Sustainability & Climate Justice

Happy summer to the Portland Public Schools community and a big congratulations to all of our 5th, 8th, and 12th grade graduates!

Our Newsletter goes on break for the summer, too, but before we do, we want to take a look back on some incredible accomplishments from the last year.

We also want to look ahead to next school year! There are some incredible ways students, teachers, schools, parents, and partners can continue to be part of this amazing work next year.

We are honored to work with each of you to co-create a school district that is green, sustainable, climate resilient, and oriented toward supporting student climate action at every level. Thanks for another amazing year!

Fourth grade students at Scott Elementary recently took a field trip to two farms, each with unique and meaningful practices for producing food. The first farm was Live Local Organic, which produces food by combining aquaculture (the raising of fish) and hydroponics (the soilless growing of plants). The second farm, Black Futures Farm, is self-described as “a group of Black identified/ Diasporic and Continental African people working together, growing food and community”. Both farms introduced students to ways that communities are brought together through the timeless practice of producing food.

Across the district students participated in the May Walk & Roll to School Challenge Month. This challenge encourages students and their families to embrace an active and eco-friendly lifestyle while making a positive impact on their health and the planet!

We LOVE telling walking and biking school stories because it inspires others to bike and walk to school. But not just school! PPS students and their teachers and parents are inspiring adults to get to work in active ways, too -- City of Portland employees have started a bike bus of their own!

And PPS bike buses are encouraging real change, too! Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Millicent Williams visited the Alameda School bike bus and said it "shows me what we need to do at the transportation bureau to make sure that every community that wants to do this, has the ability to do this safely and comfortably." (BikePortland.org.)

We are thrilled with the outpouring of engagement, enthusiasm, and effort put forth by the ENTIRE PPS community to continue to advance the PPS Climate Crisis Response Policy (CCRP). This work is truly a community-driven, community-led, and for community-benefit. Through decisive climate action, PPS is becoming greener and healthier, while building community strength through learning, engagement, and collaboration. What we've listed here is just the surface of a huge amount of work happening to make PPS the most climate-friendly school district in the country.

In 2023-2024, we hosted our biggest cohort of PPS AmeriCorps members yet! Hannah Skutt, Rosie Goity, Jesse Nienow-Macke, and Anita Spaeth were integral to our ability to meet our CCRP goals, develop and support critical climate programs, and uplift student and teacher voices across the district. We could not possibly have done everything we did this year without their intelligence, commitment, creativity. This year, our AmeriCorps cohort was deeply involved with and responsible for:

• Developing and tracking Key Performance Indicators for PPS climate goals;
• Hosting the PPS Spring Climate Summit for high schoolers and supporting multiple middle school climate fairs with our partners at SAGE;
• Coordinating the PPS School Sustainability Champions network, the PPS Climate Action Design Team, and the PPS Climate Justice Youth Advisory;
• Integrating a Climate Justice and equity lens into our work;
• Developing our monthly, award-winning PPS Sustainability and Climate Justice newsletter;
• Numerous direct student and classroom engagements to teach about climate.

If you know anyone who would enjoy being a PPS Sustainability AmeriCorps member, spread the word! We are so excited to welcome 4 new members to our team next year:

• Energy & Sustainability Project Coordinator - PPS Energy & Sustainability
• Climate Justice Data Coordinator - PPS Climate Justice
• Climate Justice Community Engagement Coordinator (2) - PPS Climate Justice

One of the greatest joys of our work is getting to hear about and collect stories of all the amazing climate work happening across PPS on a daily basis. From backpacking in the Rogue Valley to taking Transit to Trails, from incredible eco-clubs to political activism, from bike buses to gardens, greenhouses, and aquaponics systems, PPS students and teachers at every school and grade level are doing incredible work to connect youth curiosity and learning to climate action. Our students, teachers, and school communities are engaged, active, and passionate when it comes to climate. They are leading the way for PPS and we feel privileged to get to tell those stories and support that energy.

And we want to tell your story, too! If your class or your school is doing something related to climate action and learning, let us know so we can celebrate you! Email us at sustainability@pps.net with the subject "PPS Climate Stories" and we'll add you to our Newsletter.

