Since early this school year, BVSD educators, Sustainability staff, and students have been working to launch the district’s new Seal of Climate Literacy diploma endorsement. These efforts are being supported in part by a $7,500 competitive grant from Lyra, a Colorado education nonprofit

BVSD is thrilled to be selected to participate in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2024-2025 Energy Champions Leading the Advancement of Sustainable Schools (Energy CLASS) program. BVSD joins 60 other local educational agencies (LEAs) in this initiative which aims to equip selected agencies with the training and support necessary to develop and implement strategies that enhance energy efficiency, foster healthier learning environments, and optimize costs within their school districts.

BVSD is thrilled to offer a new diploma endorsement to sustainability-minded BVSD students beginning this year. The Seal of Climate Literacy is a new high school diploma endorsement that connects educational knowledge with the real challenges and opportunities that climate change brings to each of our communities. It offers students a chance to engage directly with issues that impact their local environment and communities through coursework and hands-on learning. 

Recently, the Eisenhower Elementary School Eco Eagles Green Team was asked to speak at the Board of Education meeting, as part of the Student Moment, an opportunity to recognize student leadership in the Boulder Valley School District. 

Representatives from the group shared the outstanding progress they’ve made in implementing sustainability practices and their efforts can serve as an exemplar for other students throughout the district.

Recently, students from Fairview High, Monarch High, and Peak to Peak K-12 along with community partners hosted a Tree Summit at Fairview High School where they shared presentations about their experiences working to create green schoolyards on their campuses. They offered insights about fundraising and more for the audience of fellow students about how to green their own schoolyards.

Starting this fall, 11th and 12th graders have the opportunity to learn about and experience managing natural resources in their local environment in a brand new course at Boulder TEC through BVSD’s Accelerate program. 

In an exciting new collaboration, University of Colorado Boulder (CU) graduate students will be working with District staff, environmental partners (state, local, private & non-profit), and community members, to develop a roadmap to decarbonization for District buildings in pursuit of our goals of an 80% reduction in emissions and carbon neutrality by 2050.

BVSD continues to make progress on the goals established in the Sustainability Action Plan. Staff provided an annual update to the Board recently in honor of Earth month. The district is in year three of a five-year effort towards its latest set of sustainability goals. BVSD has had a formal sustainability program with established goals since 2009.  

After nearly a full school year on hold, composting has slowly returned to school cafeterias this school year, to the excitement of many Boulder Valley School District students and staff. 

Louisville Middle School students Caleb Forrester and Arthur Towber came to a Board meeting during Earth Month to share what the Pirates for climate action have been doing to fight climate change. 

Learn more in this video.

This past fall, BVSD’s Office of Sustainability introduced the Sustainability Snapshot, a new tool for tracking and viewing data related to the district’s sustainability efforts. The digital dashboard shows what sustainability efforts are happening at schools across the district, along with the utility use for each school, and how each school compares to other BVSD schools. 

The Boulder Valley School District has long been a leader in sustainability. Over the past few months students from across the district have lobbied the Board of Education to take even more ambitious action to fight climate change. Eventually, collaboratively, they were able to find common ground, drafting Resolution 23-30 Green New Deal, which supports the continued sustainability work of the district and encourages further leadership in this area moving forward.

Earlier this month, on the heels of the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) adopting the Green New Deal for Schools resolution, a group of school district sustainability leaders from across the nation and abroad, including  California, Washington D.C., North Carolina and as far as Tunisia, came to BVSD to learn more about what it takes to create a successful district sustainability program.