates enough energy for the whole district.
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committed to protecting the environment and reducing carbon emissions) on 

integrating green concepts and themes into daily activities. With that knowledge, 

they might be creating interactive lessons for the school’s weather station one day, 

helping students recycle and refurbish furniture that originally was heading for the 

landfill another day, and developing projects to help the New York State Department 

of Environmental Conservation the following day. Many Warwick Valley Middle 

School educators also are involved in organizing the annual STEAM Fair, which 

showcases student-designed projects that never fail to impress even the most 

advanced and educated scientists and environmentalists in the Warwick Valley 

community. Warwick Valley Middle School students need only look around their 

school setting to gain an even greater understanding of how to address sustainability 

and environmental issues effectively in a larger, real-world context. 

For instance, the school has improved energy efficiency through enhanced 

monitoring of energy usage, by installing LED lighting in all indoor and outdoor 

areas, and by using software that automatically powers down computers when not in 

use. Efficiency also is evident in the way middle school students are transported to 

and from school, as the district continues purchasing propane-powered buses. 

These vehicles run cleaner than traditional diesel buses and have almost no 

emissions. In addition, propane is approximately half the cost of diesel, and the 

propane buses require less maintenance, yielding an estimated 30 percent savings 

in maintenance costs. Even with these advances, the middle school’s student-led 

green team continues to provide leaders at the school and district levels with more 

ideas to further improve energy efficiency and sustainability.

Educators, school leaders, and students also continually seek out ways to maintain 

a healthy, positive, and compassionate school climate. The middle school has 

significantly improved its school climate by using Positive Behavioral Interventions 

and Supports. With this program incorporates proactive strategies for defining, 

teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors to create a positive school 

environment. Additionally, all physical education teachers have trained extensively 

in mindfulness and stress-relief strategies and incorporate them in every class. 

Students are improving their focus by using the newly installed virtual golf facilities.

Warwick Valley Middle School has a full-time school nurse and three school 

counselors, as well as two full-time psychologists and social workers, to support and 

guide to pupils. The school also presents a regular series of anti-bullying and 

character education activities and follows all requirements of the state’s Dignity for 

All Students Act. To increase overall safety, a school resource officer has been 

hired to work exclusively in Warwick Valley Middle School, allowing him to build 

sustainable relationships with students, staff, and families.
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Improving pupils’ physical health is another vital element in the school environment. 

Students can participate in the modified sports program, in addition to joining a crew 

team. The Girls on the Run club is popular with female students. Many teachers 

take advantage of outdoor spaces, leading children on hikes not only to build 

physical stamina, but also to expand students’ knowledge of their environment. 

Also, students in the cooking club and consumer science classes learn about 

creating nutritious meals. This knowledge is reinforced through meal preparation in 

the Warwick Valley Middle School cafeteria, which uses organic produce sourced 

from local farmers and student gardens. With these fresh produce options, the 

school’s menu often exceeds the USDA meal pattern requirements for fresh fruits 

and vegetables. 

With such an ingrained culture of green living, environmental awareness and 

education, Warwick Valley Middle School has been recognized on regional, state, 

and national levels. The school was honored by Hudson Valley Dirt magazine as 

one of the top three greenest schools in the region in 2018 and among the top 10 

greenest schools in 2017. Additionally, the school was recognized by the Orange 

County Green Stars Schools program for its comprehensive efforts to reduce waste, 

and by the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation for integrating 

sustainability topics into the curriculum at all grade levels. Finally, Warwick Valley 

Central School District, including Warwick Valley Middle School, was honored by the 

EPA with a $91,000 grant award in 2015 for its Envirocation project. The grant has 

allowed the school to develop and carry out even more green activities and continue 

its commitment to a sustainable future.

North Carolina

Abbotts Creek Elementary School, Raleigh, North Carolina

From Trashmore to the Tomatosphere, these students have sustainability covered

Abbotts Creek Elementary School (ACES) opened in the fall of 2015. The school 

was built adjacent to a recently closed, repurposed, landfill. Every day, as ACES 

students arrive and depart, they see “Mount Trashmore.” This unique location has 

given ACES the ability to connect students authentically to sustainability and 

environmental issues and be active stakeholders in reducing environmental impact 

in the school and the community.

The ACES heating and cooling system is centrally controlled and differentiates 

conditions for different zones. This central control allows the building to maintain a 

given temperature without tampering with individual classrooms and areas. It also 

allows heating and cooling in individual areas to be turned off when not in use, 

saving electricity and costs. Students are only allowed to use certain doors to exit 
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and enter the building, reducing the effect of outside air entering the building. With 

some 800 students entering and exiting multiple times a day, the reduction in access 

points saves energy. Each classroom and office space within the 103,724 squarefoot building is equipped with motion sensor lights. The school has an ENERGY 

STAR Portfolio Manager score of 82.

Abbotts Creek has 74 bathroom sink faucets, of which 50 are water-saving, timedpush faucets, reducing water use and creating cost savings. All ACES landscaping 

was designed to feature native plants and other vegetation adapted to the local 

climate and annual rainfall, eliminating the need for an outdoor irrigation system. A 

rain barrel positioned to collect water near the Monarch Waystation allows students 

and families to water the milkweed and pollinator plants during extended hot 

weather.

The school was designed and constructed with a stormwater runoff retention pond to 

help settle sediments before they can enter a nearby stream. Multiple stormwater 

drains around campus lead to the retention pond. The pond is an approximate oneacre wetland, which collects and treats stormwater runoff from the approximately 20-

acre campus. Because a wet detention basin dilutes and settles pollutants in the 

initial runoff from a storm, the concentration of pollutants in the runoff released 

downstream is reduced.

School grounds have been certified by the 

National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife 

habitat.® To be recognized, ACES 

demonstrated the campus had food and 

water availability, wildlife cover, places to 

raise young, and sustainable practices. 

The campus has old growth trees, various 

native berry plants, shrubbery at varying 

heights, and multiple blue bird nest boxes. 

Abbotts Creek is innovative in its waste 

reduction practices. The Environmental 

Research and Education Foundation

(EREF) partnered with ACES to perform a 

waste stream analysis to determine how 

much and what type of waste was 

generated in the school cafeteria. Food 

waste was determined to be the bulk of 

the waste stream. With that knowledge, 

and the help of EREF, ACES developed a 

waste reduction plan. The first phase of 

Abbotts Creek Elementary School students 

release American Shad fry into the Neuse River 

as part of the Shad in the Classroom citizen 

science project.
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the plan provided additional educational opportunities to staff and students on how 

to reduce waste while generating additional stakeholders by forming a parent green 

team. Cafeteria staff created and posted additional kid-friendly signs, helping 

students understand what food they were able to choose and how to correctly judge 

portion sizes, which has reduced the amount of food waste from the cafeteria. For 

the second phase, the parent green team initiated a small-scale food-waste

diversion and enhanced recycling program. Every week, parents, with the help of 

students, collect two five-gallon buckets of food waste, along with additional 

cafeteria materials that can be recycled, and bring them to the nearby convenience 

center for processing. 

Other waste reduction initiatives include participation in Crayola ColorCycle, a 

“These Come From Trees” educational campaign about paper waste, and a 

partnership with Wake County Recycling on a classroom Feed The Bin program. 

The school is a proud partner in DonateSport.org, a charity started and operated by 

an ACES family to collect donations of used sports clothing. In 2019, ACES 

switched to compostable trays in the cafeteria.

The school does not use hazardous materials within the building. Ecolab is a Green 

Seal-certified product used for approximately 80–90 percent of cleaning, and ACES 

bathroom paper product supplier EcoLogo is certified for reduced environmental 

impact.

Approximately 71 percent of the ACES student population walks, bikes, takes the 

bus, or carpools to and from school daily. ACES participates annually in a Walk to

School day and encourages healthy habits and the reduction of fossil fuel use. 

Through ACES innovative technology-based carpool loading, at least eight students 

are loaded simultaneously. Students are queued up prior to their car entering the 

loading zone through an online system. This significantly shortens carpool time and 

reduces car idling.

Abbotts Creek has a full-time custodian during the day and a night cleaning crew. A 

schedule is followed for dusting, mopping, vacuuming, and cleaning surfaces, which 

reduces allergens that could affect the health of students. The custodian also 

performs daily checks for any potential environmental or health hazards within and 

around the building. The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) has 

multiple staff in all areas of the facilities to ensure that professionals address and 

remediate any environmental or health issues promptly. WCPSS believes in 

integrated pest management, which has significantly reduced the use of pesticides 

around campus. The district has implemented strict rules and regulations regarding 

the use of pesticides, which has reduced the potential for student exposure. 
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The ACES physical education teacher created a run club that meets twice a week 

before school. Students can participate in the districtwide First in Fitness Program, 

which allows them to compete with other schools in various events. The physical 

education teacher organizes meetups for students and parents to represent ACES at 

local five-kilometer races. Monthly Health Challenge calendars are sent home to 

encourage daily physical activity and promote healthy nutrition habits. Students can 

bring the signed calendar back at the end of the month to receive recognition for 

completion. Primary classroom teachers have initiated a Girls on the Run club to 

promote health and wellness for female students. ACES’ annual Walk to School day 

promotes physical activity while encouraging a reduction in carpool numbers. ACES 

media specialists initiated the tower garden within the library, a hydroponic growing 

system that is incorporated within the curriculum to promote healthy eating. The 

ACES music teacher initiated a staff health program with accountability, support, 

group activities, and weekly challenges to encourage members to get healthy while 

losing weight.

Counseling services at ACES include individual counseling, group counseling, 

classroom guidance lessons, and crisis assessments. Guidance is a special class 

that every kindergarten through fifth-grade student takes at least once per month. 

The curriculum follows the developmental competencies outlined by the American 

School Counseling Association. Topics include study skills, being a good friend, 

ending bullying, setting goals, test tips, and social-emotional learning (which 

includes lessons on coping skills). Individual counseling services are available for 

students who have both momentary issues and long-term needs. Students can selfrefer or refer a friend for services. ACES uses a Positive Behavioral Intervention 

and Supports system.

Backpack Buddies currently supports 36 low-income students by providing them with 

10–12 pounds of nutritious food to take home for the weekend. The Green Chair 

Project provides beds to students who are in need and helps furnish homes for 

families that are moving out of homelessness into permanent housing. The Raleigh 

Police Department provides monthly seminars on safety and wellness for all fifthgrade students. The Kerr Family YMCA provides onsite before- and after-school 

care promoting health and wellness activities. Scholarships are available for 

students who demonstrate need.

The science special curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade has been 

developed with an environmental literacy and green STEM focus. The science 

specialist leading the charge is a former environmental engineer. Each of the 866 

students keeps a science notebook. Students in kindergarten through fifth grade 

collect data through various citizen science projects such as CoCoRaHS rain gauge; 

NestWatch on four bluebird boxes; MonarchWatch, tagging wild butterflies; 

Tomatosphere, growing and collecting data on seeds that have been on the 
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international space station; Shad in the Classroom to learn water quality analysis; 

Purple Air Quality Monitoring; and tri-motion sensor cameras to document wildlife 

found on school grounds. 

Environmental STEM professionals visit or video chat with students, deepening their 

understanding of the environment and related professions. Unique partnerships with 

the North Carolina Natural Science Museum, Carolina Clean Air, and Wake County 

Solid Waste and Recycling have provided hands-on, authentic educational 

opportunities. ACES partnered with nearby state, county, and city parks to create a 

Nature Passport. Students can take their passports to the parks and receive a 

stamp while learning and exploring nature. ACES also has developed an Explorer 

Backpack program. Students can take home backpacks for the weekend to 

encourage nature exploration with their families. 

