Launch event for the Biden-Harris Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure
Advocacy
We make the case for green schools, by digging into the most pressing topics facing schools as they deepen their work to become greener—including facilities operations, environmental health practices, and sustainability education—to give policymakers and school leaders what they need to make smart decisions for greener schools.
Community advocacy
We unite and empower individuals to advocate for greener schools. USGBC local staff, community members and volunteers around the country work toward improving buildings and community infrastructure in their own backyards. Individuals with passion and know-how ask for our help in advocating for issues pertinent to their school or district and get connected with their local USGBC community doing the work on the ground.
Take action:
- Contact your U.S. Representatives and Senators to encourage and/or appreciate their support of the Rebuilding America’s Schools Act, which would allocate funding for school construction for high-need school districts. See if your Members of Congress are already supportive by looking at co-sponsors on the House and Senate bills. You can also learn more and sign on to support funding for school facilities through the BASIC Coalition.
- Contact your U.S. Representatives and Senators to encourage and/or appreciate their support of climate change education through the Climate Change Education Act. See if your Members of Congress are already supportive by looking at co-sponsors on the House and Senate You can also learn more and sign on to endorse the bill yourself to show your support.
- Contact your U.S. Representatives and Senators to encourage and/or appreciate their support of the U.S. Department of Education's Green Ribbon Schools award program through the Green Ribbon Act. See if your Members of Congress are already supportive by looking at co-sponsors on the House and Senate. You can also learn more and sign on to endorse the bill yourself to show your support.
- Contact your state legislators to encourage them to allocate or increase funding to support local school districts with construction or repair of their school buildings, including to reduce energy usage and improve indoor air quality.
- Encourage your local school board to adopt sustainable practices through a climate action plan, whether comprehensive or in pieces. You can find help in approaching your school board in our school board advocacy guide.
- Make the case for a Sustainability Staff role at your school district.
Policymaker resources
The Center for Green Schools provides clear analysis and research-backed recommendations for policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels who want to support health, resiliency and sustainability within their communities’ schools.
State legislators and green schools
The Center for Green Schools provides expertise and information to a large network of state legislators interested in policies and action to support green schools, including through our work with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. Reach out to [email protected] for direct assistance from USGBC’s Advocacy and Policy team.
The list below provides an overview of resources available from USGBC’s Center for Green Schools and Advocacy and Policy teams; these are updated regularly and form the backbone of our work with lawmakers.
School facilities information
- The 2021 State of Our Schools report details the need for investment in our nation’s schools by illustrating the gap between spending on capital and operations and the amount required, including through state-by-state detailed profiles. Following the previous 2016 State of Our Schools report, working groups of school facilities experts convened over the course of eight months to propose a menu of solutions at the federal, state and local levels. These recommendations can be found in the report Adequate and Equitable U.S. PK–12 Infrastructure: Priority Actions for Systemic Reform.
- The Center for Green Schools has a curated a library of peer-reviewed scientific studies from around the world published since 2016, focusing on the school built environment and occupant health and performance. This research builds on the 2017 Schools for Health: Foundations for Student Success report released by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that synthesizes foundational research about school indoor environmental quality impacts on students and staff.
- With growing awareness of the impact that school buildings have on student and staff health, the Center for Green Schools, in partnership with ASHRAE, developed the School Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Fact Sheet Series. The series is designed to help school leaders and staff, especially those without a technical background, better understand IAQ and make informed decisions to support healthier learning environments.
Policy summaries and analysis
- State-level Legislation to Support Energy Efficiency: Dedicated Funding for Existing K–12 Schools (2017) offers a comparison of state laws that provide funding to support energy efficiency in existing schools. The report summarizes program data and stakeholder interviews to help lawmakers understand the pros and cons of each state’s approach.
- One solution for state-level policy to support school facilities investment is highlighted in the summary paper School Facilities Policy Spotlight: Georgia’s Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (2017). The Georgia SPLOST enables localities to levy a small sales tax to pay for specific projects on public facilities, such as schools.
- Perspectives on State Legislation Concerning Lead Testing in School Drinking Water (2018) examines the effectiveness of existing state laws to help advocates and state legislators develop comprehensive laws to combat lead contamination in schools. The paper includes a table of bills that have been enacted, interviews with stakeholders and a point-by-point analysis of important elements of each law.
- State-Level Legislation Concerning K-12 Climate Change Education (2023) examines how state legislation, as one piece of a complex puzzle, can help prepare graduates for a future impacted by the climate crisis. The resource includes detailed talking points with citations, essential elements of climate change education legislation, and examples of legislation that supports climate change education in the formal K-12 education system.
For more information, or to be added to the network of state legislators interested in green schools, please contact us. Core resources about green buildings and infrastructure, more generally, are available from USGBC’s Advocacy and Policy team.
Federal advocacy
Alongside USGBC’s Advocacy and Policy team, the Center for Green Schools advocates for support and resources for U.S. public school buildings and priorities that support school environmental sustainability, occupant health, and sustainability literacy. In recent years, we’ve worked to successfully demand that facilities become an allowable use of federal COVID-19 relief funds, and we advocated in the U.S. Congress for federal funding for the nation’s under-resourced school facilities, for climate change education, for electric school bus resources, and more.
Pulling on our close relationships with school districts across the U.S., we bring real-world and on-the-ground knowledge of what is happening in school facilities management to federal policymakers and agencies. We work closely with allied organizations across the education, environmental, civic, and health fields—including through our leadership within the BASIC Coalition—to open up pathways for action to make greener, healthier schools. Looking for specific information about our federal advocacy? Contact us.