Lessons from School Sustainability Leaders
Students at the Center
At the end of the day, schools exist for their students.
So when it comes to sustainability and regeneration— one of the most, if not the most important challenges of our time—it makes sense to start with them.
How can we educate and empower today’s students to thrive in a rapidly changing world? How can we prepare them to lead the transition to a sustainable, regenerative, and climate-resilient future?
By engaging students not just as learners, but as leaders. When students take ownership of sustainability initiatives—through research and data collection, action-planning, hands-on projects, policy, presentations, communications, or curriculum-integrated work—the impact is much greater, more authentic, and longer lasting. And as many school sustainability leaders have found, student-driven work resonates more deeply with school leadership and community members alike.
💡 Their Voice Matters, and it’s Powerful
“I will say, as every other teacher has always said, students have way more power than adults do in terms of getting change to happen on campuses. When I really want to have something get done, and the students care about it too, I will say, hey, you guys take the lead on this one, because it's very hard for leaders at campuses to say no to students, and it's much easier for them to say no to adults.” - Tori Fay, Sustainability Coordinator at Chadwick School, California. (Read more here)
“Starting with the students always seems to work the best,” says Frank Barros, Sustainability Coordinator at Nightingale-Bamford School (NY). Barros advocates for engaging students directly in data collection and project work for school sustainability efforts—especially within classes and electives—because it builds a stronger, more enduring foundation for progress. When students present data to decision-makers, “it has a certain weight.” Even if the data is imperfect, the fact that it comes from students makes it hard to ignore.
He emphasizes the importance of planning ahead with school leadership and aligning sustainability efforts with the school’s broader mission: “You have to talk on the administration’s terms; you can only get an administrator on your side if it connects to their mission—otherwise, it’s just another thing.” And the good news is—almost every school’s mission (hopefully!) centers on empowering students to be thoughtful, capable, and engaged citizens. Involving students in real-world problem solving for sustainability doesn’t just support this mission—it embodies it.
Takeaway: Student-driven presentations and proposals carry credibility and provide a meaningful way to fulfill your school’s mission of student empowerment through real-world learning.
“It's very hard for leaders at campuses to say no to students, and it's much easier for them to say no to adults.”
💡 Students Empowered as Real-World Problem-Solvers
At Montclair Kimberley Academy, AP Environmental Science students worked over multiple years to create a carbon neutrality roadmap for their school. Each year, a new class picked up where the last left off—researching emissions, conducting audits, and proposing concrete solutions.
Their work led directly to solar panel installations across all three campus buildings.
“In class and outside of class, any way you can get students involved… the better,” says science teacher and Sustainability Coordinator Ben Rich. “Get them to be the owners of it… because what are schools for? They’re for students.”
He encourages sustainability leaders to guide students in navigating school structures, creating coalitions, and building influence—because student-led action is what school leaders tend to respond to most.
Takeaway: Project-based learning with real-world outcomes builds student capabilities, enthusiasm and optimism.
“Get them to be the owners of it… because what are schools for? They’re for students.”
Empowering Students to Take the Lead
Empowering student leadership in sustainability ignites student passion and builds their capabilities.
The Going Green Club at the Benjamin Franklin International School was originally run by passionate 10th graders, especially during COVID-19 when parents weren't allowed on campus. The students took charge of sustainability initiatives and kept the club running even without adult oversight. The club now continues to thrive with support from the school’s sustainability coordinator Rose Scovatto, and where students actively participate in various projects, such as educating younger students about sustainability, volunteering in the rooftop garden, working on composting initiatives, and being active participants and leaders in the whole-school Eco-Committee.
At St. Andrews College in Texas, where Dina Tucker helped to ignite a school-wide sustainability program, greening the school’s facilities was mostly powered by students, starting with campus-wide audits. With the help of Facilities, they collected every single piece of trash on campus, and then, with students, sorted it into recycling, composting, and actual waste. By the end of it, they found they had a bag – “not a garbage bag, but a single quart-sized Ziploc bag, of material to go to landfill. This was for a school of four to five hundred students and teachers across the whole campus.”
Initially, the school had a tiny composting bin, small recycling bin and large landfill bin. Through the Waste Audit, “by looking at the waste and how it moved around, we were able to double the size of the compost bin to double the size of the recycling bin. And then we really dropped the size of the waste bin. And that ended up saving the school quite a bit of money because you pay more for waste.”
After a school-wide, student-driven Waste Audit at St. Andrews College (Texas, USA), only a single ziplock bag of trash ended up heading for landfill.
💡 Sustainability in the School Culture—Not Just the Curriculum
“If students only hear about sustainability in class, it’s like a parent making their child wear a bike helmet while not wearing one themselves.”