Abbotts Creek also has an Envirothon Team, through which students can dive 

deeper into environmental science and compete regionally. Every year, ACES 

organizes and runs Big Sweep Litter Cleanup within the school’s watershed, and it 

organizes community outreach events such as a viewing of the documentary 

STRAWS. ACES’ yearly science fair includes various green STEM professionals, 

such as the North Carolina State University Turtle Rescue Team, wildlife biologists, 

herpetologists, and solid waste engineers.

Douglas Byrd High School, Fayetteville, N.C.

Sun Stewards conduct green technology education in the community

Douglas Byrd High School (DBHS) is an urban, Title I school that started a unique 

program 11 years ago called the Academy of Green Technology (AoGT). The 

program’s mission is “to prepare students to be the innovators of the next generation 

as they pursue the technical and collaborative skills necessary to drive the emerging 

green and global economy.” The first four years of the program provided a step-bystep addition of new course work as the incoming freshmen worked their way toward 

graduation. Since then, the program has emphasized outreach and the 

implementation of wider conservation principles, which the school at large has 

embraced and passed along to the local community.

The core of the AoGT program at Douglas Byrd High School is the green team. The 

green team is organized by the county’s green schools program, but it is 

implemented and maintained at the school level and led by the AoGT director. 

Select teachers and staff meet monthly to plan sustainability programs, activities, 

and education to reduce DBHS’ environmental footprint, while improving education 

and health offerings. In addition, a student green team runs the recycling program, 
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conducts surprise room audits to ensure compliance with recycling and energy 

policies, and plans sustainability outreach projects.

The county’s green schools initiative, which implemented the green team concept 

and the efforts of both AoGT students and DBHS students at large, have resulted in 

a collaboration that over the past 10 years has reduced the school’s greenhouse gas 

emissions, water usage, energy usage, and waste. DBHS has reduced energy use 

by 70 percent and domestic water use by 37 percent over eight years. DBHS uses 

all Green Seal-certified cleaning products. Roughly 82 percent of students takes 

buses to school and roughly 8–10 percent walk or bike. The school sponsors 

several walk and bike to school days.

Douglas Byrd has a dedicated school social worker and a unique peer-mentoring 

class that is active in developing and maintaining peer tutoring and mentoring across 

all grade levels. The social worker oversees multiple programs to assist with school 

climate issues. She maintains a school clothes closet for those in need. A Positive 

Behavioral Interventions and Supports team focuses on school pride and positive 

behavior. Students earn points and use them to purchase simple rewards.

The AoGT program conducts 

environmental education in the 

community through outreach 

programs. The Sun Stewards 

program features a 14-foot trailer 

equipped with portable solar 

panels, as well as a model room 

including lighting, outlets, and a 

sink (with access to a solar water 

heater). The trailer and students 

visit elementary schools, Earth Day 

fairs, and local events to teach 

about solar energy and energy 

conservation. Students create and 

teach the lessons they offer. 

Supported by a recent grant, AoGT 

and the school’s culinary-arts 

students have developed the 

Communities in Bloom initiative to 

teach gardening and help the local 

community grow its own fresh food. 

Students involved in the initiative 

provide containers, seeds, and 

Douglas Byrd High School Academy of Green 

Technology students offer environmental education 

outreach to the public.
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tools, as well as programming in container gardening. They also visit local homes 

upon request to help start gardens. Students maintain a greenhouse to grow 

seedlings and raise fresh food for use in the culinary-arts department.

Another AoGT program is the Carbon Sequestration Research Project. Students 

have designed an experiment where they plant trees to assess carbon dioxide 

sequestration (and bank carbon). The project is coordinated through the district’s 

green schools initiative and a local nonprofit organization. Students have multiple 

stands of deciduous trees for which they measure the carbon dioxide sequestration. 

They measure the comparative amounts of carbon dioxide sequestered from a 

mixed tree stand, compared to a monoculture stand. The trees are part of the 

Cumberland County Schools Carbon Banking Project.

The DBHS ROTC program participates in green initiatives by identifying and raising 

air quality flags each day. Custodial staff uses green cleaning products. The 

cafeteria provides food scraps to make into compost for the Communities in Bloom 

program. The DBHS bookkeeping staff collects batteries, printer cartridges, and dryerase markers for recycling, and AoGT periodically collects electronic waste to be 

recycled.

Several AoGT classes (Working Toward Sustainability, Sustainable Conservation, 

and Generating Clean Electrons) create educational posters, monitor drinking water, 

volunteer at the local Energy Summit, and participate in the World Climate 

Simulation. The Weather Balloon Team sends up experiments related to climate or 

solar curriculum.

Immaculata Catholic School, Durham, North Carolina

From a school courtyard in the South to outer space

Immaculata Catholic School is an independent school and part of Immaculate 

Conception parish. The school was founded in 1909, and the current building was 

erected in 1951 as a one-story structure. A second level, fellowship hall, and 

additional two-story building were added in 1972 and 1994 as the school’s 

population grew. In 2014, the parish founded a Green Faith committee and earned 

Green Faith status in 2016. Green Faith is an interfaith coalition for the environment 

that works with houses of worship, religious schools, and people of all faiths to help 

them become better environmental stewards. As a school that is part of a 

Franciscan parish, the Immaculata mission statement mirrors the teachings of St. 

Francis to produce students who are responsible citizens of the world. This means 
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working to care for all of Creation — people, soil, water, plants, air, and all other 

living organisms. 

Teachers thoughtfully select projects that are fun and memorable for students in 

order to ensure retention of important environmental lessons. For example, secondgraders always look forward to their solar oven build project, because the “test” of 

their solar ovens is to cook a personal pizza and s’mores while they get extra recess 

on the playground. Immaculata’s buddy system (matching older students with 

younger students) provides opportunities for younger students to learn from older 

students and for older students to model and represent stewardship concepts they 

have learned. During National Outdoor Classroom Day, many classes meet outside 

to go on math scavenger hunts, write poetry, and play oversized xylophones, among 

other outdoor activities.

The middle-school language-arts teacher introduced the idea of using courtyard 

space to build garden beds in response to a class discussion about eating seasonal 

and local produce. The administration supported his idea and, in 2011, he started 

gardening and environmental clubs and electives. As students learned from him, 

they inspired more students to join in. 

In 2019, the entire middle 

school is focused on increasing 

productivity in the Immaculata 

courtyard garden to provide 

food for the hungry in the 

community. Along the way, 

they are learning how other 

cultures garden; new 

technologies and 

methodologies in making use 

of space; connecting their 

results with the community; 

and a better understanding of 

hunger and malnutrition. 

Middle-school students are 

tasked with examining efficient 

and low-cost irrigation 

solutions for the plants they are 

researching, and they are 

steered toward native North 

Carolina plants wherever practical to reduce reliance on auxiliary watering. 

Immaculata recently received a grant to support this garden and outdoor-classroom 

effort.

Several Immaculata Catholic School teachers, especially first 

and second grade, use yoga in classrooms as a way of 

settling children when they first arrive; during indoor recess 

on rainy days; or before or after large exams for older 

students.
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While the courtyard portion of the project is geared primarily toward middle school 

students, elementary students participate in the Tomatosphere project, in which they 

grow two sets of tomato seeds. They collect data to submit to NASA, with the hope 

that their sets of seeds travel into space. They also aim to have successful and 

strong seedlings to bring to the courtyard garden in the spring. 

The Environmental Club at Immaculata meets weekly and includes students from 

grades five through eight. Students work in the gardens on campus, upcycle various 

materials for whirly gigs and other fun garden displays, repair bicycles for students in 

need at other schools in Durham, and help with recycling and litter cleanup. They 

also have planted bulbs through a grant from Plants Keep Durham Beautiful. 

Religion classes, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girls on the Run all have had a turn 

beautifying the campus. 

Eighth-grade students visit labs, including that of Burt’s Bees, a local company that 

makes various health and beauty products using only natural ingredients. Students 

learn about sustainable packaging, environmentally sound company practices and 

research, and they gain an understanding that you can be successful while using 

products that are good for the environment and for consumers. Elementary students 

have an enrichment assembly from the Duke Energy Program about how energy is 

produced and how we can conserve. Third-grade students hear from the Durham 

County Environmental Education Department about conservation in homes and 

neighborhoods.

Immaculata received a grant through NC Bright Ideas Foundation to install light 

switches with motion sensors to conserve electricity. Students learned how these 

switches function and affect energy consumption, analyzed the effects of these 

switches on Immaculata’s usage one year before and after installation; and they 

worked with a professor at Meredith College to do a carbon footprint analysis before 

and after installation. An Earth Hour event in March invites families to turn off their 

electricity at home and come to the school to watch a National Collegiate Athletic 

Association tournament basketball game with minimal electricity on in the facility. 

Local electricity and conservation groups provide educational materials and fun 

activities for the event.

Signs are in elementary bathrooms reminding students to check that they have 

completely turned off the faucet to avoid dripping water. This practice includes the 

posting of picture signs in the preschool area. New water fountains were installed 

around the building with water-bottle filling stations. The church has a cistern, and 

the gray water is used for irrigation around the church and school grounds.

Immaculata designates “Trash-free Fridays” at lunch and distributes reusable lunch 

containers with utensils to support this effort. The school has completed a waste 
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audit, and invited its recycling contractor to present the findings, in order to educate 

about and better target recycling efforts. Prior to the analysis, each classroom had 

just one recycling bin for all recyclable materials. 

Many middle school texts are completely online, and assignments are turned in and 

graded online through the Microsoft Teams app. Friday newsletters are paperless, 

and Immaculata discourages the use of paper flyers. Primary-grade classrooms use 

individual whiteboards. 

The school purchases only recycled paper products and uses reusable dishes, 

silverware, and coffee mugs. The laminating machine was recently upgraded to a 

more energy-efficient model. The school does not have a cafeteria and uses outside 

vendors for lunch, and vendors were asked to reduce the amount of waste created 

through the catered lunch program. This led to significant changes in packaging. 

The school purchases only fair-trade coffee for urns and uses large-batch machines. 

Several grades at Immaculata use public transportation or walk to field trips. 

Immaculata acquired two 12-passenger vans to assist with field trips and sporting 

events, so fewer parents need to drive their own cars. These vans also drive alumni 

students to the Catholic high school in Raleigh each morning. 

Physical fitness is an important part of life at Immaculata at all levels. Immaculata 

does not cut athletes from sports teams in order to promote students’ love of 

physical activity, athleticism, and sportsmanship.

Immaculata offers Soccer Shots for prekindergarten through first-grade students, 

Girls on the Run for third- through fifth-graders, a hip-hop dance club after school for 

second- through eighth-graders, and yoga for students in all grades. Summer camp 

programs include Girls for Empowerment, volleyball, basketball and cheerleading, 

and all other camps provide at least one hour of physical activity daily. Several 

teachers, especially in the first and second grade, use yoga in classrooms as a way 

of settling children — when they first arrive at school, during indoor recess on rainy 

days, or before or after large exams such as midterms, finals, or (for older students) 

standardized tests. Faculty participate in an after-school walking club and on a 

teacher and parent volleyball team.
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Ohio

Graham Local Schools, St. Paris, Ohio

An award-winning all-girl Energy Team 

Graham Local Schools is in Champaign County, Ohio. Graham is a rural district 

encompassing 154 square miles, or over half of the entire county. Graham has 

been recognized as an innovative leader nationwide as a member of the League of 

Innovative Schools, and by The School Superintendents Association. These honors 

and others have come from a student-centered culture, focusing on innovative ways 

to include students in leadership and having voice and choice in learning. 

