How was your partner organization founded originally? Did you see a need in your school or school district for more environmental initiatives?
Denver Public Schools (DPS) Students for Climate Action (DPSS4CA) was originally founded in 2021 by a DPS parent, Heather Jackson, inspired by the Climate Resolution passed by Salt Lake City School District students (June 2020). DPS, although they’ve had a department of sustainability since 2009, was working on low-hanging fruit such as LED lighting and school gardens, but they didn’t have ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions like Salt Lake. Also, they were not required to follow the climate goals of the City of Denver or Colorado despite being the largest school district and one of the largest employers in Colorado. Jackson contacted students from her local high school and grew to involve several schools through word-of-mouth. Our main goal was to draft and pass an ambitious climate resolution in DPS.
What is your biggest success as a partner organization?
Our biggest success(es) was passing the climate policy in April 2022, followed by working with DPS leadership to produce a 100+ page Climate Action Plan in December 2022. The plan is the sixth of its kind in the Nation and one of the most comprehensive, with twenty-two 2028 goals. These goals will positively impact the 100,000+ students and employees at DPS for years to come.
So far, the plan has yielded 45 rooftop solar panels, 44% of electricity coming from renewables, 40 school gardens, 23 electric buses, 20 heat pumps, 18% of waste is diverted from landfill, four schools with EcoSchool certification, and two solar canopies in parking lots.
We also won the 2023 President’s Environmental Youth Award, which allowed us to meet Vice President Kamala Harris and the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan.
Have you ever tried an initiative in your school and failed? How did your organization reroute?
After four months of drafting a two-page climate resolution with robust goals similar to Salt Lake, we attended our first school board meeting in May 2021. However, the board was in the process of changing its governmental structure, so they did not accept resolutions anymore; instead, vague statements called an “end-statement policy.”
Although our original proposal was rejected, we worked on turning our resolution into a policy. We attended eight more public comment meetings, met with all six board members, and rallied 4,000+ signatures on our petition. Ultimately, the board reduced our original resolution to one sentence (below), which had a larger impact than our original resolution since it resulted in a detailed Climate Action Plan.
One-sentence policy: DPS shall be a national leader in establishing an organizational culture anchored in sustainability, climate action, and environmental justice in both the conservation of natural resources and in minimizing the carbon footprint of DPS’ practices.
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How has Go Greenish supported your work, whether through funding, partnerships, or curriculum?
It has been inspiring to partner with Go Greenish and join a network of 17 partners across three states.
What are some future plans for your organization? How do you plan to use your partnership with Go Greenish in these future plans?
In the future, we hope to keep hosting climate summits and get more involved with helping to pass climate legislation in Colorado. We hope to use our partnership with Go Greenish to extend our reach and potentially fund student-led projects in the future!