Missed any of the stories we've told this year? Scroll down for a recap of all 9 PPS Sustainability and Climate Justice newsletter from this year.

For the second year in a row, PPS students gathered to get inspired and resourced on climate! Last month, 100+ students from 7 high schools across the district gathered at the Redd Building on Salmon Street for the 2nd annual PPS Spring Climate Summit! The event’s goal was to connect student leaders from across the district around the power of climate action through the theme of the event: Seeds of Change. Students connected with community organizations to learn about and discuss ways to create climate projects in their own schools, while learning skills to help them manage those projects in an impactful and equitable way.

Students heard from keynote speaker, Oregon Representative Khanh Pham, Elizabeth Doerr (PPS parent and climate author), Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) staff, Kat Davis (PPS Advisor for Climate Justice), and student leaders from the Climate Justice Youth Advisory.

The theme of Seeds of Change will continue to propagate into next school year, as PCEF begins to financially support student-led climate action projects across the city. We are excited to continue building collaboration around this work by connecting students to community organizations and district staff.

This semester, in collaboration with a design team made up of students, community climate organizations, educators, and staff, we are outlining pathways and supports for students to take action on climate justice in Portland Public Schools. The design team centers the needs of students and teachers through empathetic inquiry and design and innovation thinking.

To create this plan, we are collaborating with the PPS Innovation Studio, an in-house problem solving accelerator. The Innovation Studio’s Innovation Equity Design Process sits at the intersection of design thinking, racial equity and social justice. It provides practical tools for the design while also challenging designers to create thoughtful entry points for other community stakeholders to shape the final project outcome.

We know that for many students, climate change feels hopeless, intangible and impossible to address. Students are calling for more connection to leadership opportunities and to spaces of community, joy, and climate action.

But there are real barriers and obstacles to students being engaged in meaningful ways with PPS climate work, especially students who are historically least supported. The question we set out to answer through this process was: How can PPS create and support a wide variety of meaningful, accessible pathways to climate action for our entire student body, especially students most affected by climate change?

Curious to know what we discovered? Stay tuned for our September and October newsletters where we'll unveil the Design Team's final set of recommendations and our plan for implementation.

A HUGE thank you to our incredible team of community-based designers for working so hard to get through this work together!

This year, we officially kicked off the PPS School Sustainability Champions program, a network of teachers and school staff who meet once a month to talk about all things climate related in PPS.

Champions were responsible for a number of amazing events, programs, and climate art projects at schools across the district. They exchange ideas and resources, help each other with project challenges, and inspire other staff and schools in PPS by sharing their climate stories. Champions are also a critical communication conduit for the district -- they help us get the word out to schools about climate program changes, events, and opportunities for students and teachers to participate in!

We are excited to continue to co-create and support this network with our amazing Champions.

Earlier this year, PPS worked with local organization, SAGE (Seniors Advocates for Generational Equity), to host two Climate Solutions Fairs, one at Roseway Heights Middle School, and the other at Harriet Tubman Middle School. At the fairs students learned about important local organizations and sustainability practices that help to mitigate climate change impacts and build community resilience in the Portland area.

In 2023-24, PPS began the critical analytical process of developing its pathway to reaching net-zero emissions. Decarbonizing the district will improve community health and comfort, resiliency, and student learning outcomes while lowering operating costs and reducing our carbon footprint. The PPS Climate Crisis Response, Climate Justice and Sustainable Practices Policy sets district goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030, using the 2018-2019 school year as a baseline, and reach net zero emissions by 2040.

Working with a diverse team led by PAE Consulting Engineers, Oh Planning and Design, New Buildings Institute, and Ameresco, PPS is developing a district-wide decarbonization “road map.” This road map will allow PPS to effectively allocate resources and prioritize projects over the next 20 years by answering the question:

“How can PPS most effectively implement GHG emissions reduction measures to give us the best chance of meeting our emissions goals, given financial, industry, and facility constraints, while considering historic inequities in the distribution of resources across PPS?”