Graham began its green journey some 15 years ago when it implemented the first of 

multiple energy-savings projects. It was one of the first districts in its region to install 

light sensors in restrooms, and it implemented districtwide HVAC policies for energy 

efficiency and financial stability. Over the past 15 years, Graham also has partnered 

with Energy Optimizers USA and Waibel Energy Systems to put projects in place 

that have yielded savings of over $550,000 in energy costs, reducing total energy 

use by 48 percent over six years. These projects have included lamp replacements, 

variable speed drives for HVAC motors and for well pumps, standardized HVAC 

controls across the district, and skylight installations. Graham has furthered its 

quest for green excellence by forming green teams lead by students across the 

district.

Probably the most exciting development has been students’ work on a solar array to 

power the middle and elementary schools. This solar array will be installed in 2019, 

after a yearlong study 

with partners at Energy 

Optimizers and the longterm effort of Graham 

students, most notably 

the energy team at the 

middle school. The 

students worked with 

partners to design and 

develop a solar plan that 

will provide 75 percent of 

the electrical needs at 

both buildings through a 

power purchase 

agreement. Upon 

Graham elementary students and their teacher work to remove 

honeysuckle plants from the district’s land lab and outdoor education 

area. 
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implementation, Graham will house the very first solar-powered schools in 

Champaign County.

Graham has been working to improve water quality, efficiency, and conservation. 

Students have installed low-flow fixtures in all restrooms. Water consumption at the 

elementary school was reduced by 35 percent with the installation of a UV light filter 

on the HVAC system. Graham has transitioned to all-green-certified cleaning 

products.

Student green teams in each building manage the district’s recycling of paper and 

cardboard. Students go classroom to classroom weekly to collect paper, allowing 

each of Graham’s three buildings to replace one trash dumpster with a paper 

recycling dumpster. With the use of routing software, Graham has been able to 

eliminate three bus routes.

Graham implemented a comprehensive wellness plan in 2017. Students are 

involved in menu planning for the food service program. Students have 

opportunities to lift weights; elementary and middle school have running clubs; and 

the district has implemented programs to increase water consumption. One of 

Graham’s most innovative and exciting wellness initiatives for the staff has been an 

annual staff wellness day at which they have access to mobile mammography, a raft 

of health screenings, yoga, meditation, and massage. The staff wellness day also is 

the kickoff to a yearly wellness challenge in collaboration with insurance provider 

Dayton Educational Purchasing Council. 

With 12 acres of woods, as well as outdoor learning areas at the middle and 

elementary school campus, classes in many subjects can often be held outside. 

Students have designed and maintained the trail system; and they installed bird 

houses, planted food plots, and developed ecosystems to foster native habitats. 

With Falcon Farms, Graham students grow produce for the cafeterias, and they 

oversee the production of honey in beehives while learning important sustainability 

lessons. At the high school, there are over 30 acres of woods with activity areas, a 

pond for learning, and native prairie grasses for study.

One source of pride has been the formation of the Graham Middle School Energy 

Team. The team, made up of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade girls, was created 

to address the overwhelming vocational need for women in STEM careers. The 

team has received grants from the Ohio Energy Project, which also was the site of a 

weeklong conference that team members attended. Additionally, the team has won 

multiple awards for leadership and for its green energy projects and practices across 

the state and region. Projects have included building an energy bike to be used for 

education, and leveraging the skills taught in the club to develop lessons for peers 

and elementary students. The Energy Team visits the local elementary school to 
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teach students in kindergarten through fifth grade about energy conservation, green 

practices, and STEM careers. The team also plans and leads an annual energy 

education fair for peers and the community to demonstrate and educate about green 

practices. In addition, the team participated in the Dayton Area “Bring Your Green” 

challenge. Graham Middle School won this competition for 2017, collecting more 

points than any other school or business in the region and beating over 600 other 

facilities. The Energy Team won a prize of $3,000, which they are investing in more 

sustainability projects.

With the implementation of the Project Lead the Way curriculum at the middle 

school, Graham has been able to develop unique opportunities for students, such as 

an active Junior Beekeepers club, which manages and cares for a hive as part of its 

curriculum; in addition, the school has developed a working poultry learning space 

for students to learn about the care and support of poultry for sustainability. The 

district also won a $50,000 award from Battelle for Kids to install a greenhouse on 

the middle school and elementary property that will be used for education and green 

farming operations; and a $40,000 award from Monsanto to develop and implement 

a campus of Falcon Farms, which will be a student-led and student-driven farming 

operation.

Pennsylvania

Eden Hall Upper Elementary School, Gibsonia, Pennsylvania

Outdoor classrooms and indoor biomes

Students at Eden Hall Upper Elementary School (EHUES) in the Pine-Richland 

School District have an environment rich in learning opportunities, and they regularly 

participate in activities that are focused on engaging in a healthy and sustainable 

environment. At EHUES, murals and an interior color scheme throughout the 

school’s 189,000 square feet represent the Earth’s biomes — desert, grasslands, 

aquatic, tundra, and the forest. The school’s 30-plus acres are part of the learning 

experience, as well. Outside classrooms are landscaped with trees that are native 

to Pennsylvania, as well as wildflowers and tall grasses, all of which attract wildlife. 

Outdoor classrooms also include an amphitheater, retention pond, and walking trails. 

Despite its size, the school provides an intimate learning environment for students in 

grades four, five, and six.

Eden Hall’s science program has a strong emphasis on the environment in grades 

four through six. The natural setting of the school lends itself to highlighting the 

importance of the environment. Visitors might be surprised to see a little of the 

outdoors brought inside EHUES. The building contains six trees, representing 

creativity, achievement, knowledge, respect, responsibility, and health and wellness. 
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In addition, the school contains two water features. A single stream of reused water 

falls from the second floor under each stairwell. 

Sustainable features include natural lighting through skylights; plants and trees 

native to Pennsylvania on the school grounds; no-mow native grasses on the 

grounds; heat-reclaiming devices for efficiency; room sensors to monitor and control 

carbon dioxide, lighting, and heat; wood paneling to keep noise down; and a maker 

roof to reflect heat. Together, these features allow for excellent learning programs 

that provide students at EHUES with the knowledge and experiences to have 

healthy bodies, healthy minds, and a healthy environment as they learn and grow.

Eden Hall participated in a districtwide initiative to track consumption on all utilities, 

in order to visualize where conservation efforts could be made and to identify areas 

to become more energy efficient. The school demonstrated significant reductions 

from 2016 to 2017, resulting in a rebate. EHUES also participates in a voluntary 

energy-curtailment program to power down over the summer to conserve energy. 

The school also has contracted with a company to monitor and increase water 

conservation.

Water is tested periodically for lead exposure, and all toilets are low flow. Aerators 

and faucet screens are cleaned regularly. Routine testing is conducted to observe 

radon levels as well as water and air quality. In addition, all light bulbs, batteries, 

glass, chemicals, and electronics are recycled or neutralized for disposal. Old 

computers, monitors, and TVs are recycled as well, along with printer cartridges and 

cell phones. Green cleaning is the standard, with very few products used for nightly 

cleaning. The 

school is under 

contract with a 

transportation 

provider that 

predominantly uses 

propane fuel. Noidling signs are 

posted, and the 

drop-off area is at 

least 25 feet away 

from the building.

Eden Hall has 

participated in the 

Healthy Schools PA 

initiative. It also 

submits a school 

Eden Hall Upper Elementary School students analyze their school facility and 

grounds master plan with a view toward their next sustainability project.
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report card each academic year to be considered for an achievement award 

sponsored by Women for a Healthy Environment. The report card’s categories 

include curriculum integration; community engagement; professional development; 

sharing successes; school philosophy and culture; air quality; water, waste, and 

recycling; energy; health and well-being; transportation; and school grounds.

Water-bottle filling stations have been installed in nearly every water fountain, and 

students are encouraged to bring refillable containers to school. In 2017, a group of 

students initiated a plan to begin recycling efforts at EHUES. They partnered with a 

corporate sponsor, obtained resources, and now regularly collect recyclables from 

classrooms. The group officially “relaunches” the program every year to the student 

body by creating public service announcements, commercials, and posters that are 

displayed throughout the building. The group is now expanding the program to the 

cafeteria, which is no small endeavor, as it feeds roughly 400 students at a time.

As part of the fifth grade’s sustainable school initiative, a group of students ran a 

book drive asking students and staff to bring in gently used books. Students 

partnered with a local contractor to use repurposed materials to build little book 

libraries placed throughout the building, promoting a love of reading and the value of 

reusing and sharing, rather than throwing away.

Eden Hall has a wellness committee comprising parents, community members, and 

administrators from the building, as well as staff members. The committee focuses 

on identifying and implementing initiatives that benefit the overall health and wellbeing of students and staff. Recently, the committee, with support from the parentteacher organization, has provided stationary bikes that are available for use by all 

students and staff in the building. The school’s nature trail, outdoor classrooms, and 

various play areas are used for recess and physical education classes to help 

provide an environment that is focused on the well-being of all students. Students at 

Eden Hall Upper Elementary School participate in health and physical education 

courses that empower them to develop habits of mind and body to support wellness 

throughout a lifetime. The health and physical education department also offers a 

monthly newsletter focusing on mindful moments, well-teacher tips, and brain breaks 

of the month. Other efforts to support the overall well-being of the child include 

classroom guidance lessons, Girls on the Run, Kids of Steel, flexible seating 

initiatives, Children’s Grief Awareness Day, Random Acts of Kindness, and Mix It Up 

at Lunch days. EHUES offers a daily salad bar, offers a future chef contest, and has 

removed all vending machines.

Students stay engaged in the scientific process of observation, discovery, and 

reasoning through hands-on Foss and Asset science kits that pose questions to 

students and allow them to explore answers through hypothesis, experimentation, 

discussion, data collection, and analysis. The science program at Eden Hall 
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incorporates science concepts in other subject areas, encourages an appreciation 

for the natural world surrounding the school, and provides learning opportunities that 

integrate STEAM topics.

The school has created a “think tank,” similar to a Makerspace, for students use. 

This unique space allows students to use tools and materials, both physically and 

virtually, to build creative projects. Students have been trained in the use of the 

space, and teachers regularly receive professional development on using the 

materials and tools available. Overall, the space is used to develop lifelong skills 

through problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork.

The EHUES nature trail, located on the school’s property, is used by students and 

the community for several science-related activities as well as other curricular 

activities. Science classes routinely use the trail and outdoor classroom to focus on 

elements of the curriculum relating to the earth, rocks, water, and other pertinent 

content. A focus on the environment and sustainability is included in the lessons, as 

well. 

Fourth-grade teams participate in sustainability awareness campaigns aiming to 

educate, encourage, and engage students to live a more sustainable life. Each 

campaign must focus on one of the following sustainable practices: water 

conservation, waste reduction, energy conservation, or health and well-being. The 

fourth grade also participates in health and wellness independent inquiry projects, 

presenting their findings to peers.

Fifth-grade students participate in an interdisciplinary program introducing cold-water 

conservation education by raising brook trout, a native cold-water species, from 

eggs to fingerlings. Students learn how to raise brook trout by observing and 

monitoring a cold-water ecosystem in classroom aquariums.

