The Trump administration last year quietly wound down a program that for more than a decade honored schools and districts for making their campuses more environmentally friendly and offering hands-on environmental education.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program, launched in 2011, recognized schools for implementing “cost-saving, health-promoting, and performance-enhancing sustainability practices,” according to a fact sheet still available on the Education Department website, though the program’s official website now leads to an error page.
The program’s termination came the same year the Education Department also ended the Blue Ribbon Schools program that celebrated schools for academic excellence.
The department didn’t respond to a request for information about the end of the Green Ribbon program, which was confirmed to Education Week by officials and advocates who have worked with schools that received the recognition and have started working with state leaders on creating state-level environmental honors for schools.
In a letter to state education chiefs last summer about the Blue Ribbon program, the Education Department said it was ending that recognition “in the spirit of returning education to the states” and encouraged states to start their own recognitions for schools.
State education department staff typically did the bulk of the work to review school nominations for the Green Ribbon honor—often a time-consuming task with several rounds of review before submission to the federal government. Federal Education Department employees then reviewed applications and compiled the final list of honorees, according to district and state leaders who previously participated in the program.
Even with states mostly taking the lead, the federal nature of the tribute still brought schools a special boost, those leaders said.
“Administrations for years agreed that it was the role of the Department of Education to lift up work that was working in local communities, and this was very state-led, so it felt like a win-win-win all around,” said Anisa Heming, the director of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council.
The Green Ribbon program lasted through both Democratic and Republican presidencies, largely because it didn’t require much money to operate, Heming said. The largest expense for the Education Department was likely creating and printing the plaques schools received to mark their win, she said.
The Green Building Council and Center for Green Schools hosted the reception to recognize honorees. States could choose whether to participate. Over the program’s more than 10 years, about 40 states participated at least once, Heming said.
The Education Department didn’t announce it was ending the Green Ribbon program. State-level coordinators who had already put in hours of work on their nominees’ applications found out when the online portal used to submit applications never officially opened.
When the Center for Green Schools learned of the recognition’s lapse, leaders devised a plan to help state coordinators who wanted to continue their own recognition programs.
To be recognized as a Green Ribbon school, schools previously had to demonstrate progress in three areas, according to the Education Department fact sheet:
- Reducing environmental impacts by cutting back on energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water use;
- Improving health and wellness by, among other things, boosting air quality, school nutrition, and physical activity; and
- Offering environmental and sustainability education with hands-on learning, civic engagement, STEM lessons, and career preparation.
State-level coordinators now working with the Center for Green Schools are using the same criteria when evaluating nominees, Heming said.
Center for Green Schools leaders meet roughly once every three months with interested state leaders. About 10 states are currently participating, and a handful of others have shown interest, Heming said. The organization provides honorees with letters of recognition and banners.
One state has added to its environmental recognition for schools
Wisconsin is one state continuing a state-level environmental honor for schools.
The state’s education department expanded its decades-old Green and Healthy Schools Wisconsin program after the federal honor ended, said Victoria Rydberg-Nania, the agency’s environmental education consultant.
Wisconsin schools move up through the ranks of the program based on their sustainability work, earning badges as they meet more benchmarks and progress through four tiers of recognition.
Now, schools that earn more than the 12 badges required for the top tier—the Sugar Maple level, a nod to Wisconsin’s state tree—may receive the department’s new honor: the Wisconsin Stewardship and Sustainability award.
“There is still just a lot of desire for schools to want to get that recognition for this good work that they’re doing where they really are doing a lot of things that the public doesn’t always see,” Rydberg-Nania said. “And so this program allows that visibility … and really allows school districts to highlight those extra things that they’re doing that are really making the education environment an awesome place to be for students.”
Wisconsin participated in each year of the Education Department’s Green Ribbon Schools program. In that time, 47 of the state’s schools, districts, and early learning centers received the federal recognition, Rydberg-Nania said.
The idea isn’t to replicate the concluded federal honor
For Heming’s team, it was important not to try to duplicate the lapsed federal honor. Instead, she said, the idea is to empower state leaders to evaluate and recognize schools in their own jurisdictions.
A new national recognition not led by the Education Department, but instead sponsored by outside organizations and nonprofits, likely wouldn’t carry the same prestige as a federal honor, Heming said. In addition, it might not be perceived as carrying the same objectivity, she said.
“We also didn’t want to take it over because we want it to eventually come back to the Education Department, and if we stand up this other national recognition—albeit not as neutral, which would be a loss—then there’s less of an incentive to get it back to the department,” Heming said. “We’re trying to keep it state-led so that, at some point, we can restart that program, but we want folks to know, in the interim, that it matters.”
Recognition can inspire school leaders to continue investing in sustainability efforts, she said. It also might encourage community members to celebrate a school or district’s sustainability work that otherwise might fly under the radar.
“Often when we send these recognition letters out, we get these effusive notes back from the district leader saying how proud they are of their sustainability coordinator or the work generally, and they talk about how much value it brings to their district,” Heming said. “This is just a small way to boost the teams that are working on these things.”
