Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin Launches New Effort to Recognize Every School in the State

Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin believes every school can be a green and healthy school. Participation data, however, does not reflect that belief. The Green and Healthy Schools Team knows more schools are engaging in sustainability efforts than reported and want to better meet its mission to connect, catalyze, and celebrate all schools in the state. The Green and Healthy Schools Team needs your input.

The team worked within their respective agencies—the Departments of Public Instruction and Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education at UW-Stevens Point—and with statewide partners to develop a more equitable approach to recognizing and documenting school sustainability efforts.

The result will be an online geographic information system (GIS) database mapping the ways schools are reducing environmental impacts, improving health and wellness, and increasing environmental literacy. Not quite live yet, the map will be populated with data from partners and school responses to an annual survey each fall. The current static version of the map below represents the many partners Wisconsin schools are already working with to reach sustainability goals. 

In this initial year, schools—public and private—are invited to complete an online survey to help create a more complete picture of Wisconsin schools’ accomplishments. The survey also provides Green & Healthy Schools with real data that will track your school’s progress over time, share your school’s stories, and recognize your school’s efforts at the state level, and possibly even help your school gain recognition through the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools.

In addition to the school survey, data from more than a dozen partner organizations across Wisconsin will be used to reduce the burden on individual school reporting. Later this year, Green & Healthy Schools will launch a new website that will include photos and stories from the school survey.

All schools are encouraged to participate in this pilot year of the survey by November 15. The user’s browser will automatically save survey responses as it is completed so it can be completed in multiple sessions if needed.

For more information about Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin, visit the website: www.ghswisconsin.org

For more information about U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, visit www.dpi.wi.gov/environmental-ed/green-ribbon-schools or email Victoria Rydberg at victoria.rydberg@dpi.wi.gov

For specific questions about the survey, contact Lesley Sheridan at lesley.sheridan@uwsp.edu.

Subscriber Submission: DPI Environmental Education Consultant, Victoria Rydberg