Sixth-grade students participate in a sustainable design challenge working with 

Chatham University. Teachers and students partner with the Pittsburgh Historic and 

Landmarks Foundation, along with a team of architects, to repurpose an unused 

space on the university campus for a community purpose. The firm and Chatham 

keep all student blueprints and narratives, and they try to implement their 

sustainable ideas into the actual repurposing completed for specific buildings on 

campus.

Gifted classes in all three grades work with Chatham University’s School for 

Sustainability to explore and participate in a variety of activities that broaden their 

awareness of the connections between food, energy, nature, science, and 

mathematics. Educators discover how to take those same principles of sustainability 

into their classrooms and create fun and educational lessons with broad applicability. 
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This experience includes the use of Skype mentors, workshops, and a lending 

library.

Students in grade six regularly use a weather station. With this activity, every sixthgrade student can communicate lab results and scientific concepts they have 

learned through multiple applications. A team of sixth-grade students also attended 

the EcoChallenge supported by the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and Phipps 

Conservatory. Students designed sustainable communities, completed a scavenger 

hunt in search of sustainable and environmental features, and learned about life 

cycles and the environment.

State College Friends School, State College, Pennsylvania

Exploring social justice and environmental sustainability the Quaker way

State College Friends School (SCFS) is a private prekindergarten through eighth 

grade school serving 104 students, guided and inspired by the Quaker testimonies 

of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship. In this unique 

school community, students become successful learners, who are confident, 

creative, and compassionate and ready to use their big ideas and values to help 

make the world a better place. As students move through SCFS, the Quaker values 

of social justice and environmental sustainability are explored in a variety of ways, 

with students learning how to make the world a more just and sustainable place.

The school has worked hard over the years to reduce its environmental impact in 

multiple ways, installing solar panels on its building and developing an 

accompanying curriculum for kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms. These 

panels were the result of the school’s collaboration with the West Penn Power 

Company. The solar panels, which are mounted on the roof above the kitchen and 

community room, produce about 3,500 kilowatt-hours of solar energy each year. 

The school saves some $250 per year on its electricity bill and earns energy credits 

for being a producer of clean energy. Additionally, about 20 percent of the school’s 

energy use is purchased wind energy. SCFS gradually has changed lighting from 

incandescent and fluorescent bulbs to LED bulbs.

Since its inception, SCFS has implemented a vigorous recycling program, making 

use of local recycling opportunities as well as national ones. Students are taught to 

reduce, reuse, and recycle in all classrooms, and they take an active role in the 

recycling program at school. The school recycles soft plastic at a local market, 

brittle plastic with the county, fruit pouches and energy bar wrappers with Terracycle, 

markers through Crayola, and batteries with the Battery Outlet. SCFS reuses 
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containers for starting plants for gardens, art projects, and other projects, and 

students use both sides of paper before recycling.

As part of the Borough of State College’s composting program, SCFS composts 

paper waste used for food, meat, and pizza boxes. The school maintains on-site 

composting bins for vegetable and fruit waste, and the compost is used on the 

gardens. SCFS uses the Freecycle website to repurpose items the school no longer 

needs.

An educator who is an entomologist by training, and has completed coursework in 

IPM, is consulted if there is a pest issue to help determine the best extermination 

approach. SCFS uses only organic methods for pest management and only 

nontoxic cleaning products. 

Each Monday morning, classes participate in an all-school walk by doing laps 

around the outside of the building. This is an invigorating way for the children to 

begin their week of school. Children have outdoor breaks regularly, including 15–30 

minutes of brain break in the morning and 30 minutes prior to lunch. 

Prekindergarten through first-grade classes also often take afternoon breaks. 

Parents are asked to provide children with weather-appropriate clothing and gear, 

including hats, gloves, snow pants, 

boots, and sunscreen. Children 

from kindergarten through middle 

school go outside for recess on all 

but the most bitter-cold days. 

State College Friends School 

values outdoor education and play 

and has created natural areas on 

the playground — for example, by 

planting many trees. Parents pack 

healthy snacks and lunches for all 

children daily. Once a month, a 

local nutritionist and a team of 

parent volunteers create a hot 

lunch for those who purchase this 

option.

The school has offered cooking 

classes that expose students to 

healthy eating habits, and students 

are taught easy, kid-friendly 

recipes high in vegetables and 

State College Friends School students engage in pond 

study.
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nutrients. Eating lunch in the classroom encourages conversations about nutrition, 

local foods, packaging, and sustainable food production. Students have physical 

education and yoga twice a week. Throughout the day, teachers incorporate growth 

mindset concepts and mindfulness in the classrooms, and they participate in 

courses and readings on mindfulness.

Faculty members are current on environmental and social justice issues, 

instructional pedagogy, and environmental resources that enhance learning. Many 

of the teachers have been trained in programs including Project Learning Tree, 

Project WILD, Project WET, Healthy Water/Healthy People, and Agriculture in the 

Classroom. The head of school is a facilitator for several of these programs, and the 

associate head of school was a former educator at Shaver’s Creek Environmental 

Center.

Recently, fourth- through eighth-grade classes did an extensive study of watersheds 

and plastic pollution. Students constructed a large bulletin board to educate family 

members and friends of the school about reducing their effect on waterways. The 

middle school art class made an art installation for the school library using recycled 

water bottles and wrote an artist’s statement to educate library users about plastic 

pollution.

Prekindergarten to third-grade students participate in planting, maintaining, and 

harvesting raised-bed gardens located near their classrooms. Kindergarten and 

first-grade students plant, maintain, and harvest a pumpkin patch and a local apple 

orchard each year and use the produce in cooking projects.

Ecology, conservation, sustainability, nature study and exploration and STEM are 

important parts of the science curriculum and are included in regular field 

experiences. Classroom teachers make use of the grounds to study seasonal 

changes in the natural world. They also use the school pond and pollinator garden 

as outdoor classrooms. 

The school devotes Earth Day (and sometimes an entire week) each year to work 

projects and learning opportunities focused on environmental stewardship. 

Upcoming projects include the installation of two cold frames, a weather station, and 

more solar panels. 
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Millersville University, Millersville, Pennsylvania

Offering a net zero welcome

Millersville University’s efforts to beneficially influence the environment and human 

health permeate all aspects of university activities, from operations to academics to 

student life. The university’s commitment to the various dimensions of sustainability 

are evident in its coursework, its administrative structure, and, increasingly, in its 

infrastructure. 

Notably, Millersville has completed a net zero energy building. Located on the 

center of campus, the Lombardo Welcome Center is Millersville’s new admissions 

building, welcoming nearly 10,000 prospective students and other visitors to the 

university each year. A total of 528 solar panels on the roof generate electricity, 20 

geothermal wells drilled 400 feet into the ground heat and cool the building, and 

several rain gardens treat storm water on site. An additional 20 solar panels are 

located on a ground array behind the building so visitors and students can view the 

technology up close. The building’s furniture is made from 40,000 pounds of 

recycled materials, and the landscape consists entirely of native plant species.

The Lombardo Welcome Center greets every visitor with a message of 

environmental stewardship. Excess energy is supplied to other campus buildings, 

reducing campus energy demand 

and greenhouse gas emissions 

while saving some $25,000 

annually in electricity costs. Faculty 

from various departments brings 

their students through the building 

to explore green building design 

and discuss topics such as energy 

policy, sustainability, and 

innovation. In 2019, the university 

plans to conduct STEM workshops 

focused on advanced energy 

technologies for education majors, 

as well as for students from local 

elementary and middle schools.

While the Lombardo Welcome 

Center demonstrates Millersville’s commitment to environmental performance and 

sustainability in a built structure, the university’s efforts extend beyond this single 

building. A charter signatory to Second Nature’s Climate Commitment, Millersville 

has a goal of being carbon neutral, has developed a climate action plan, and 

In its first few months of operation, the Lombardo 

Welcome Center at Millersville University has 

generated nearly three times more energy than it has 

consumed.
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currently is assisting the local community with climate change response efforts. The 

university uses the results of its greenhouse gas inventory to guide energy 

management practices, and it has implemented numerous measures to conserve 

energy, increase efficiency, and transition to cleaner fuels. 

Millersville University recently completed a multiyear, $11.5 million project to 

upgrade its electrical infrastructure to prepare for broader energy management and 

energy-reduction activities. The project entailed running over 42 miles of 15-kilovolt 

electrical wire and installing 41 loop feed switch boxes. As part of the electrical 

infrastructure upgrade, Millersville installed utility-grade meters on each of the 40 

major campus buildings. The university developed an in-house energy management 

system extracting, compiling, and presenting energy-use data for each of these 

buildings every 15 minutes, and it has used the system to drive energy conservation 

measures. Within months of establishing the system, the university used the data to 

establish new thermostat set points during unoccupied hours, which reduced annual 

energy use by approximately 5 percent. This has saved the institution approximately 

$120,000 and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 800 tons of carbon 

dioxide annually.

The university also recently completed numerous energy-efficiency projects, 

including projects to convert the stadium lights to LED and upgrade the university’s 

data center. The data center energy-efficiency improvements resulted in a 20 

percent increase in data center efficiency, and it reduced the university’s electrical 

use by 280,000 kilowatt-hours annually. Annually, this has saved the university 

$24,000 and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 110 tons of carbon dioxide

The university evaluated water use in residence halls and found that consumption 

was considerably higher than anticipated. Analysis revealed that toilet flappers were 

failing in the suite bathrooms, producing a spike in water consumption. The 

university replaced over 370 toilet flappers, resulting in a savings of 50,000 gallons 

of water each day. The university is beginning to implement measures to provide 

more sustainable landscapes, including several campus locations featuring rain 

gardens and native plant species only. The university is a certified Monarch 

Waystation and wildlife habitat.

Millersville maintains close relationships with the local waste management authority, 

hosting America Recycles Day and other events on campus. In addition to 

recycling, Millersville composts yard waste on site, as well as organics from the 

dining hall. Approximately 60 tons of organics from the dining halls are composted 

through a vendor and provided to local farmers. Millersville works with hazardous 

waste management specialists to dispose of materials from science labs and other 

locations on campus. Millersville also maintains a contract with an electronics 

recycler that has recycled more than 35,000 pounds of electronics from the 
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university and annually hosts campus collection events. The university’s waste 

diversion rate is 49 percent.

Millersville University was awarded Gold Star certification from Commuter Services 

of Pennsylvania in recognition of its advanced transportation efforts. The university 

partners with Commuter Services of Pennsylvania to provide online ride-matching 

services to its commuting population. Additionally, the university partners with 

ZipCar to provide a campus car share. Millersville has an on-campus shuttle as well 

as campus connections to local and regional bus services with connections to 

Amtrak. The bus services are free for use by students. The university has bike 

repair stations and electric vehicle charging stations located on campus. Information 

on advanced transportation options is incorporated into university events, including 

new-student and new-employee orientations.

The school’s environmental health and safety program monitors IAQ and reports 

concerns, conducts site inspections, and provides for external consultation as

appropriate. University personnel or contractors take corrective measures as 

needed to address any issues with HVAC, moisture, mold and mildew, and pests. 

Millersville’s housekeeping department purchases environmentally preferable 

cleaning products aligned with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s 

policies on green procurement.

Millersville University has a clear commitment to health and wellness, buttressed by 

its strong nursing program. Through the Center for Health Education and 

Promotion, student employees provide services ranging from flu shots to information 

on how to have healthy relationships. Upwards of 25 students annually are hired, 

trained, and evaluated to provide lifestyle workshops, education tables and outreach, 

and awareness events across campus. Millersville University is ranked by 

BestColleges.com as one of the safest college campuses in America. The school’s 

employee wellness committee oversees numerous educational events and activities 

throughout the school year to encourage healthy behaviors within the university 

community. 

