Embedded Files
The purpose the Green Ribbon Data is to show the data for which schools and districts have and have not participated in California's Green Ribbon program. Data included here is from the awards seasons spanning 203-14 - to - 2024-25.
Watch this video for a brief overview ↓
Green Ribbon Program Overview
The Green Ribbon Schools program (ED-GRS) is a recognition award started by the US Department of Education in 2011 for schools that achieve excellence in resource efficiency, health and wellness, and environmental and sustainability education. Each year the California Department of Education (CDE) may nominate up to five school communities for federal recognition. To encourage submissions, California started a state-wide recognition program in 2014, with four different achievement levels: bronze, silver, gold, and green achiever.
The Green Ribbon Schools program is the only federally and state-recognized program that provides criteria for what qualifies as a “Green” TK–12 school. Recognition in this program means that a school or district has completed a baseline assessment of current environmental literacy and sustainability efforts and has made progress towards using a whole systems approach (campus, curriculum, and community and culture).
To learn more about Green Ribbon, visit the CDE California Green Ribbon Program or the CAELI Green Ribbon Resources website.
Key Questions for the Green Ribbon Data
Core Question:
Who has achieved Green Ribbon recognition across the state?
Additional Questions:
How has the overall number of honorees changed over time?
How have the amounts of each level of recognition changed over time?
Is the distribution of honorees similar across all counties?
Are we seeing growth in interest across time?
Are we seeing similar growth in recognition over time?
How do the number differ between private and public institutions?
How do the numbers differ by type of institution (school, district, or county office)?
Are there patterns in which counties showing consistently more honorees (such as size, population density, political leaning, etc.)?
How might we support institutions in moving from just being interested to applying?
How might we support institutions in receiving more Gold and Green Achiever recognitions?
Statewide Visuals and Findings
This video provides a walkthrough of how to utilize the interactive visuals on this page. It includes how to use the filters in order to compare the number and distribution of honorees between different institutions types such as schools, districts, and county offices of education.
Green Ribbon Analysis Visualization Walkthrough.mp4Geographic Distribution of Individual School and District Level Recognition
Individual School Achievement
The map below shows the number of schools with individual green ribbon achievement by district. Districts who have more schools with individual achievement are shown as larger circles Note that districts without at least one school with individual achievement are not shown on the map.
District-Level Achievement
The map below shows all of the districts with district-level recognition, including those who do not have schools with individual recognition. While many of these districts do have schools with individual achievement (shown on the map above), it is important to note that there are a few districts who have been recognized at the district level without individual school recognition.
Note: if districts overlap (such as a high school and elementary district) some of the color may show through. Hovering over the district will show the specific district information.
Awards Over Time
The visualization below shows the Green Ribbon Recognitions for each year by level of recognition. The green ribbon levels of achievement are:
Bronze Level: Achievement of 55.0 - 64.9%
Silver Level: Achievement of 65.0 - 74.9%
Gold Level: Achievement of 75% or better
Green Achievers: The highest achievement, given to the ED-GRS nominees
Using the filters on the right will allow you to narrow down the results by private or public institution and if the recognition was at the school site, district level, or county office of education level.
Hovering over the blocks will show you information about each honoree.
Findings:
Overall: The number of Green Ribbon honorees grew steadily between 2014 and 2017, but have varied between 2017 and the present. 2025 saw the most honorees since 2014.
Public Institutions: The trends in the public institutions matches the overall trends, indicating that the majority of honorees are from public schools and districts.
Private Institutions: There are fewer private schools who have applied and been awarded. While there were a growing number of private honorees in 2015 and 2016, the numbers have fell dramatically in the last three years (2022-2024), with only one honoree per year, with a slight increase in 2025 (3 honorees).
Institution types: The majority of honorees have been individual school sites (~74% of awards), but there has been a larger number of district level awards in 2024 than in previous years (13 district awards in 2024 vs an average of 5 district awards in previous years). The number of district awards fell slightly in 2025, with only 7 districts receiving recognition; however, all of the districts who applied in 2025 received recognition. There have only been a few county office awards over the years (San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and San Joaquin) , which presents an opportunity to support county offices of education in applying.
Distribution of Levels of Recognition
The visualization to the right shows the overall distribution of each level of recognition.
Using the filters on the right will allow you to narrow down the results by private or public institution and if the recognition was at the school site, district level, or county office of education level.
Hovering over each section of the pie chart will show the number and percent of honorees for that level of recognition.
Findings:
Overall: The level of recognition is fairly evenly distributed overall, with slightly more (~37%) silver level recognitions.
Public vs Private: Unlike public institutions, the distribution of private institution recognition levels is not evenly distributed, with only ~5% of private schools receiving bronze level recognition and ~43% receiving gold level recognition. More research is needed to determine why there might be this difference between public and private institutions.
Institution types: Schools have a larger proportion of silver level awards (~42%) and county offices have a larger proportion of gold and sliver (~33% each), while districts are evenly distributed with slightly more gold level recognitions (~31%).
Board Policy Effect on Green Ribbon Achievement
The visualization below shows the total number of environmental related board policies passed by each district (x-axis) compared to the percent of schools who have individual green ribbon achievement (y-axis) and the district level green ribbon highest level of achievement (color). Districts with only site level achievement are shown in blue. Districts with only district level achievement will be at zero on the y-axis.
