District-Level Data for Environmental Staff and Green Ribbon Awards

Research shows that environmental and climate literacy and efforts to build sustainable and climate-resilient schools are most effective when they are coordinated or directed by a well-compensated, full-time employee. When done with a whole systems mindset, this staff will be responsible for supporting the development and implementation of district-wide, whole school integration of environmental sustainability and climate resiliency across the campus facilities (buildings and grounds) and operations, curriculum, and community and culture. However, districts may try different approaches to structuring the role, including part-time responsibilities, shared responsibilities across a team, job sharing between multiple agencies, and also roles that are more specific to one aspect of sustainability or environmental literacy (e.g., energy manager, zero waste specialist, environmental literacy specialist, garden coordinator, etc.). The methodology that analysts used for collecting this data was to search on the district website (and associated school sites) and to do a broader internet search to find evidence of sustainability-related positions. Examples include evidence on initiative pages, staff directory pages, job descriptions, or other articles or publication releases. The research required a thorough search of district job descriptions and district facilities/maintenance and operation pages, as well as curriculum, career and technical education programs, and school community cultural efforts. 

The data was collected from the California Department of Education's (CDE) program participation data (started in 2014) on the CDE California Green Ribbon Selectee page.