The university increasingly is using the United Nations Sustainable Development 

Goals as an organizing framework for sustainability efforts. These 17 goals 

encompass all aspects of sustainability, ranging from no poverty and good health 

and well-being to climate action and supporting life on land. The goals provide a 

powerful organizing framework for the university’s sustainability activities, with an 

emphasis on collaborations across disciplines and integrating efforts to address 

global challenges. As an example, the university’s nursing program recently 

partnered with the Alliance for Nurses for Healthy Environments to raise awareness 

of the connections between climate change and human health on campus. 

Additionally, the local nursing Greek chapter, Xi Chi, committed to addressing global 
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goals of zero hunger, good health and well-being, and climate action, with an 

emphasis on the interconnectedness between these goals. 

Faculty in Millersville’s educational foundations department collaborated with faculty 

members in the biology department and local community groups to establish a 

stream-quality study station on campus known as the Watershed Education and 

Training Institute (WETI). The WETI provides Millersville students with access to 

equipment to study water quality and stream health directly on campus in streams 

that feed a local river en route to the Chesapeake Bay. The WETI not only serves 

as an educational space for students, but also for members of the surrounding 

community, who regularly attend outreach activities.

A faculty member in the chemistry department researches techniques to reduce 

chemical use during experimentation; he recently was recognized by the American 

Chemical Society Committee on Environmental Improvement for incorporating 

sustainability into the chemistry curriculum. His research analyzes techniques used 

during experimentation to identify opportunities for reducing chemical use, which 

lessens demand for chemicals and abates he material and energy costs associated 

with chemical production. Students involved in the classes incorporate the 

sustainable lab practices into their lab activities. 

Faculty and students in the biology department established an apiary on campus. 

The apiary currently has two hives, with a goal to expand to eight hives in the 

coming years. The facility provides the opportunity to conduct colony collapse 

disorder research on campus. Biology students completed research to assess 

threats to endangered species. Geography students completed surveys and 

analyses of sustainability competencies among their fellow students. They 

researched several topics to assess familiarity with the university’s sustainability 

efforts and interest in alternative transportation options, energy efficiency, and 

climate change. The findings helped to direct the university’s future sustainability 

programs.

South Carolina

Dutch Fork Elementary School, Irmo, South Carolina

Helping South Carolina breathe better

Dutch Fork Elementary School-Academy of Environmental Sciences (DFES) is a 

whole-school environmental sciences‐themed magnet school located in the 

midlands of South Carolina, approximately 10 miles northwest of the state capitol, 
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Columbia. As a public magnet school, DFES welcomes a diverse enrollment of 

students from the surrounding neighborhoods and across School District Five of 

Lexington and Richland Counties, which covers the three geographical areas of 

Chapin, Dutch Fork, and Irmo. The total student enrollment is 531, with 48 percent 

of students identifying as African American.

Dutch Fork prides itself on being a comprehensive, inquiry‐based, hands‐on 

program focused on immersing children in discovery and exploration, collaborative 

study, scientific research, the use of scientific tools and technology, and a strong 

sense of community. Since its inception, the school has committed itself to 

maintaining the highest education standards by using the natural environment and 

nature-human interactions as the catalyst for student learning outcomes and critical

thinking. 

The school has switched incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs to LED. In 

addition to its more conscious use of energy, changes to lighting components have 

led the school to reduce energy consumption by approximately 11 percent in the last 

two years. DFES’ school district has entered into a partnership with Cenergistic, a 

conservation education and technology company, to better understand how to 

capture savings across all schools. This can be done by, among other things, by 

ensuring that units are running properly, verifying parking lighting schedules, and 

monitoring water usage. This partnership will help inform the school and the South 

Carolina Energy Office when creating a student‐driven energy audit, which can be 

used to identify additional areas where the school can make conservation changes. 

As part of this effort, DFES has moved to a managed print system that has cut down 

on energy use and costs.
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Water conservation has been a central theme for the school. This is evidenced by 

rationing experiments that show students how they can use less water, save on costs, 

and teach others to do the same. For example, the school has improved water 

conservation and efficiency by using rain barrels that collect water for the school’s 

gardens. Also, students crafted rain chains (an alternative to traditional, closed-gutter 

downspouts) made from 

recycled materials. In 

addition, the school 

disconnected hot water in 

school bathrooms to save 

on energy costs. 

The school initiated a 

food waste and 

compost program to 

divert waste from 

landfills. In the 

process, students 

collected data to show 

how much waste has 

been diverted in a 

given month. Current 

projections put food 

waste diversion at 

5,000 pounds per 

month and a decrease 

in hauling fees of 

approximately $1,700 per year. Regular trainings are offered to the school 

community, with students as the leaders.

The DFES community instituted a schoolwide recycling program, managed by 

student recycling captains, for office and classroom paper products, plastic 

containers and jugs, aluminum cans, and cardboard. The school has a robust litter 

prevention campaign in the area around the car rider line. In this project, students 

have categorized and graphed the different types of trash found in the area and 

shared the results with the school community. Additionally, DFES works with 

unzoned students to facilitate carpooling opportunities. This reduces transportation 

costs, cars on the road, and vehicle emissions.

Dutch Fork participates in South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental 

Control’s Breathe Better program, giving students the opportunity to audit vehicles 

for the purpose of instituting anti‐idling policies. DFES’ district contracts with Titan 

Termite and Pest Control for integrated pest management. School gardens and 

Dutch Fork Elementary School’s curriculum aligns with state standards 

by grade level, following a themed continuum titled “from the mountains 

to the sea” that explores the South Carolina landscape within a global 

context.
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composting sites are controlled naturally through design and proximity to buildings to 

manage pests. Most products used for cleaning are supplied by EcoLab and 

composed of 99 percent water. All sites have contaminant controls in place, with 

chemicals under lock and key. Facilities staff perform an annual walkthrough and 

check under every sink at all sites for chemicals, removing any that are 

unnecessary.

The school has drop ceilings to improve acoustics. The cafeteria and gym have wall 

foam that helps reduce sound and improve acoustics on campus. Dehumidifiers are 

used when moisture is high due to the indoor mold potential in the region.

Dutch Fork has established a well‐rounded approach to nutrition and fitness. The 

interpretive nature trail behind the school was completed in spring 2015 in 

partnership with SC Forestry Commission, AmeriCorps, Emory University, and Back 

to Eden. DFES participates in the Girls on the Run program. Similarly, the school 

has grown in its Five Areas of Fitness and FitnessGram programs, maintains a 

fitness club in the morning for fourth and fifth graders, and participates in Jump Rope 

for Heart.

Health and wellness also are tied to the school’s participation in its adaptation of a 

farm-to-school pipeline. DFES offers Healthy Hands Cooking classes, giving 

students an opportunity to be exposed to methods to cook fresh meals from the 

garden produce that they have grown, and to teach techniques to family and peers. 

Cafeteria staff has received training by chefs in scratch‐cooking methods, thanks to 

USDA’s farm-to-school program and grants from Boeing. 

The school has committed itself to providing effective environmental and 

sustainability education that incorporates STEM, civic skills, and green career 

pathways for its students. Third-grade classes collect plastic bags, write down the 

amount each bag weighs, calculate the total number of pounds of plastic collected 

each month, and perform accompanying readings. Prekindergarten and third-grade 

classes are trained by Richland County Soil and Water on how to start and maintain 

active worm bins. The students collect food scraps from the cafeteria to add to the 

worm bin, measure the mass of the food scraps, journal their observations, and then 

add the compost to the garden areas.

Teachers attend training each fall with Trout Unlimited in order to oversee Trout in 

the Classroom. Students completed a yearlong inquiry into the barred owl and how 

to increase its population in South Carolina because of concerns about its habitat. 

DFES has committed itself to environmental and sustainability themes to develop 

STEM content knowledge and critical-thinking skills. One of these approaches 

includes the use of plants in the classroom. Second- and third-grade students 

research types of plants that are good for air quality and are cost effective. DFES 
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has started a pollinator garden, monarch highway, and beehive, all designed to 

deepen curriculum for each grade. Other notable projects include solar ovens and 

solar huts to protect plants from the cold.

Dutch Fork has exposed elementary students to civic skills through upcycling 

projects and a silent auction. Second-graders collected used plastic bags and 

learned to make “plarn” for use as bedrolls for the homeless in South Carolina 

communities. They also set up collection stations around the school for old markers, 

which Crayola converts to clean fuel for vehicles and homes. DFES grows a variety 

of plants, including kale and cabbage, on campus to teach students about farming 

techniques and to participate in a local farmers’ market and a compost and heirloom 

seed fundraiser.

Washington

The Northwest School, Seattle, Washington

Leaving no trace in the wilderness; sprucing up school and grounds weekly

The Northwest School views environmental sustainability — interacting with the 

natural systems on which we depend, in a manner that enables current and future 

generations to thrive — as one of the most existential and urgent social justice 

issues of our time. At Northwest, caring for the environment is integrated into daily 

routines, curriculum, institutional practices, and student leadership opportunities. 

The Northwest campus includes four buildings and an urban farm/garden adjacent to 

one another in the heart of the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The main 

school building is on the historic building registry, influencing many facilities and 

operations as they relate to environmental sustainability practices. The facilities 

department aims to reduce the environmental impact of its buildings and has 

adopted environmentally conscious procurement practices. The department strives 

to improve energy efficiency. It is currently engaged in an energy audit and building 

systems tune-up, having replaced incandescent and compact fluorescent lightbulb 

light bulbs with LEDs bulb throughout the main school buildings. Tube-style solar 

collectors on the rooftop of the gym and dining hall building provide energy for hot 

water. In addition, the facilities department employs an environmentally sound 

cleaning program, minimizes the use of toxic and harsh chemicals, and properly 

disposes of any hazardous waste.

The school recently acquired four parcels of land adjacent to campus and is in the 

early stages of expanding. Having a physical campus that reflects Northwest’s 

commitments to environmental sustainability is core to this expansion process and 
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the future of the campus. As part of its work, Northwest is exploring carbon-neutral 

and regenerative architecture.

There is no car parking for students and few spaces for faculty. All are encouraged 

to use the lowest carbon transportation possible. The school provides a secure 

bicycle shed with a capacity of several dozen, as well as highly subsidized public 

transit passes for faculty. The school encourages carpooling among students and 

faculty by making a carpooling app available. Students in the environmental student 

group organize an annual bike and walk to school day to raise awareness for lower 

carbon transportation. Students collect data on how their peers commute 

throughout the week.

Northwest School students participate in a late spring outdoor program overnight kayaking trip in Puget Sound. 

Waste stream receptacles throughout campus occur in groups of three: compost, 

recycling, and garbage. An environment team tracks waste by weight each week. 

Annual waste-sorting training is provided to faculty members, as well as to the eighth 

grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade. Students empty all waste bins, so they are 

aware of the amount of material the community wastes. Northwest is developing 

zero-waste events guidelines for all campus events.

In the dining hall, leftovers are transformed into soup or salad bar offerings. The 

school donates leftover dry goods to food banks, and it is formalizing a partnership 

with Seattle Salvation Army Food Pantry and Meal Program to donate leftover 

meals. Meal prep scraps are worm-composted on campus, and other organic byproducts are composted by the city. The dining hall has no single-serving 

packaging, and food is served on durables. All items at catered events are durable 

or compostable.
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The eighth-grade earth science class works with Water1st International, an 

organization that supports sustainable water projects in developing countries around 

the world. This class then helps the school community understand relationships 

between water, society, and environment. Students analyze the school’s water 

consumption with a goal of developing reduction strategies. Northwest has low-flow 

water fixtures in all bathrooms. Students installed Wi-Fi-enabled timed-drip irrigation 

and rainwater harvesting systems in the farm/garden to conserve water.

