Schools

Schools have an active part to play in reducing Davis’ carbon impact. Both individual students and various school environmental initiatives are supporting Cool Davis.

Green Schools Initiative

The Green Schools Initiative at Davis Joint Unified School District is a collaborative effort between the school district, Yolo County, and PG&E to promote environmental education around issues such as energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon footprint, and water efficiency. See also: greenschools.net

Davis Farm to School helps students connect food choices with personal health, community, farms, and land and supports the Davis Joint Unified School District in its goals of increasing farm fresh foods in school food offerings, reducing solid waste through recycling and providing educational opportunities to students and staff through garden-based learning, local farm visits and volunteer/teacher workshops.


Kids Recycle: DavisRISE (Recycling is Simply Elementary)

RISE promotes recycling across Davis. The district pays stipends to DavisRISE Coordinators at every school site who oversee the lunch-time waste diversion efforts. Students are diverting all rigid plastics, glass, aluminum, paper and food waste from the waste stream. The DJUSD Central Kitchen has also made tremendous efforts to reduce waste through purchasing responsible packaging.

School Gardens

Davis Farm to School supports school gardens at all fifteen school sites, K-12. The school garden program ties into California’s academic content standards and provides a hands-on learning experience for students. Each school site has a garden coordinator who manages garden maintenance, volunteers and garden-based learning.

Student Projects

Some high school students have also chosen Cool Davis as one of their projects for study. Asha Byrd was one such student: she both stood on Cool Davis governing council and also did her research on what steps Davis residents are most likely to take to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. See full story here: First steps to smaller footprints