Breathe Easy

2024 – 2025, Greeley West High School, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Alyssa from Greeley West High School addressed air pollution by designing and installing “No Idling” signs in her school’s pickup zone and parking lot, while also educating students, families, and community members about the environmental and health impacts of vehicle idling. When cars idle—leaving engines running while waiting—they emit harmful substances such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and particulate matter. These pollutants degrade air quality and can negatively affect human health.

To raise awareness, Alyssa installed signs, distributed flyers, spoke with students and families, and reached out to other schools in her community. Her goal was to encourage people to stop idling, protecting both the environment and the health of students. In her initial research, Alyssa monitored a single idling car and found that, in under 10 minutes, it emitted CO/CO₂, VOCs, and particulate matter in various sizes. Motivated by these results, she had “No Idling” signs placed at her school’s entrance and created informational brochures to further educate families and students. You can view some of Alyssa’s content below.

Alyssa’s project raised awareness among peers and community members visiting the school. Her solution aligns with Sustainable Development Goals 11.6 and 15.5 by promoting cleaner air and environmental protection. Continue reading…

Environmental Awareness Playing Cards

2024, Loveland High School, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Reese, Heather, and Maggie from Loveland High School noticed the lack of environmental education in their community, particularly awareness of invasive plant species around their school’s nature area. To address this, they created a deck of playing cards featuring environmental facts, tips, and simple sustainable actions. Each suit focuses on a unique topic: spades cover invasive species and native alternatives; hearts share sustainable living tips; clubs highlight recyclable items; and diamonds offer sustainable recipes, like utilizing locally available ingredients, to help lower your carbon footprint.

The students distributed these educational cards for free at their school, local farmers’ markets, community locations, and successfully had them displayed in local restaurants including Tano Bistro. Continue reading…

Retention Pond Norcom High School

2024, Portsmouth, VA, USA

Students noticed that a campus retention pond was being taken over by Phragmites Australis, which prompted them to gather community resources for assistance in developing a mitigation plan. A stormwater planner, a landscape horticulturist, director of Operations for the City of Portsmouth, school administration and a student met about how to proceed.

Students acquired supplies that would assist volunteers in helping clean up the area once the Phragmites was mowed and sprayed.

During this process, students learned how to partner with others in the community to accomplish a goal. Together, they were able to create a more sustainable city.

SDG: 11: Sustainable Cities and communities, 6: Clean water and Sanitation

Targets: 11.4, 15.5

Active and Sustainable Transportation – Carson Middle School

2024, Fairfax, VA, USA

Middle Schoolers launched a campaign to raise awareness of the negative impacts of greenhouse gasses and encourage their peers to use public transit rather than cars for the commute to school. They collected data on how many students were on the buses the week before their campaign to raise awareness, and the week after. They found that the use of the morning school bus had increased, and they rewarded students and drivers for their efforts.

Next year, students plan on running the campaign earlier and longer to encourage a long-term change of habit that will create a ripple effect throughout the community.

SDG’s: 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, 15: Life on Land, 13: Climate Action

Targets: 11.4, 15.5, 13.3

Fast Fashion

2023, Ohio, USA
Clothes drive sign

Margot, Callie, and Hollis focused on the negative impacts that are caused by fast fashion. The problem was identified in their watershed, with the vast environmental impact that fast fashion poses. Fast fashion produces extensive air and water pollution, with extremely negative environmental impacts. Margot, Callie, and Hollis knew this was something that needed to be fixed, and fast.

The group narrowed their focus by reviewing the UN’s Sustainable development goals. Goal 11, to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, with a focus on waste management and implementation. Goal 12, to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns with a focus on reducing waste generation, procurement, and information. Their final goal was Goal 13 to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts specifically to improve education and awareness.
Donate here sign with bags of clothes in front of it bag in box
In order to combat this problem they decided to organize a clothing drive through their school. Their two-day event consisted of a donation day on Saturday and a thrift event hosted on Sunday. Over 1,050 items of clothing were donated on Saturday and for every item donated participants received 1 credit to shop with the next day. In order to increase turnout, they allowed community members to donate canned goods and toiletries as another opportunity to receive credits.

There was great turnout on Sunday with people coming from all over Wyoming and surrounding communities. The bathrooms were open, so that way everyone had the option to try on each item before purchasing. This lowered the chance that items would immediately be taken to places like goodwill following the drive. Majority of the donations received were taken, but they then took the few remaining items, as well as the donated canned goods and toiletries to Matthew 25 Ministries. This made the impact of their drive global, with Matthew 25 shipping the donations to countries in need.