The environment program has been a core part of the school’s culture and ethos 

since the school’s founding. Three times a week, students and faculty work in more 

than 90 teams under the leadership of seniors to clean and care for the school and 

surrounding areas. This effort includes everyone at the school — more than 600 

people. This program grounds Northwest’s wider environmental sustainability ethic 

directly in its immediate surroundings, facilitates leadership development among 

seniors, and builds community. Each team is responsible for maintaining, cleaning, 

and caring for a specific part of the school. In addition to this physical work, each 

week teams discuss environmentally related topics from climate change to 

microplastics, food systems, and environmental justice.

Northwest has three groups that focus specifically on strengthening environmental 

sustainability practices at the school: First, with 15 faculty members, the 

sustainability committee has a mission of raising awareness about environmental 

issues; it makes recommendations to improve the school’s sustainability practices 

and implements projects that further the community’s understanding of and action on 

environmental issues. The committee meets every other week, and its members 

represent many parts of the school, including faculty, operations, facilities, finance, 

communications, development, and administration.

Second, the Student Environmental Interest Group (EIG) comprises more than 30 

students in grades six through 12, with five student leaders and the support of two 

faculty members. EIG works to expand the environmental consciousness of every 

individual within Northwest to promote global change through concrete projects and 

advocacy. The group meets twice per week. Recent projects have included 

designing and building the campus farm/garden; conducting a dining hall food waste 

audit; writing letters to government officials advocating for strong environmental 

policy; and organizing a clothing swap.

Finally, Friends of Sustainability at Northwest is a group of more than 20 parents of 

current and former students and other friends of the school who meet three times 

per year. Friends of Sustainability supports the school’s environmental sustainability 

efforts through hands-on projects, makes recommendations and shares ideas, and 

offers expertise in the field of environmental sustainability.
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The dining hall program is an area of daily engagement in environmental 

sustainability for Northwest students and faculty, as everyone eats scratch-made 

lunch together. The dining hall is an expression of the school community and its 

values. Eating together and sharing food is one of the ways Northwest builds 

community, sparks conversations, and furthers its mission of actively caring for the 

environment and planet. The program is rooted in principles of cultural diversity, 

seasonality, sustainability, environmental and social responsibility, nutrition, and 

culinary innovation. Northwest aims to balance conscientious purchasing, customer 

preference, and financial responsibility. The school regularly reevaluates its 

processes, purchasing decisions, and practices. Northwest strives to graduate 

thoughtful eaters, who have a deep appreciation for the cultural, environmental, 

ethical, and community-building roles that food can play in life, as well as the 

complexities of the food system.

Over the past two years, more than 300 students worked together to design and 

build the 3,000-square-foot campus farm/garden, which includes 30 planter boxes, 

more than 20 types of crops, a greenhouse, composting systems, picnic tables, and 

a geodesic dome seating area. Many students engage weekly in the farm/garden 

and have lunch and classes in the space.

A comprehensive health and wellness program in grades six through 12 is dedicated 

to teaching students about time management, sleep, social dynamics, and the 

benefits of being outdoors. A mental health unit in the ninth grade has students 

keeping a sleep journal, learning to meditate, and taking steps to change aspects of 

their lives. A peer-mentoring program teaches juniors and seniors how to navigate 

the challenges that affect teens and young adults, so they can be informed 

resources for themselves, peers, and younger students. This group regularly visits 

local clinics and health agencies, explores community resources around mentalhealth issues, and participates in suicide-prevention training.

The outdoor program has been a key part of Northwest’s extracurricular offerings 

since the founding of the school. Each year, Northwest offers 10–12 outdoor trips, 

providing opportunities for students to hike, snowshoe, build igloos, backpack, 

kayak, and cycle. More than 200 students participate in the outdoor program each 

year, from all grades and experience levels. The school loans out gear and covers 

trip expenses for students who receive financial aid to make the program accessible

to everyone.

Each of Northwest’s science classes include units relating to environmental 

sustainability. Units across grade levels allow students to research alternative 

energy sources and storage methods, design and build wind turbines, study the 

chemistry of liquid fuels to investigate environmental impact, explore toxic chemicals 

in personal care products, study ocean acidification, and discuss overfishing.
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A 12th-grade humanities course examines the ways nature has been conceptualized 

in the United States from the Colonial Era to the present. Students study texts from 

a range of fields as they look at the multiple and conflicting ways that Americans 

have attempted to answer the question “what is nature?” Throughout the year, 

students are assessed and receive feedback on their level of literacy and 

engagement.

Northwest’s Summits program of two-week intensive classes has a strong focus on 

environmental education. Nearly all Summits have some connection to the 

environment, and about a third relate directly to environmental education, including 

Summits on the Duwamish River; urban agriculture; the history of the cedar tree; 

food justice; landfill philharmonic; as well as a course on cooking, chemistry, and 

community. 

Northwest’s recently published strategic framework integrates environmental 

sustainability throughout, and it includes direct connections to environmental 

sustainability in 36 percent of the its 11 areas of engagement. Northwest’s 

endowment recently has been transferred to 100 percent environmental- social-, and 

governance-screened investments. 

Lake Washington School District, Washington

Unlimited access to fresh produce at lunch

Sustainability efforts in Lake Washington School District No. 414 (LWSD) rely on the 

participation of every student and employee. Parents, community organizations, and 

volunteers are valuable partners. LWSD's vision is “Every Student Future-Ready.” 

This vision requires understanding and taking responsibility for the effect of one's 

decisions and actions, as well as contributing to a better future for the next 

generation.

District sustainability efforts contribute to future readiness through implementation of 

a comprehensive districtwide resource conservation management program; green 

building practices; kindergarten through 12th-grade curriculum and student learning 

focused on sustainability/environmental concepts; and professional development for 

teachers and staff. 

In 2006, the district adopted a resource conservation management program focused 

on conservation and cost savings. Student enrollment has grown 26 percent in the 

last decade to 29,987 students at 43 sites in a district with over 76 square miles. 

LWSD serves students in Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish, and unincorporated 
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King County. Despite growth and rising energy rates, the district continues to 

reduce utility costs through proactive management. The McKinstry powerED 

Performance Dashboard helps LWSD identify ways to conserve energy and water, 

reduce waste, educate students and staff, and use sustainable building and 

maintenance practices.

Since the 2005–06 school year, LWSD has reduced electricity usage per square foot 

by 30 percent. Natural gas usage has decreased 37 percent. Benchmarks were 

reset in 2014. Since then, LWSD has reduced energy usage by 11 percent. 

LWSD's resource conservation management program has focused on water 

conservation initiatives since 2008. Since then, LWSD has decreased domestic 

water usage 30 percent per student, and irrigation water usage by 80 percent. 

Native plants are used in all landscaping. Irrigation is provided only for secondary 

school playfields and two elementary schools where fields are used by community 

athletic programs. 

LWSD partners with 

cities and community 

groups to share 

playfields. This allows

community groups to 

enjoy activities without 

building their own fields. 

In the 2008–09 school 

year, garbage pickup 

frequency was reduced 

at 13 schools, and 15 

garbage truck trips per 

week were eliminated by 

"right-sizing" dumpsters. 

Waste-reduction and 

recycling efforts have 

reduced costs by 

$120,000 per year since 

2008. As of December 2018, 31 LWSD schools are participating in the King County 

Green Schools Program; 19 have achieved level one, seven have achieved level 

two, and one has achieved level three. LWSD is an eight-time winner of the King 

County Best Workplaces for Waste Prevention and Recycling. All schools recycle, 

and some 75 percent of schools collect organic food waste for composting at a 

regional facility. Since August 2016, new water-bottle filling stations at secondary 

schools have filled nearly 775,000 bottles of water, reducing the need for single-use 

disposable bottles.

Students at Emerson High School in Lake Washington School District 

work to finish a hoop house as part of the Green Sustainable Design 

Technology class. 
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District students receive bus service if they live outside a school's walking area. 

Approximately 75 percent of LWSD buses were built after 2007. The rest were 

retrofitted with extra particulate exhaust filtration, drastically reducing emissions. In 

August 2018, the LWSD transportation division received a $560,000 grant from 

Washington State University's Department of Ecology to purchase 16 low-emission 

school buses to reduce emissions by up to 99 percent. All school bus drivers 

receive instructions to avoid idling, and enforcement occurs using technology on 

buses. 

Students have unlimited access to fresh fruits and vegetables in lunch garden bars. 

Local Wednesday features locally sourced foods. Elementary students have 

physical education twice per week, in addition to morning and afternoon recess each 

day. Middle school students take physical education each year, and high school 

students earn 1.5 credits of physical education and .5 credits of health to graduate.

Lake Washington has five pesticide-free schools. LWSD is one of 12 districts in the 

nation to receive Excellence in Integrated Pest Management star certification by 

passing a rigorous 37-point evaluation in 2014–15. In 2017, LWSD received the 

Green Cleaning Award from American School and University Magazine. The green 

cleaning initiative began in fall 2012 by using a reduced number of cleaning 

chemicals while increasing the use of cleaning paper products made of 40 percent 

post-consumer recycled content.

The district is committed to teaching and assessing NGSS in kindergarten through 

12th grade. NGSS topics include interdependent relationships in ecosystems, 

weather and climate, energy, Earth's systems, human effect on the environment, 

and human sustainability. Prior to graduation, the typical capstone course for 

students is Physics in the Universe, which includes a full unit with standards 

addressing climate change. LWSD career and technical education courses include 

Environmental Science, Sustainable Design, and Urban Gardening.

Lake Washington integrates environmental and sustainability literacy into school 

culture. For example, a waste audit at Kirk Elementary School, in partnership with 

King County Green Schools, found that the school recycles correctly 96 percent of 

the time. Natural outdoor spaces enhance curriculum, like during Wetlands Week at 

Dickinson Elementary, where students removed invasive plant species and learned 

about the important role wetlands play in the ecosystem. Students at Emerson High 

School learn about green sustainable design technology, and in a career and 

technical education course, students built a hoop house and raised beds for the 

school's urban garden.

Programs such as Sustainability Ambassadors inspire students to initiate and 

measure sustainability goals in their communities. One student group, Schools 
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Under 2C, at Tesla STEM High School, challenged schools around the world to 

reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Students received the President's 

Environmental Youth Award from the EPA’s region 10 in 2017. 

The district publicizes school sustainability efforts on its website and through enewsletters and social media to recognize efforts and motivate schools to continue 

and expand their efforts. LWSD encourages teachers to deepen their knowledge of 

sustainability instruction and problem-based learning. Professional learning 

programs and partnerships are available through organizations such as Washington 

Alliance for Better Schools, Cascade Water Alliance, and Sustainability 

Ambassadors. Fellowships and externships bring teachers together with industry 

partners and university professors to explore questions to bring back to their 

classrooms.

Lake Washington is teaching today's students about sustainability, while using green 

building practices to construct the schools of tomorrow. By 2020, 27 percent of the 

district schools' heating will come from high-efficiency geothermal, including 75 

percent of heating in its high schools. LWSD has the largest solar energy capacity 

of any district in the state at 615 kilowatts. School building projects must meet 

detailed requirements to receive funds from Washington State's School Construction 

Assistance Program, including the incorporation of natural lighting, which reduces 

electricity costs and enhances student learning environments.

