New green team toolkit supports year of school action

This resource will guide classroom, school, and district teams through a year of meaningful sustainability action by providing practical steps, planning tools, and ready-to-use materials that empower students and educators to make measurable progress toward goals of reducing environmental impacts, improving health and wellness, and increasing environmental literacy. Whether your team is brand new or continuing to grow, this toolkit offers structure, inspiration, and support to help your students lead positive change in their school and community.

Rooted in the Green & Healthy Schools badge framework, the new toolkit offers a month-by-month activity calendar with prompts for "Inquiry and Investigation," ideas for "Design and Implementation," and questions for "Reflection, Evaluation, and Recognition" to make positive changes in the school and community. The structure can help participants earn nine of the 12 core badges in a single academic year.

Earning badges provides a pathway to state and national recognition. Green & Healthy Schools Wisconsin has 12 core badges that are needed for participants to achieve Sprout, Seedling, Sapling, and Sugar Maple levels. The program also offers additional specialty badges to extend into more specialized areas and go "above and beyond" Sugar Maple level; those that do are eligible to be considered for the Wisconsin Stewardship and Sustainability Award. Maple Grove Charter School in the Athens School District and the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District each earned this distinction in 2026.