Campus & Facilities
Facilities and Operations that serve as a laboratory for learning and modeling a sustainable future - this includes a balanced ecological footprint, climate resiliency, and is inclusive.
Our Growing Gardens Community of Practice for 2024-2025 Starts September 16th, 2024
Schools and communities across the United States have expressed an increased interest in outdoor learning, garden-based learning, and nature-based learning as a growing body of research for the past several decades shows their positive outcomes for children and youth.
Our Growing Gardens Project connects schools across Santa Clara County through our Growing Gardens Community of Practice is a network of TK-12 educators, TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment), administrators, garden coordinators, maintenance and operations, after school garden education providers/staff, volunteers & Community Partners. Learn more about our Community of Practice here:
SCCOE Growing Gardens CoP (google.com)
The U.S. Department of Education's Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) recognition award honors schools, school districts, and Institutes of Higher Education for excellence in resource efficiency, health and wellness, and environmental and sustainability education.
Application reviews will be based on the applicant's demonstrated progress towards reaching the goals of each of the three ED-GRS Pillars, which are:
Pillar I: Reduce environmental impact and costs
Pillar II: Improve the health and wellness of schools, students, and staff
Pillar III: Provide effective environmental education, which teaches many disciplines, and is especially good at effectively incorporating STEM, civic skills, and green career pathways
Join the California Green Ribbon Achievers and Applicants Network
This network meets quarterly and aims to unite past, current, and future CA Green Ribbon Schools applicants dedicated to promoting sustainable practices and programs within their school communities. The network gives participants the chance to network with each other to inspire and share best practices.
Upcoming Meeting Dates for the 2024-25 School Year:
Thursday, December 5, 2024, from 3:30 – 4:30: Registration Link
Thursday, February 27, 2025, from 3:30 – 4:30: Registration Link
Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 3:30 – 4:30: Registration Link
Past Sessions were recorded and posted Here: CAELI Resources for Green Ribbon - Events and Opportunities (google.com)
Green Ribbon Schools Resources can be found here:
CAELI Resources for Green Ribbon (google.com)
CAELI Resources for Green Ribbon - CA-GRS Applicant Toolkit (google.com)
If you would like technical assistance and support with completing the Green Ribbon application, please contact us.
Two Reports /Toolkits from Stanford: "Toolkit for school planners: Bolstering California public school resilience to wildfire health impacts"
from Stanford's Climate & Energy Policy Program
- Public schools increasingly need policies and infrastructure to protect students from more frequent and catastrophic wildfire smoke events.
- This report recommends standardizing and refining school air quality guidelines and offers suggestions for best practices to fund, install, and operate indoor air quality monitors in schools and communities.
- These measures would help lay the groundwork for future research that will provide a clearer picture of the air quality inside schools and classrooms during wildfire smoke events, which can further inform targeted policy interventions.
*Click on the image at the left for the full report or click here.
From Cal Recycle's website:
"Schools are vital hubs to their local communities and are uniquely positioned to teach students waste reduction behaviors. Students can learn waste reduction at schools and bring that messaging home to their families, caregivers, and all those with whom they come in contact. This is especially important as SB 1383 implementation takes effect on January 1, 2022 and all levels of the community will need to be educated on appropriate organic waste recycling, edible food recovery, reduction, and diversion.
You’re invited to the September SB 1383 Chat with CalRecycle! The webinar will focus on the implementation of organic waste diversion and edible food recovery programs by Non-Local Entities and Local Education Agencies.
Date & Time: September 18th, 2024, from 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance of this meeting: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEudeiqqD8uHt1GRjE8iD-b83qsonrYW9pF
In addition, the August SB 1383 Chat with CalRecycle webinar recording, focused on edible food recovery program implementation and local government collaboration with Tier Two commercial edible food generators, is now available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upFP0B8ef2c
A climate action plan (CAP) is a detailed and strategic framework for tracking and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that contribute to global warming. As of 2022 the County of Santa Clara and 10 city jurisdictions have climate action plans. The Santa Clara County Office of Education and 5 area School Districts also have Climate related board resolutions and/or climate action plans.
The following resources are helpful in developing Climate Action Plans for your Districts and Schools"
U.S. Department of Education Climate Adaptation Plan
This website is meant to be a useful tool for sustainability changemakers in education to drive sustainable and climate transformation across their school communities, and create a paradigm shift across K-12 education. The sites provide educators and community based partners with the “educators case for sustainability,” which includes the imperative for sustainability and climate resiliency in education, foundational frameworks and philosophies, and a plethora of whole school resources (campus, curriculum, and community/culture) for getting started.
The purpose of the campus dashboard and ecological footprint calculators (see examples below) is to make facilities and operations data - energy, water, waste, procurement, etc. - transparent and accessible for use by multiple stakeholders for awareness, advocacy, and action.
Some examples of School Dashboards are here:
The framework above from The Center for Green Schools was "founded on the imperative that in order to be successful, sustainability requires a whole-system approach. A Whole-School Sustainability approach requires individuals from across an organization to work together-it cannot be accomplished in a silo." This framework includes three school components: organizational culture, physical place, and educational program. Click on the link above for the framework document.
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This paper provides an overview of the approaches that have been taken by the San Mateo County Office of Education to launch a county-wide Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Initiative. SMCOE's path tp whole systems integration of environmental and climate literacy and sustainable and climate-ready schools efforts as a compelling strategy and structure that can serve as a model for California and beyond. The strategies, tools, and resources shared in this document are designed to be flexible, adaptable, and relevant across the diverse geography and size of California school districts and counties.
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