In 2008, Carson Elementary School was the first public school in the state built with 

a green roof, which covers two sections of the school and reduces rain runoff. 

LWSD is exceeding state energy standards on its 2016 bond projects by 

implementing LED lighting inside and outside. All-new portable classrooms installed 

since 2013 (about 40 classrooms) are high-efficiency Smart Academic Green 

Environment units. LWSD’s resource conservation manager is involved with capital 

projects during design and construction to ensure efficiency standards.

The Lake Washington Parent Teacher School Association (PTSA) Council 

established a district PTSA sustainability committee, with parent representative 

chairs in every school. The PTSA sustainability committee collaborates with the 

newly established district green team, which includes district staff from support 

services and administrators representing instructional programs. The district green 

team is responsible for setting sustainability-focused district priorities and goals and 

ensuring that sustainability efforts are sustained over time.
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Lopez Island School District, Lopez Island, Washington

Expanding a pioneering farm-to-school-program

Through partnerships with organizations and the greater Lopez Island community, 

Lopez Island School District (LISD) has successfully built one of the few articulated 

kindergarten through 12th grade farm-to-school programs in the state, if not the 

country. LISD believes that every student needs a balanced nutritious meal and the 

kind of understanding about the environment that only a place-based education can 

provide. LISD serves some than 70 percent of the meals sourced on campus or on 

the island, offers a garden enrichment course for kindergarten through fifth-grade 

students, and offers career and technical education courses in sustainable 

agricultural practices and culinary arts to secondary students. This program 

exemplifies what is best about LISD: pride in rural roots, an appreciation of the 

environment, and holistic education applicable to individual lives.

The district’s Lopez Island Farm Education (LIFE) program was founded and is 

supported by local farmers, the Lopez Island Land Trust, the Lopez Island Family 

Resource Center, the Lopez Island Gleaners, students, and the Lopez Island 

Locovores. LISD also has partnered with Kwiáht, a local environmental nonprofit 

providing work experiences for students.

The school district has two gardeners, who maintain and keep the production garden 

active all year long. The LISD cook works tirelessly alongside them in planning the 

planting schedule to align with what is served in the kitchen. Students are provided 

breakfast, a nutrition break, and lunch. Many of the meals are made from scratch, 

and it is not uncommon to have community members join LISD students for lunch. 

LISD monthly menus often have a "LIFE Lunch" feature, which are meals entirely 

grown on the island. The culinary class often will produce some of the menu items 

the day before using food harvested from the LISD gardens. This helps students 

develop a full circle understanding of the source of their food. LISD also hosts a San 

Juan County Food and Farms tour in support of local farmers to showcase this farmto-school effort.

Support staff and teachers dedicate many hours to enhancing the district’s 

educational offerings. The administration staff is highly involved in advancing 

sustainability education with higher education partners and a NextGen working 

group, as well as with the University of Washington Marine Science laboratory.
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The district is committed to paying for half of the farm-to-school program, while the 

rest of the funds are raised or given through private donations. The district plans in 

the next three years to further embed the program’s curricular aspects into classes 

and to connect with other schools and districts seeking to establish or enhance their

own farm-to-school programs. LISD also is expanding publicity for the program by 

spearheading "Lopez Lunches," where everything served for one month is sourced 

within a 50-mile radius of the island.

Most LISD students are 

engaged in extracurricular 

sports, which is significant 

because, as island 

residents, they must 

carefully manage their 

time due to ferry 

schedules. LISD offers 

weeklong seminars on 

specific topics, known as 

intensives. Many 

students choose options 

that emphasize being 

outside and physical 

stamina: rock climbing, 

wilderness survival, 

personal fitness, and 

biking the San Juan 

Islands.

The district has 

established IAQ 

management plan and an 

asthma management plan 

and works to limit students’ exposure to chemicals that can trigger asthma attacks. 

District buildings were constructed to reduce exposure to radon. LISD also has 

chemical management and green cleaning programs in place.

In 2016, the community passed a bond measure dedicating $9.6 million to 

modernizing and increasing energy efficiency in LISD buildings. In partnership with 

the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, the school district installed 9.9 kilowatts of 

solar panels. To conserve water, LISD installed low-flow water fixtures, drip 

irrigation, landscaped with native plants, and reduced irrigation of athletic fields. 

Elementary students in the Lopez Island School District conduct 

water sampling and search for aquatic insects at Rishi Pond, one 

of the many outdoor classroom sites on campus. 
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As an island community, students and faculty are extremely aware of the solid waste 

produced. LISD composts food scraps, donates leftover meals, and recycles 

extensively. In an innovative project, students designed a process that creates 3-D 

printer filament from recycled milk jugs. LISD also coordinates a public free swap 

space, where community members can take or leave items including clothing and 

household goods.

The district participates in the Safe Routes to School program. The district is just 

two buses short of completely replacing its yellow school bus fleet with new, loweremitting buses. The district has a well-publicized idle-reduction policy that applies to 

all vehicles. LISD offers electric charging stations free of charge for drivers of

electric vehicles. In 2016, an LISD senior used his culminating project to design and 

propose the construction of a bike lane that would connect the ferry landing to Lopez 

Village. San Juan Island County responded positively to this suggestion and is 

currently working to make this happen.

Environmental and sustainability education are woven into core curricular topics and 

daily routines throughout the school year. LISD emphasizes careers in 

environmental and sustainability fields through two career and technical education 

courses, Marine Biology and Sustainable Agriculture. A course called Career Paths 

requires that senior projects include a local or environmental component. Among 

other projects, these two have led to the construction of a wood-fired truck, 

awareness of orca pods, and an environmental survey of Fisherman Bay, which was 

used by San Juan County in drainage studies. The district currently mandates 20 

hours of community service before graduation, ensuring students’ civic engagement. 

Beginning with the class of 2021, that requirement will become 60 hours.

An advanced science lab features equipment valued at over $600,000. The Bureau 

of Land Management and the school have coordinated a "hands on the land" afterschool club called Muddy Boots for grades three through five, in which students do 

research at one of the island's ponds. With all these activities, students graduate 

with an awareness and appreciation of their role and place in the environment and 

day-to-day activities that influences not only their personal health, but the health of 

the world.

Oak Harbor Public Schools, Oak Harbor, Washington

A loaded landfill leads to environmental stewardship

The traditional core values of Oak Harbor Public Schools (OHPS) ― growth, 

collaboration, accountability, and compassion ― are central to the district’s mission 
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of providing environmental and sustainability programming. Environmental 

instruction is offered in all OHPS schools, connecting Common Core state standards 

and NGSS by using engaging and interactive project-based learning opportunities. 

What sets OHPS apart from neighboring districts is the schools’ ability to work 

together to strengthen each other and grow. OHPS students and staff have 

engaged in projects that vary from schoolwide vermicomposting and recycling, to 

green classroom certifications in waste, water, and energy reduction, community 

work, designing and building tiny, high-tech homes for the homeless.

The OHPS high 

school offers a 

backpacking 

survival course, as 

well as other 

environmental 

science courses, 

that get students 

out into local areas 

to collect and 

analyze 

environmental data. 

The high school 

also partners with 

community 

organizations to 

promote citizen 

science. An 

example of this is a 

partnership 

between the Oak 

Harbor Marina, the 

high school science department, and the elementary schools to work on salmon 

restoration and study the waterfront at local beaches.

OHPS residents live on an island in Washington with a completely full landfill. For 

this reason, all trash generated in OHPS is transported some 300 miles away to a 

landfill in the south-central part of the state. This has led to a great awareness about 

the importance of waste reduction in schools. These efforts include composting, use 

of reusable silverware and lunch trays, recycling. OHPS collects one-sided paper to 

reuse as scrap paper; sends newsletters and parent correspondence electronically; 

and uses digital projectors, whiteboards, iPads, and Chromebooks whenever 

A Washington State University Master Gardener gives a lesson to 

kindergartners at Crescent Harbor Elementary.
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possible. Confidential papers are shredded and bagged, then used for compost 

bedding or recycled. Share tables help to reduce food waste.

A variety of afterschool clubs allow students to work on ways to reduce the OHPS 

environmental footprint. Many classrooms across the district make action plans to 

reduce energy consumption and educate students on the importance of reducing 

energy consumption, offering easy steps they can take to support the district-run 

green classroom certification program. The district has taken the initiative to 

upgrade lighting to energy-efficient LED lights. The most recent upgrade was at the 

high school, where 70 outdoor fixtures were replaced, leading to a reduction of 

energy use by 80 percent.

Over the past several years OHPS has slowly integrated propane school buses into 

its fleet, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reaping a savings of $35,000 on 

fuel costs in one year. A Safe Routes to Schools program encourages alternative 

modes of transportation. 

A districtwide sustainability team and a designated garden and sustainability teacher 

support all elementary teachers in STEAM integration based on the three pillars of 

sustainability. Students in prekindergarten and kindergarten take part in play-based 

climate science education through station work. 

All five elementary schools feature learning gardens and student-led 

vermicomposting systems on site. Students receive composting education in fourth 

grade, and then become the student leaders who teach younger classmates all 

about vermicomposting and the cycle of decomposition. Landscapes use native and 

drought-tolerant plants, and feature pollinator gardens and certified wildlife habitats. 

Rain gardens lessen the effects of carbon and ocean acidification in local waters.

OHPS focuses on rich environmental learning and nutrition in these outdoor 

classrooms, and some schools even raise school chickens and rabbits. The district 

partners with Washington State University and Island County to host family outreach 

programs and nutritional cooking classes. These provide access to healthy 

alternatives through school gardens for students from a variety of backgrounds, 

including low-income and underserved communities. 

Oak Harbor Public Schools has a comprehensive green cleaning program. The 

OHPS custodial staff has been trained in green cleaning procedures, hazardous 

chemical storage, and response to hazardous spills. HVAC filters are replaced and 

monitored three times a year. OHPS an asthma management program in place to 

limit environmental asthma triggers, including replacing carpeting with nonpermeable 

rubber tile flooring that is 100 percent recycled content. The district uses policies 

and procedures outlined in the EPA’s Tools for Schools for IAQ management. All 
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IAQ concerns are addressed in less than 24 hours and meticulously documented. 

Three years ago, the district began replacing carpets exclusively with modular carpet 

tiles. This plan allows for the selective replacement of high traffic or stained areas 

instead of the entire room. An IPM plan reduces the use of harsh chemicals in 

school buildings and on school grounds.

West Virginia

Junior Elementary School, Belington, West Virginia

Casting a fly rod into the community

Junior Elementary School (JES) is a small rural school within a community of 

roughly 685 residents located along the Tygart Valley River. The school houses one 

class for each grade from preschool through grade four. Each class at JES plans an 

annual field trip, where students enjoy the beauty and scope of their home state, 

with each child experiencing at least six West Virginia adventures before moving on 

to middle school. 

Preschool and kindergarten JES students visit the nearby Game Farm each year to 

learn about local wildlife. They also journey to Rich’s Farm to explore forests, 

pumpkin patches, and a variety of landscapes. The first-grade class makes an 

annual day trip to hike to Seneca Rocks and participates in a guided tour of Smoke 

Hole Caverns. Second-graders enjoy a day at historic Prickett’s Fort to experience 

18th-century living and frontier traditions such as weaving, blacksmithing, candle 

making, and carpentry. The third-grade trip exposes students to the natural 

splendor of Blackwater Falls and riding horseback through the hills of Canaan Valley 

Park. Pupils in fourth grade return to Blackwater Falls during the winter to 

participate in sledding events and then visit nearby Timberline Resort. 