At Princeton Day School, Liz Cutler saw the value of embedding sustainability throughout school life—not just in what students are taught, but in how the school operates.
‘Integrating into the curriculum ecoliteracy, systems thinking, a sense of place, and an understanding of the consequences of one’s actions is crucial for students,’ says Cutler. ‘If students only heard about sustainability in classes, however, it would be like the old story of the parents who require their child to wear a helmet while biking, but don’t do so themselves. Students are quick to point out that kind of hypocrisy, which is why it has been important to work on facilities, institutional behavior, and curricula simultaneously. ‘
At Princeton Day School, students are involved in sustainability at every level: From high school students running the composting system, inter-school eco-conferences and school events, to middle school assisting with Terracycle, and lower-school driving enthusiasm for the Green Cup Challenge, and the school garden at the heart of the community, students are involved at every level. Their enthusiasm powers the school's Going Green initiative.
Takeaway: Students notice when schools “walk the talk”—and their engagement deepens when sustainability is visible and integrated across the whole school.
Students need to see their school walk the walk, not just hear the talk.
Actionable Tips: Authentically engage students in your school’s sustainability journey
Project-based learning: Build sustainability data collection and problem-solving into electives or science classes. Let students present findings to leadership.
(Tip: START is a great tool for engaging students in directly in making their school more sustainable through data-collection and action planning. Learn more about START x STEM and even English Language alignment!)
Create (or revive) a green team: Support a student-led club or committee. Empower them to run initiatives and educate peers. Help them to plan, implement, and celebrate a pilot project.
Student Communicators and Presentors: Help them prepare and deliver presentations on sustainability issues or proposals to decision-makers, or to deliver presentations in assemblies.
Use celebration days as platforms: Leverage events like Earth Day, Pollinator Week, or World Tree Planting Day to let students take the lead. For example, have students organize school-wide campaigns, lead assemblies, host hands-on workshops, or present their sustainability projects. These days offer built-in momentum and visibility—perfect opportunities for student voice and leadership to shine. (Tip: Find dates for awareness & action in the Community > #1: Events)
Build mentorship into your plan: Guide students through school structures, help them form coalitions, and celebrate their wins. (Find tips for effective mentorship in the GSA Community > Student Leaders)
Make it visible: Give students leadership over gardens, composting, or events—and recognize their contributions across the school.
🌱 Primary/Elementary School (Ages ~5–11)
Focus on building habits and identity through hands-on activities, storytelling, and routine participation. Empower through visibility, not pressure.
Create classroom-based sustainability roles that rotate: energy monitors (lights off at recess), recycling rangers, garden waterers, lunchbox sorters. Make these visible and valued.
Design play-based, inquiry-rich experiences: e.g. “Where does our waste go?” scavenger hunts, sensory garden exploration, classroom waste audits, or water conservation games.
Use visual tools like pictorial waste signs or a class “eco-scoreboard” to track progress (e.g. how many wrappers avoided in a week).
Empower student voice in mini-decision making: Should we plant veggies or native flowers? Which class project will we do for Earth Day?
Celebrate and share effort, not perfection: e.g. invite students to share a green action in morning circle or via school announcements.
🌿 Middle School / Lower Secondary (Ages 11–14)
Tap into students’ growing desire for independence and belonging by offering real roles in team-based sustainability projects with visible results.
Establish or co-lead a student sustainability committee: Let students co-design school-wide campaigns (e.g. reduce single-use plastics, water bottle refills).
Frame projects around inquiry and action: “How can we improve biodiversity at school?” → lead to habitat mapping, native planting, or signage design.
Incorporate project-based units in science, geography, or civics with real school impact—e.g. energy audits, sustainable lunch surveys, school policy reviews.
Create peer leadership roles: e.g. Eco Mentors who visit younger grades to run garden sessions or recycling games.
Support advocacy-building: Letter-writing to local council, creating petitions, presenting ideas to school decision-makers.
🌳 High School / Upper Secondary (Ages 14–18)
Position students as co-designers of school sustainability efforts. Engage them in long-term projects with authentic leadership and influence over outcomes.
Establish formal student roles on decision-making bodies: green councils, school improvement teams, procurement reviews.
Support student-led audits and proposals: carbon inventories, green cleaning policies, energy retrofits, sustainable event planning. Let students present to school leadership or boards. (Find ideas and resources for how START: Sustainability Tracking, Analytics & Roadmap Tool can be lead by students here.)
Embed sustainability leadership in curriculum: AP/IB projects, capstone courses, or cross-disciplinary electives with authentic school-based challenges.
Foster interschool collaboration: Create green summits, joint campaigns, or partnerships with local youth orgs and businesses.
Support long-term visioning: Let students develop sustainability action plans for the school with timelines, goals, and metrics. (Find Student Action Planning resources here.)