Throughout the Spring, PPS and PAE Engineers hosted multiple public engagement events to better understand how our community prioritizes various goals related to carbon reduction. You can see all the gather input here, and watch out for additional opportunities to connect and discuss this work over the Summer and Fall.

In addition to looking forward, PPS is also tracking our emissions year over year, and we're already seeing progress. We'll have a full GHG emissions report available soon, but the sneak peek is that PPS has reduced overall emissions nearly 9% since our baseline year in 2019!

This past year an immense amount of work has gone into the development of a public facing dashboard that shows status updates on tasks related to the CCRP. The process has involved identifying and engaging with 35+ project managers in their respective departments and tracking the ongoing and future tasks that are connected with the multitude of goals and objectives outlined in the CCRP. Our dashboard is set up so that project managers will be able to easily update the statuses of their projects and those updates will be easily visible to the public!

This transparency and metrics tracking tool will be something the PPS community can use for many years as we all work together to uphold the goals laid out in the CCRP. It is a critical component of policy infrastructure that allows PPS to begin moving more deliberately forward on meeting our goals.

The dashboard is on the verge of being completed, so be on the lookout for a link on the PPS Sustainability website!

This year, through student, teacher, and staff collaboration, Nutrition Services added 14 student recipes to our menu rotation!

From mushroom parmesan to sesame garbanzo beans to asparagus summer salad, these recipes are delicious additions to the lunch menu. PPS Nutrition Services is very thankful to the culinary arts at Cleveland High School, Grant High School, and Lincoln High School, and the sustainable agriculture students at McDaniel High School.

We've compiled these recipes into a book, which will be available in all school libraries starting this fall.

For the next five years, the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) is supporting all middle and high schools in the Portland area through a $15,000 per year, per school grant specifically for student-led climate projects.

PPS and PCEF will be collaborating this summer to work through the details of the program. We'll be incorporating the amazing suggestions we've collected this year from students, teachers, staff, and community partners to help this program succeed.

Starting in September, we'll be reaching out to schools to talk more about this amazing opportunity. Ultimately, this will be a BIG TEAM EFFORT -- we'll need principals, teachers, community organizations, parents, and more to be involved in order to support students.

And most of all, we'll need STUDENTS who are excited and inspired to spend this money on climate work that you care about!

We're looking forward to sharing more details in the Fall. Stay tuned!

The PPS Climate Justice Youth Advisory (CJYA), made up of dedicated and passionate high school students from across the district, acts as thought partners in defining the Climate Justice department's goals for climate action, student leadership, and community engagement. This year, CJYA members were key contributors in the planning of the Spring Climate Summit. Each student provided important feedback and input on speakers, tabling organizations, and the overall theme.

Interested in joining the CJYA next year? Keep an eye out for communications coming next school year! Or email climatejustice@pps.net.

(Above: Members of the CJYA & Students with the Grant Composting Program at the PPS Climate Summit. Photo credit: Anita Spaeth)

School Sustainability Champions (SSCs) are PPS staff members with an interest in promoting sustainability and climate justice at their schools and connecting with other teachers and staff across the district to share ideas, resources, challenges, and success stories.

SSCs serve as the grassroots implementers of many of the PPS climate action work, and as the connection points between schools and the PPS Sustainability Team.

Share this opportunity with a PPS teacher, administrator, or staff member that you think would be a good fit. We hope to have members from all schools in the district. Here is the signup form or email Ari Ettinger at aettinger@pps.net.

Are you a parent looking for ways to support climate work at PPS? We recommend reaching out to the Eco-School Network. Eco-School trains and supports parents who engage students in advancing sustainability in their elementary schools. The goal is to help schools become models of sustainability so that students can develop the values and skills needed to preserve a healthy environment for all. Trained parents are grouped into four distinct networks – Portland, Beaverton, West Linn, and North Clackamas – where they share resources and ideas and motivate and inspire one another.

Did you miss any news this year? Check out any of our Sustainability and Climate Justice newsletters below, or find them here.

