Trust for Sustainable Living International Student Competition 2025
The Trust for a Sustainable Living Competition is an essay and video competition exploring sustainability topics, open to students worldwide. This year’s theme is From Eco-Anxiety to Eco-Action. The deadline for submissions is March 3, 2025.

Collaborative Action Research Project: Climate Action!
Hosted by the Smithsonian Science Education Center, the Collaborative Action Research Project invites high school students aged 14-19 worldwide to engage in a 3-month collaborative research project focused on climate action. The program runs from February 4 to April 29, 2025. Participants are expected to commit approximately 2-3 hours per week.

Congratulations to these schools for launching their Whole School Sustainability journeys through START! See a map of our START schools here.

• Poly Prep Country Day School, Brooklyn USA

• Polytechnic School, California USA

• John Jay High School, New York USA

Engaging the Community: Parents as Allies

Parents can be a helpful resource and ally for school sustainability efforts! Liz Cutler, who ignited sustainability at Princeton Day School, emphasizes the importance of parent connections. “We couldn’t possibly have organized the garden-raising day without a strong group of dedicated and enthusiastic parent volunteers.” These parents morphed into a monthly parent group (called PDSeeds) to support the school’s sustainability efforts. “They include a small but tireless group of parents who help connect the green initiative to families and work on issues that are more parent-related (car idling, carpooling, litterless lunches, etc.).”

At the Benjamin Franklin International School (BFIS) in Spain, a parent-organized gala raised money specifically for sustainability initiatives, which helped fund the creation of a rooftop garden at the school. Parents at the school have also become more engaged in making school events, such as the International Food Fair, more sustainable.​ (Read more here.)

Tips for Engaging Parents

• Speak to what matters most to them - how sustainability initiatives directly benefit their children, from providing healthier air quality and learning environments, to creating engaging outdoor learning spaces that improve academic performance, to taking action to alleviate climate anxiety.

• Share your school’s sustainability vision and specific ways parents can contribute through existing communication channels like newsletters, parent portals, and back-to-school nights.

• Consider facilitating a dedicated Parent Sustainability Committee (like Princeton Day School's PDSeeds) that meets regularly to support sustainability initiatives.

• Integrate sustainability into existing parent-led activities, such as working with the PTA/PTO to make school events zero-waste.

• Celebrate parent involvement through, for example, features in school communications.

#40: Grounds Management

Rewilding School Grounds to Promote Biodiversity

The world is facing a staggering biodiversity crisis. Since 1970:

• global wildlife populations have plummeted by 73%

• 40% of plant species face extinction

• biodiversity in urban areas, where many schools are located, has dropped by up to 92%

Yet our school grounds – covering over 2 million acres in the US alone – represent an extraordinary opportunity!

By rewilding even small portions of these spaces — restoring natural habitats and encouraging native flora and fauna to thrive — we can create vital habitats for local wildlife, enhance student wellbeing, and provide powerful hands-on learning experiences about ecosystem restoration. 

Tips for Rewilding School Grounds

⇒ Identify areas for rewilding

• Start small! Identify low-use areas that could be transformed into native habitats. Even better, send students on a treasure hunt to find spots to rewild! Consider unused corners of a field, strips along fences, underutilized lawns, or areas near carparks, like the rewilded patch of lawn at Harvard Business School (below).

⇒ Replace non-native plants with native species 

• Non-native plants can outcompete local species and fail to support wildlife. Swap ornamental plants for native species to attract pollinators, insects, and birds. The Native Plant Finder by the National Wildlife Federation can help you choose species suited to your region in the US.

⇒ Create a wildflower meadow, pollinator garden or tiny forest

• Wildflower meadows support pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths, which are vital to ecosystems. Even a small patch can make a big impact.

• Student-Led: In 2024, a senior student at Naperville Central High School, Illinois led a project to establish a 'tiny forest' on the school's campus using the Miyawaki method. Similarly, students at Catlin Gabel School, Oregon, created a microforest on campus.

⇒ Consider Strategic De-paving Projects

• De-paving offers multiple benefits: improved climate resilience, urban cooling, natural water filtration, expanded wildlife habitat, and reduced flooding risk.

• Transform underutilized paved areas into living spaces that enhance both the environment and student experience, as students at U School (Philadelphia) did through a partnership with the Xerces Society). The students participated in a “design charrette” planning session, which allowed them to co-design the de-paving location, size, and a preliminary garden map, including desired plants and goals.

⇒ Partner with local organizations

• Connect with national and local environmental organizations, native plant societies, and conservation groups that can provide expertise, resources, and sometimes funding. For example, the National Wildlife Federation's regional offices (USA) help schools create certified wildlife habitats. Other organizations include: The Arbor Day Foundation; Wild Ones, Audubon Society (local chapters); U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Schoolyard Habitat Program, and Re:Wild Your Campus.

• Search for land trusts in your area - many, like the Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts, have youth education programs and can provide technical support for habitat restoration.

⇒ Educate students about the importance of habitat restoration & biodiversity

• Student-conducted Biodiversity Assessment: Involve students in citizen science, documenting existing wildlife, plant species, habitat types, and priority areas for habitat restoration. (Try the iNaturalist app!)

• World Wildlife Fund: Living Planet Report 2024, Youth Edition

• UCLA’s Habitat Restoration Lesson Plan (High School, Life Science)

Green Schools Alliance is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, created by schools, for schools, with a mission is to connect and empower schools worldwide to lead the transition to a sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient future.

Ways to get involved:

1. Get your school to sign the Sustainability & Climate Leadership Commitment to join schools and districts who have already
   answered the call to action.

2. Join the Community for resources, best practices & a peer-to-peer network of school sustainability champions.

3. Use START: Sustainability Tracking, Analytics & Roadmap Tool to benchmark, plan, track and collaborate for Whole School Sustainability.