Leadership Commitment

Green Schools Alliance

It Starts With You.

The Leadership Commitment is a non-legally binding commitment to sustainability that demonstrates your school's dedication to taking meaningful action towards implementing sustainable change across your:

  • Buildings and Grounds

  • School Culture

  • Educational Programs

Schools are the core of every society. They foster the minds of future citizens, voters, doers, and advocates who are the driving force for global transformation.

By signing this commitment, your school or district becomes a vital member of a global community that sets goals, takes action, and makes progress. No matter where you are on your sustainability journey, your leadership paves the way for others to follow.

Join the principals, heads of school, and superintendents, impacting nearly 10,000 schools, who have already answered the call to action and committed to transforming their schools!

Schools that make a Sustainability Leadership Commitment lay the groundwork for fundamental change that will impact their students and future generations.

 "When the New York City Department of Education adopted its ambitious sustainability agenda, we needed to make a strong public statement about the importance of climate stewardship. Making the Green Schools Alliance leadership commitment showed clearly that New York City schools were committed at the highest level to facing our environmental challenges."

— John T. Shea, Chief Executive Officer, New York City Department of Education Division of School Facilities.

Leadership Commitment

Green Schools Alliance envisions a world where every person is aware of and accountable for the impact they have in creating an environmentally, economically, and equitably sustainable future.

We recognize:

  • That human and planetary life are interdependent.

  • The Earth cannot sustain our current levels of consumption and environmental exploitation.

  • That schools play a significant role in impacting knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, and need to practice, model and inspire sustainable solutions.

We need to inspire everyone, including the youngest members of our community, that small, conscious efforts relentlessly pursued will protect all life on our planet. As hubs of communities, schools can help to transform markets, policy, education and behavior, increase community resilience, mitigate climate change, and prepare citizens to think and act in new and creative ways. 

No individual school or person can solve 21st century climate, conservation, or socio-economic challenges alone. As active participants striving toward this common goal, we must work together now so that future generations can thrive. 

My school commits to setting goals, taking action and making progress towards school sustainability to secure a better future for all.

  • Our school or district will set goals, take action, and monitor and share progress as we take action across our Physical Place, Educational Programs and Organizational Culture.

    > Physical Place: Reduce Our Climate & Ecological Impact

    Our school or district will encourage healthy, efficient and sustainable systems across the school’s physical place. The balance between consumption and Earth’s finite resources are at the core of a sustainable existence. We will use our school or district as a learning laboratory to model sustainable behavior when we conserve resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a healthy learning environment for our students.

    > Educational Programs: Educate & Engage Our Community in Sustainability

    Our school or district will integrate sustainability into its educational programs and will engage the school community in solutions-focused action. Acknowledging education’s distinct capacity to shape attitudes and behaviors, we will foster an understanding of our individual roles and responsibilities in creating a healthy and sustainable world. By integrating education and action, our school or district will become an engine for change.

    > Organizational Culture: Connect to Nature & Place

    Our school or district will take steps to foster communication and interdepartmental learning so sustainability is an integral part of our school or district’s organizational culture. The development of transparent and inclusive institutional environments that work across boundaries to implement sustainable solutions is a prerequisite to transforming our world. We will foster diversity and access, provide professional development, promote health and wellness, and connect to nature and place.

  • In addition to Level I, our school or district will calculate its carbon footprint to establish an energy and carbon emissions baseline and will take steps to reduce emissions over time.

    The reduction of CO2 emissions through energy efficiency and carbon offsetting initiatives is necessary to mitigate the devastating effects of global climate change. While engaging and educating the school community, our school will set target dates for meeting milestones, implement strategies to reduce emissions, and establish mechanisms for tracking progress.

  • In addition to Levels I & II, our school or district will develop and implement a comprehensive climate action plan to reduce our carbon footprint by at least 50% within 5 years and achieve carbon neutrality within 10 years.

    The evidence is clear that carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main driver of climate change, and that ambitious, accelerated action is required to drastically mitigate climate impacts. We will use our school’s collective power to achieve carbon neutrality by integrating carbon emissions education, setting target dates for meeting milestones and establishing mechanisms for tracking progress.

Submit the Sustainability Leadership Commitment:

  1. Download the Leadership Commitment.

  2. Obtain the signature of an authorized representative (principal, superintendent, or high-level administrator) from your school or district and choose the Level I, II, or III Commitment.

  3. Submit signed Leadership Commitment to admin@greenschoolsalliance.org

Signed the Leadership Commitment - What next?

Create a comprehensive Whole School Sustainability plan, benchmark your efforts, collaborate, and access resources with START: Sustainability Tracking and Roadmap Tool.

START: Sustainability Tracking and Roadmap Tool
enables your school to:

 

  • START's metrics provide a clear framework for progressing towards Whole School Sustainability, based on actionable steps across three progressive tiers.

  • START enables you to establish baselines, including your energy, waste, water and emissions, and to monitor and evaluate your progress monthly through exciting graphics.

    START provides a Cost, Difficulty and Impact rating for each sustainability rating, allowing you to choose actions that best align with your priorities and resources.

  • START helps you identify areas for improvement to create short and long-term Sustainability Action Plans, addressing the reduction of your school's emissions, resource consumption, and environmental impact.

  • Qualitative data analytics in START can help you improve building performance and reduce your operational costs.

    'How To' Guides and resources for each START metric can help you implement strategies to reduce waste, improve efficiency and save your school money.

  • START's resource library and collaboration spaces enable you to implement strategies to integrate sustainability holistically across your buildings, educational programs and school culture.

  • START enables you to effortlessly integrate sustainability learning and activities into the existing curriculum, providing opportunities for creativity and problem-solving as students engage with sustainable solutions.

  • START enables you to connect and share best practices with other schools, building networks, accelerating learning, and pulling down barriers to progress.

  • Founded on the Whole School Sustainability framework, START supports collaboration and encourages engagement of all stakeholders, uniting the school community around a common goal.