From the Climate Mental Health Network’s newsletter: Gen Z Mental Health: Climate Stories is an award-winning short documentary that explores the mental health impacts of the climate crisis to young adults worldwide, and considers what resilience means when fighting for the right to a livable planet. The film captures the emotions of a generation that may be frightened, but is anything but hopeless, saving room for stories of love, community connections, and healing.

Link to Watch. Available with subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian.

Navigating Climate Anxiety Through Intergenerational Connection, June 26, 5:00pm PT, virtual

• Join us with CoGenerate and Third Act for an interactive workshop about intergenerational engagement to address climate emotions. You will hear from a panel of speakers and participate in activities to discuss, strategize, and learn. Participants will leave the workshop with resources and tools to build meaningful intergenerational connections for emotional wellbeing and sustained climate activism. This will be recorded for those who cannot join live on June 26 at 5pm PT.

Gender, Mental Health, and Climate Change, June 17, 3pm PT

• Watch our Instagram Live on Monday with B Fulkerson and Abhay Singh Sachal about how gender impacts climate-mental health. Add your name to our registration list to get a reminder.

If we had one wish for all our students and families this summer, it would be that you get a chance to get outside and enjoy all the incredible natural beauty in and around Portland. We've left you with a smattering of guides and ideas below, but there's no shortage of lists and advice for getting into nature in the Pacific Northwest.

• Oregon State Parks

• This amazing guide will tell you all you need to know to explore Oregon’s incredible network of state parks.

• Forest Park

• How lucky are we to have this park at our front door? At 5,200 acres and with over 40 access points, Forest Park is a wonderful opportunity to spend some time in nature without having to go very far.

• Hiking

• Hit the trails this summer with these great guides:

• https://pdxparent.com/hike/

• https://www.travelportland.com/culture/favorite-hiking-spots-portland/

• Biking

• Pedalpalooza runs from June 1 to August 31, with hundreds of rides of all kinds and for all people. For a full calendar of biking events happening all over Portland, check out https://www.shift2bikes.org/pedalpalooza-calendar/.

• Swimming

• Interested in some nature swims with children? PDX Parent’s Portland swimming guide has you covered.

One of our team members here at PPS volunteers for Search and Rescue on his weekends. We thought we'd take advantage of his expertise to pass on some important outdoor safety information as we roll into summer:

We all love the Pacific Northwest and the copious amounts of places to enjoy the outdoors and nature. But as you get out and explore the beautiful scenery, it’s important to take a few precautions to ensure your own safety and the safety of those you travel with.

Here are a few key things to think about when heading outdoors. While some of these might seem basic, it’s always important to have a checklist before going out.

1. Plan ahead. Do a little research about the trail or area you plan on hiking in. Apps like Alltrails, Caltopo, and Gaia are great resources to check before you go. Alltrails has feedback from other hikers about the conditions of the trail. Print or download maps ahead of time.

2. Tell someone where you are going. Tell a family member or friend what trail you are planning on hiking and how long / far you plan on going.

3. Appropriate footwear. Wear boots or tennis shoes. Do not wear flip-flops or shoes with heels. If you encounter terrain that does not match the footwear you are wearing, it’s ok to turn back!

4. Food and water. Especially with summer heat, ensuring you bring enough water for your hike is crucial. It’s better to bring extra water that you don’t need than to deal with possible heat exhaustion and not be able to get back to your car safely. Make sure you bring enough food to keep you energized on your hike as well.

What to do if you get injured or lost:

If you are hiking alone and get lost, the most important thing to do is to stay put. If people are looking for you, you are much more likely to be found if you stay in place. If you are injured and unable to continue on your path, whether alone or with a group, it is completely ok to call for help. Calling 911 for help will prompt the sheriff's office to engage Search and Rescue teams. There is no cost for these teams to come out and assist you! These Search and Rescue teams are entirely volunteer teams. They exist to aid people in the wilderness who are injured, lost, or generally struggling to get back to safety. It is completely fine to call for help if you feel that you are unable to continue on safely.

If you are interested in more information related to local Search and Rescue teams, here are some links to their sites:

• Multnomah County Search and Rescue (mcsosar.org)

• Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue (pnwsar.org)

• Portland Mountain Rescue (pmru.org)