Whole-school trips near campus include a water-sampling experience and nature 

walks. Experiential learning through water sampling at Spruce Knob, the highest 

point in the state of West Virginia and the summit of Spruce Mountain, exposes 

students to science, health, math, and social studies they can apply to their lives 

outside of school. They also explore the local watershed, riparian buffer zones, and 

ecosystems outside of classrooms. The school works with community partners, 

including the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the West 

Virginia Division of Natural Resources, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Lions 

Club, and local coal miners in its outdoor education efforts, particularly for fly fishing 

days. In the winter months, students participate in sledding and other snow activities 

during their physical education classes. The JES school community also can tap 

sugar maple trees. 
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The school participates in an Adopt-A-Highway project each spring. Students take a 

leadership role in collecting and disposing properly of trash and litter along the 

roadway between the river and the school.

Following each field trip, students 

complete written and discussion-based 

reflections on the experience, sharing 

their questions, opinions, and highlights. 

Students follow the same process after 

monthly visit from West Virginia 

University Extension Service agents,

who are community-based experts in 

each county who share research-based 

knowledge throughout the state. A new 

Experience Learning Curriculum offers 

deeper and more robust exposure to 

watershed studies, water sampling, and 

buffer systems. 

Students participate in “brain breaks” to 

keep their focus during classroom 

instruction. Teachers have started a 

“Daily Mile,” pausing classroom 

instruction for 12 minutes to have all 

students walk or jog a mile, or do 12 

minutes of dancing or relay races. 

These 12 minutes away from their seats 

refresh students so they return to 

instruction more focused and ready to 

learn. 

The tri-annual Pop-Up Garden Market allows JES students and families to sample, 

shop (for free), and make recipes from assorted fruits and vegetables. “Taste It 

Tuesdays” during physical education classes allow students to taste-test a new fruit 

or vegetable, which then is added to that week’s lunchtime salad bar. School cooks 

provide healthy snacks during reading classes twice weekly thanks to the fresh fruit 

and vegetable program. Third- and fourth-graders grow microgreens in the cafeteria 

during winter months. 

The school was awarded a West Virginia Sustainable Schools grant that facilitated 

the purchase of a class set of mountain bikes, two staff bikes, and tricycles. The 

bikes are used for brain breaks, recess, and physical education classes. Families 

can check the bikes out after school to ride with their children. The school’s “Travel 

Junior Elementary School works with community 

partners to offer outdoor education, particularly for its 

fly fishing days.
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West Virginia” project provides pedometers for each child to wear daily. Each day, 

the total mileage for each JES class is recorded, and totals are transferred to a 

centrally located bulletin board with the shape of the state and all major landmarks 

pictured. JES marks each classroom’s mileage as they “travel” the state, making 

connections to history and geography lessons. 

The school has arranged with a nearby medical clinic to provide free flu shots for its 

students and staff annually. JES hosts the WV SMILE mobile dentist program twice

annually to provide students with opportunities for dental exams, cleanings, fillings, 

and extractions at school without affecting their attendance. Germ City is a popular 

program provided for students by the county extension service twice yearly to teach 

the benefits of cleanliness in staying healthy. The school offers hand sanitizer 

stations and has daily desk cleaning time. The WVU healthy kids coordinator is 

scheduled for six weeks of supplemental lessons in grades one through four to 

promote healthy living and movement education. 

Maintenance Direct software manages the school’s integrated pest management

needs. JES replaced the school HVAC system in 2010 to meet ASHRAE ventilation 

standards. The school has new radon-resistant construction features and replaced 

its playground in 2013 to remove any unsafe materials. The school prohibits bus 

idling and the use of air fresheners. The district conducts monthly inspections for 

environmental health concerns. As part of participation in a district energy 

management effort in collaboration with Edison Energy Institute, the school has 

saved some $135,000 in energy costs over 11 years. JES also reduced water 

usage by 5percent over the course of one year. A system of water diversion ditches 

and collection points on campus prevent flooding of the property and the 

surrounding area, especially the 100 yards or so between the school and the Tygart 

Valley River. Over 50 percent of cleaning products are natural or eco-friendly, and 

copy paper is Forest Stewardship Council-certified. Nearly 95 percent of the 

students who attend JES arrive on school buses or in carpools. The remaining 5 

percent either walk or ride bicycles to school.

Wisconsin

Schlitz Audubon Nature Preschool, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Blending water conservation, early childhood play, and environmental education

The Nature Preschool at Schlitz Audubon Nature Center was founded in 2003. 

Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, this suburban school serves 144 early 

learners in morning and afternoon classes. The preschool is a member of the 

Natural Start Alliance, which is part of the North American Association of 

Environmental Education and a founding member of the Wisconsin Nature-Based 
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Early Childhood Association, which is, in turn, a part of the Wisconsin Nature Action 

Collaborative for Children. 

Housed in a LEED Gold-certified building, the preschool has three classrooms, each 

with enormous glass windows overlooking prairie, woodland, and natural play 

spaces. The teachers often keep the lights off due to the natural light that pours in 

through the windows, thus reducing energy costs. The school uses geothermal, 

photovoltaic/solar electric, and active solar thermal energy sources, which provide 

50 percent of total energy use, and it sells renewable energy back to the local utility 

company. Schlitz also implements computer-power management settings; 

thermostat and hot water temperature setpoints; and uses a central control system 

to remotely monitor and control heating and cooling equipment. The school 

monitors energy usage by tracking monthly energy consumption and costs; follows a 

schedule for regular maintenance of HVAC equipment; and has upgraded to energysaving equipment.

The school’s drinking water comes from a well on school property. The facilities 

manager is certified to conduct water tests annually. Schlitz installed water-bottle 

filling stations to encourage healthy hydration and reduce single-use bottles. The 

school’s educators showed the children how rain barrels work and now allow 

preschoolers to collect water for play and for watering the gardens. In another play 

space, classes take turns measuring the daily precipitation with the rain gauge and 

then use walkie-talkies to report their findings to the nature center land management 

team.

In fall of 2018, Schlitz began installing a rain catchment system alongside one of the 

play areas to catch and hold 90 percent of the water from the nature center rain 

gutters. The water is held in a cistern. When the spout to the cistern is opened, the 

water runs along a homemade funnel system, through the play space, and out into 

an educational rain garden. This system allows water conservation, early childhood 

play, and environmental education to be seamlessly blended.

The school was built with a combination of sustainable woods, including black locust 

and Norway spruce harvested from the property. The teachers made a commitment 

to eliminate plastic as much as possible in classroom furnishings and tools, and 

instead use natural materials, including several items taken from fallen trees on the 

property. Every few years, a preschool art festival called Ash-to-Art is held, during 

which children and their families create art on large cross sections of ash wood 

taken from the ash trees coming down on the property. This experience is combined 

with lessons and activities about the emerald ash borer.
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The preschool uses as many recycled, upcycled, natural, and environmentally 

sustainable products in the classroom as possible, from educational materials to 

cleaning supplies. The preschool teachers make a point of reducing, reusing, and 

recycling in classrooms and teaching this behavior to students. The preschool uses 

an educational three-bin compost system, and it aims to become a zero-waste 

school either by repurposing materials, such as play dough and paper, into new art 

projects; or by recycling; or by composting everything eaten. Schlitz has a 

dishwasher and sanitizer that allows the school to avoid paper plates and utensils, 

and the school serves food family-style.

Students learn about the 

importance of caring for 

themselves and others. 

Students and staff hike 

daily, transitioning from 

short distances at the 

start of the year to a mile 

by the end. 

Preschoolers play 

outside in all weather, 

and they spend up to 

two hours and 45 

minutes outside daily 

unless the temperature 

is below zero degrees 

Fahrenheit or there is 

lightning. Families and 

children learn how to 

dress appropriately for 

all temperatures and 

kinds of weather. Students and staff wash hands several times a day. A yoga class 

is offered on Mondays, and staff members are encouraged to spend their breaks 

outside on the 185-acre campus. Teachers get emotional support through staff 

outings and social gatherings, and they are encouraged to stay home when sick. 

The staff is united by a common passion and mission, which makes the overall 

working environment more appealing.

The center supports organic, fair-trade, and local suppliers, and buys local fruits and 

vegetables as often as possible. While the half-day preschool program doesn’t offer 

meals, the staff cooks healthy foods with the children as part of programming 

whenever possible, such as during their summer camp called “Dirt Made My Snack.” 

At the camp, preschool children learn the connection between healthy soil and 

healthy food and make homemade organic snacks daily.

Muffin making in the mud kitchen at Schlitz Audubon Nature Preschool 

supports counting skills and imaginative play.
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The preschool incorporates environmental concepts into all programs, which serve 

children between 6 months and 6 years. The Audubon Babies program is primarily 

sensory-based, giving small children opportunities to touch, smell, listen, and 

experience nature with their whole bodies. Once the children enter preschool, they 

begin each day outside in nature-based play areas. These include gardens, trees, 

logs, a water area, a digging area, a mud kitchen, trees for climbing, and loose items 

from nature, such as rocks, sticks, and branches. Students are provided tools that 

help them learn to interact with nature — and each other — in positive ways, using 

items including shovels, spades, watering cans, dishes, twine, scoops, brooms, 

trucks, and wheelbarrows. Classes have daily access to the Lake Michigan 

shoreline, prairies, woodland, oak savanna, and ponds. Students spend between 50 

and 100 percent of their time outdoors every day, year-round.

During their time at Nature Preschool, children learn about water, animal habitats, 

recycling, and seasonal changes; they participate in maple sugaring, gardening, and 

composting; they care for animals in the classroom, on the trails, and through the 

onsite raptor center. They develop a sense of community and connection to the land 

that will outlast their time in preschool. They plant and harvest a large vegetable 

garden; look for worms and insects under logs; experiment with mud and water; 

climb on structures made from fallen trees; run, play, ask questions, explore, and 

engage. They participate in citizen science programs by monitoring monarch 

butterfly populations, keeping track of birds, and discussing invasive species. They 

may spend time on the beach at Lake Michigan, visit one of the many ponds on the 

property, climb the 60-foot tower, or rake leaves. Their hikes change daily based on 

what is happening seasonally.

Preschool teachers practice what they teach. Several have taken master naturalist

training and participate on the school’s sustainability committee. Staff have written 

extensively and presented at conferences about the social, emotional, cognitive, 

motor, and overall health benefits of playing outside, which fosters a deep sense of 

environmental awareness and connection to nature. The goal of the Nature 

Preschool at Schlitz Audubon is to help children develop a connection to nature and 

the environment that will remain with them long after they leave the program and will

result in their becoming stewards of the earth.
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Acknowledgments

Over the past year, ED employees Kathrina Bridges, Jennifer Padgett, Nancy Paulu, 

and Bernice Williams have pitched in to keep this project running on the very 

slimmest of budgets. This program would not be feasible without their invaluable 

assistance.

Of course, this entire award would not be possible without the participation of some 

30 state education agencies and their hardworking partners, which have built their 

own green teams to oversee statewide competitions that select schools, districts, 

and postsecondary institutions to nominate to ED. They are a most dedicated group 

of facilities, health, and environmental education professionals, who support the 

work of the schools, districts, and postsecondary institutions in states across the 

nation.

Finally, thanks to Adam Honeysett, ED’s managing director of state and local 

engagement, for his unfailing support of ED-GRS and its director.