With such a successful drive, the group received countless compliments from community members. Several were shocked and impressed that they collected so many donation items in only one day. Others requested that the project continues down the line. With all of the positive feedback, Margot, Callie and Hollis decided to implement the project as a yearly tradition. They took it up with Project Lead, a volunteer group at their school. Project lead agreed to host the drive every year, meaning that the impact of the drive can continue for years to come.
Students sorting clothes into categories on tables
With fast fashion being such a prevalent issue resulting from the rise of social media, the trend of fast fashion is not projected to slow down any time soon. The group hung up posters at the drive with several links of sustainable online businesses to shop at, as well as nearby environmentally friendly thrift stores. The ability of this drive to start a cycle of clean shopping will be increasingly beneficial for the community of Wyoming, Ohio as well as surrounding communities. A major takeaway from the experience that Margot, Callie, and Hollis got was how such a small project can end up making such a big impact. Wyoming is a very small community, but they were able to make a global impact that will continue to serve as a way to help the environment for as long as the drive continues. It makes them wonder, if such a tight knit small community can make such a drastic impact, what even bigger impact can the surrounding big communities do?

On one of the final days in class before summer break, the students gave a presentation to their class using the same slideshow used to present at the Ohio Caring for Our Watersheds competition where they placed 3rd in the state.

Our Environment is in Danger but we have an un-bee-lievable solution

2023, FORT COLLINS, COLORADO, USA

Zoe and Haylie from Rocky Mountain High School addressed plastic waste during lunch by educating young students on the effects of plastic in their watershed and teaching them ways to be more environmentally friendly like using reusable beeswax lunch bags. Many people pack their lunch in a plastic bag that takes 1,000 years to decompose. Plastic can affect our drinking water, animal habitats, and our food for longer than you can imagine. The kids in Ms. Johnson’s 4th-grade class were excited to participate in the activity and presentation Haylie and Zoe brought. Beeswax wraps were handed out to encourage the kids to use them and tell their friends and family about them. Their hope is for these kids to be inspired to make a change against pollution in their environment. This solution addressed Targets 14.1 and 11.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Water Conservation Open House

2022, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, USA
Girl holding 500 dollar cheque for environmental contest winner

Hana is a student in Grant High School’s GEO Academy, and a 2022 Caring for Our Watersheds finalist. With funding from Nutrien and the help of her fellow classmates at Grant, Hana organized and facilitated an Open House event on campus to demonstrate various techniques to conserve water in the landscape and home. Stations included information on drought tolerant plants, mulching, composting, drip irrigation, and water conservation devices such as soil moisture meters, faucet aerators, and low-flow showerheads. Free samples of water-wise plants and devices were available to community members.

Students standing at station for orange poppy Boy learning about conserving water outside at info station

Campus Trash and Recycling Bins

2022, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, USA
Students standing around bins
Tokay High School students Kendra, Harmandeep, Prabhleen, Conner are involved in the Sustainability Committee for the NorCal Science Festival, an event held annually at their school. They realized that actions focused on sustainability for the event can also promote positive environmental behaviors year-round on their campus. Their Caring for Our Watersheds project seeks to prevent the flow of litter into the storm drains that lead to the river from Tokay High. The group did an analysis of the waste disposal system on campus and found that there are very few trash receptacles and no recycling bins in areas of high student occupancy at mealtime. Through this analysis and prior clean-up events, they also identified areas on campus with the most littering issues. To address the issues, the team purchased upcycled wine barrels to utilize as trash and recycling receptacles. They will also install signage to encourage use and show students which items can be placed in the barrels. In addition, the group also plans on co- sponsoring “Litterati” clean-up challenges, in partnership with the City of Lodi, to promote a litter-free campus through student behavior and action.

Starting a Compost System on Campus

2022, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, USA
Compost system
Samuel and Kirby from The MET Sacramento High School developed a solid project to start and maintain a composting system on campus to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfills. By composting organic waste, the school will reduce its contribution to greenhouse gasses, particularly methane, which is produced by anaerobic decomposition of organic matter in landfills. The team started to implement their plan in the spring of 2022, and will continue to educate and engage students in the composting process during the upcoming school year. Caring for Our Watersheds funding helped them purchase the bins for food waste collection and composting, as well as materials needed to maintain the compost, and promote use of the system.

Student lifting top of compost bin Student standing behind compost bin Students holding $400 environment contest winner cheque

Xeriscaping on Campus

2022, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, USA

Students posing by their drought resistance plants
George Washington Carver School of Arts and Sciences students Nickole and Maya are concerned about the multi-year drought that California is experiencing, and particularly how much water is typically used to maintain outdoor landscapes. They devised a plan to xeriscape an area of campus with drought-tolerant species. The team prepped the garden area and adjacent raised bed by removing weeds and adding soil and compost, then planted a variety of species known to thrive with very little water, such as California fuschia. They also installed drip irrigation in their plot, which will serve as a demonstration garden highlighting water-wise, landscaping plants and practices.

Garden bed that has drough-tolerant plant species