Go Green Initiative 2024–2025 School Year Report:

A Year of Growth. A Year of Impact. A Year of Opportunity.

The 2024–2025 school year proved what we know to be true: “Every student deserves a safe, healthy, and sustainable place to learn — and when schools have the right support, that future becomes possible.”

This year, the Go Green Initiative (GGI) helped students and school districts across the country take action on the environmental challenges that directly affect their health, learning, and future. While every community is unique, our work shows how one mission — healthier schools for every child — is creating measurable change from coast to coast.

This report celebrates that momentum — and calls in the partners who will help accelerate it.

In Pleasanton, California, high school students partnered with the City to advance local climate goals. They handed out recycling and composting resources to residents, led environmental education in elementary classrooms, and developed outreach to support new single-use reduction policies. Nearly 400 students learned how to sort waste correctly on their campuses, and student leaders earned scholarships in recognition of their impact. These young advocates are learning that their voices influence policy — and their actions can reshape community behaviors.

In Livermore, California, systems change was the focus. GGI helped the school district not simply recycle better but build a durable culture of resource conservation — one that will endure through leadership transitions, policy shifts, and future challenges. Across 19 school sites, new sorting systems, staff training, waste-tracking, and customized signage are ensuring students and educators understand how to comply with California laws while supporting cost-saving sustainability goals. By equipping school-site Green Teams, we’re helping put strong long-term stewardship into the hands of local leaders.

Meanwhile, across the country in Camden, New Jersey, student leadership looked different — but the outcomes were just as powerful. There, students strengthened their neighborhoods through “Camden Strong,” a campaign focused on waste reduction and cleaner public spaces. They joined the Mayor’s Office for neighborhood cleanups, engaged hundreds of residents through school-based farmers market events, and gained hands-on sustainability experience through STEM learning — including paid summer internships that helped support their families. Students are becoming credible messengers and environmental champions in a city committed to leading its state in Sustainability. 

Each community looks different.

But the theme is unmistakable:

When students and schools have support, they don’t just reduce waste or improve air quality — they transform their environments and expand their possibilities.

And this year, the momentum behind that transformation accelerated.

The Nation Is Ready — And GGI Is Leading

On August 22, 2024, the EPA  announced $34 million in national grants to help schools reduce indoor air pollution and climate emissions — especially in low-income, disadvantaged, and Tribal communities.

GGI was selected as one of only five grantees.

This federal investment allows us to:

• Partner with the National School Boards Association
• Train school board members and staff in all 50 states
• Provide hands-on technical assistance in all 10 EPA regions
• Expand access to free indoor air quality (IAQ) courses
  (GoGreenInitiative.com/courses-IAQ)

✨ This is the most significant expansion of school environmental health support in the nation — and GGI is helping lead it.

Why Sponsors Matter — Right Now

Federal grants help us reach schools.

Sponsor support ensures we transform them.

Your investment fuels the critical pieces of this work that no grant can cover:
• Hands-on implementation — where ideas become operational change
• Student workforce development — where passion becomes opportunity
• Equity-focused support — where communities most impacted get help first
• Rapid response — where unsafe environments are corrected quickly

It comes down to this:

Without sponsors, many schools will remain stuck in unhealthy conditions.
With sponsors, we change that — permanently.

There are thousands of schools in America where children are still breathing polluted indoor air, missing school due to preventable illness, and learning in facilities that make it harder to thrive. The longer we wait, the worse those impacts become.

This is the moment to act — decisively.

Sponsors are not bystanders in this story.
Sponsors are the reason the story changes.

Join Us in 2025–2026

Sponsor a District · Empower a Generation

Pleasanton, Livermore, and Camden are proof:
When communities get the support they deserve, students lead the way.

The EPA grant gives us national reach.

Your sponsorship ensures every school fully benefits from it.

If your organization believes that:
✔ No child should get sick from the air they breathe at school
✔ Climate pollution has no place in classrooms
✔ The future workforce deserves to be developed today

Then this is your invitation to lead.

📩 Let’s build healthier schools together! To learn how, contact:
🔗 JillBuck@gogreeninitiative.org

Choose impact that creates healthier kids, stronger communities, and a more sustainable world — not someday, but right now.

📘 Download the 2024–2025 Annual Report
👉 GGI Annual Report 2024-25 School Year

Every school has the potential to be a safe place to learn.

Together, we can make that true — everywhere.