Findings:
Because there is an upward trend to the graph as well as a larger number of colored dots on the righthand side of the graph, there seems to be a positive correlation between policy and green ribbon achievement. This suggests that districts whose boards have passed more environmental related policies are more likely to have both site and district level green ribbon achievement.
Highest Level of District Achievement vs. Equity Factors
The visualization below shows the highest district level achievement (color of the circle) and percent of schools with individual recognition (size of the circle) compared to the pollution burden percentile (y-axis) and percent of unduplicated students (x-axis). If the district has 0% individual schools (the smallest circles), this indicates that the district has district level achievement but no schools with individual level achievement. The goal of this graph is to help identify any trends in the equity indicators of those districts with higher levels of Green Ribbon recognition.
Hovering over each circle on the graph will show the name and information of each district.
The graph below shows the average Expense per ADA (or the amount of funds spent on each student based on the average daily attendance at the school) compared to the total number of environmental related board policies . The dots in blue are districts with only site level achievement.
Findings:
Based on the fairly even distribution of colors and sizes throughout the graphs, there does not seem to be a strong correlation between the level of achievement or percent of individual sites and the equity factors (% unduplicated, pollution burden, and expense per ADA). Deeper correlational analysis is needed to determine if a weak correlation exists.
Breakdown of Interest vs. Applications
The visualization below shows the breakdown of institutions who were interested, but did not apply (in teal), those who applied and were not awarded (in orange), and those who received recognition at any level (in blue). The data is missing for interested and not awarded in 2014-2016 and 2019-2020.
Using the filters on the right will allow you to narrow down the results by private or public institution and if the recognition was at the school site, district level, or county office of education level.
Findings:
Overall: Since some of the data is missing from 2014-2016 and 2019-2020, it is difficult to make any claims about overall trend throughout the year. However, between 2021 and 2024 there has been a steady growth in interest without the same level of growth in applications. 2025 saw a decrease in schools or districts who showed interest in applying although this year saw the highest number of awards. More research is needed to determine why the districts and schools who are showing interest are not applying.
Private vs. Public Institutions: Private institutions have not shown the same growth in interest as public institutions. For private schools, there was a peak in interest in 2017 and 2021, but interest and applications have been low between 2022-2024. While there was yet another peak of interest in 2025, this interest only yielded 4 applications and 3 awards.
Institution Types: While there has been growth in interest across all three types of institutions between 2021 and 2024, there was a decline in interest for schools and districts in 2025, while county office of education interest continued to increase.
County Level Breakdown
The visualization below shows the number and percent of honorees (of any level of award) for each county.
Using the filters on the right will allow you to narrow down the results by private or public institution and if the recognition was at the school site, district level, or county office of education level.
Hovering over each section of the pie chart will show the number and percent of honorees for that county.
Findings:
Overall: Overall, Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County have the highest percentage of Green Ribbon Honorees; however those are also some of the largest counties in terms of numbers of schools, which may be skewing the results.
Public vs. Private Institutions: When looking at private institutions only, San Diego and San Mateo Counties have a larger percentage, than Los Angeles County. More research is needed to determine if this is due to the number of private schools in these counties or if it is due to other factors.
Institution types: Only 3 counties have received awards for their county office of education, indicating an opportunity to work with other county offices of education to increase this number.
Regional Breakdown
The graph below shows the number of individual school sites broken down by County Superintendent (CCESSA) region. Within the bars are the percentage of schools in each region that are Green Ribbon recognized.
See the Scale page for a map of the regions.
Findings:
When looking at just the number of schools, it is clear that region 11 has a larger number of Green Ribbon individual school sites than other regions. However, because Los Angeles County has more schools than any other region, the percentage of Green Ribbon schools is smaller than some other regions. On average, approximately 1% of CA's public schools have individual Green Ribbon recognition.
County Awards
Three county offices of education (COEs) have received Green Ribbon Recognition since 2014 - It should be noted that these COEs have robust Environmental Literacy Initiatives, and they also provide backbone support to districts and schools within their regions for Green Ribbon. Learn more about each of these county offices below.
The San Mateo County Office of Education (SMCOE) achieved Bronze Green Ribbon Recognition in 2018 and as well as Green Achiever recognition in 2025. Links to learn more:
The Santa Cruz County Office of Education (SCCOE) achieved Silver Green Ribbon Recognition in 2022 and Gold recognition in 2025. Links to learn more:
The San Joaquin County Office of Education (SJCOE) achieved Silver Green Ribbon Recognition in 2023 and Gold Recognition in 2025. Links to learn more:
Action Recommendations
These visuals can help constituents at all levels to better understand which school communities have prioritized achievement on the pillars of the Green Ribbon program and had the capacity to apply to receive recognition for that achievement.
Education Leaders: Identify schools in your region that have achieved the Green Ribbon, and reach out to them to learn more about best practices for achieving this recognition. If your school has already achieved Green Ribbon, or if you are a leader able to provide technical assistance support to others, reach out to schools in your region that have not yet achieved and provide support and guidance on the application.
Grassroots Campaign Organizers: Use the data to gain buy-in with leaders in your region to prioritize the Green Ribbon program. Identify schools in your region that have achieved the Green Ribbon, or schools that have a similar context (geography, demographics, etc.), and learn more about the actions they have taken and what could be replicable in your context. Partners may be able to help school communities who have not yet achieved success to get started on the application and help those that have achieved to take their efforts to the next level.
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