The California Green Ribbon Schools (CA-GRS) recognition award honors K–12 schools, school districts, and County Offices of Education that demonstrate exemplary achievement in three key areas: resource efficiency, health and wellness, and environmental and sustainability education. This recognition is part of a broader statewide effort to identify and promote effective practices that enhance student engagement, academic performance, graduation rates, and career readiness.
Public and private K–12 schools, early learning centers, school districts, and County Offices of Education in California are eligible to apply for recognition through the California Department of Education (CDE), based on their level of achievement. Each year, CDE designates the top five highest-scoring applicants as Green Achievers—the state’s highest honor—who are celebrated at the annual California School Recognition Program ceremony. Awards for private schools are conferred in collaboration with the California Association of Private School Organizations.
All CA-GRS honorees are typically announced in the spring and formally recognized at a statewide award ceremony held annually.
The 2024–25 application cycle is now closed. Beginning in June 2025, schools and districts interested in applying may submit an Application Interest Survey. Upon submission, eligible applicants will receive a link to complete the appropriate school or district application online.
Application reviews will be based on the applicant's demonstrated progress towards reaching the goals of each of the three CA-GRS Pillars, which are:
- Pillar I: Reduce environmental impact and costs
- Pillar II: Improve the health and wellness of schools, students, and staff
- Pillar III: Provide effective environmental education, which teaches many disciplines, and is especially good at effectively incorporating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), civic skills, and green career pathways
Applicants will be recognized in the following manner:
- 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, celebrated in the California School Recognition Program
Four items to keep in mind when applying:
- When preparing your responses to questions, be sure to focus on three critical ideas:
- Saturation: the number of students reached with achievement
- Longevity: the length of time achievement has been active,
- Evidence
- Describe your achievements in detail using measurements and detailed descriptions. Explain the relevance of student projects, products, and activities to environmental literacy and sustainability.
- Make sure to show and don't just tell. Reviewers are sitting hundreds of miles away from your school and have no frame of reference or context for what you are doing. Do the best you can to use your words to paint a picture.
- Saturation: the number of students reached with achievement
- Avoid leaving questions empty whenever possible. Partial credit is given for developing achievements.
- Include all relevant information in each pillar (section). Our application reviewers only read one pillar of your application. Therefore, it is important to restate achievements throughout the application whenever they are relevant to the pillar.
- Review prior applications. You can view past Green Achievers' applications for inspiration from the Past Green Achiever Selectees web pages.
To find a full list of CA-GRS Selectees, please visit the California Green Ribbon Selectees web page.
Resources
Resources to Assist in the Completion of the Application
Green Achiever Selectees
Stay Connected
If you would like to receive Green Ribbon program updates via email notification, subscribe to the Green Ribbon listserv by sending a "blank" message to join-green-ribbon@mlist.cde.ca.gov. If you would like to unsubscribe from the Green Ribbon listserv, send a "blank" message to unsubscribe-green-ribbon@mlist.cde.ca.gov.
