Lankenau Environmental was recognized by National Wildlife Federation’s EcoSchools U.S. program for exceptional achievement in educating for sustainability and driving positive environmental change in the school and local community. Lankenau is the first school so honored in the School District of Philadelphia to receive the prestigious Green Flag, the Eco-Schools highest honor.

Since 2009, over 6,000 schools in all 50 states have participated in the EcoSchools U.S. program, which is based on the commitment and work of student-driven teams dedicated to issues such as waste reduction, climate change, and biodiversity using action cards and other educational resources to develop environmental action plans for their school.

“The National Wildlife Federation and EcoSchools U.S. are proud of the example set by Lankenau in PA,” said Jennifer Hammonds, Director of K-12 Education Programs. “This award demonstrates not only a commitment to sustainability and environmental literacy for students and faculty but an appreciation that the best, most effective education transcends the classroom and offers a place-based, project-based approach to learning”.

To receive the Green Flag award, Lankenau’s students and faculty committed to a number of sustainability actions leading to enough points to earn a Green Flag award.  This included engaging the local community, forming an action team, creating an action plan, collecting data, taking solution-based actions, and measuring impact. These steps led to countless action steps all designed to provide opportunities for youth leadership, raise environmental awareness, connect students to the natural world, and drive positive environmental change.

The School District of Philadelphia’s GreenFutures team in the Office of Environmental Management Services is starting to work with schools across the District to earn recognition for sustainability efforts that schools have implemented.

National Wildlife Federation was named the stateside host for the international Eco-Schools program in 2008. The International Eco-Schools program is a network of over 48,000 K-12 schools in 79 countries through Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) member organizations and in 22 countries through international schools, started in 1994 by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) with support from the European Commission. It was named by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as a model initiative for Education for Sustainable Development in 2003, and in 2022-23 became a supporting member of the UNESCO-led Greening Education partnership – helping to prepare every learner to acquire the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to tackle climate change and promote sustainable development. Eco-Schools as well is a partner in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration which runs from 2021 to 2030, and calls for the protection and revival of ecosystems worldwide.

Learn more about EcoSchools U.S., nwf.org/eco-schools-us. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

National Wildlife Federation works in collaboration with communities to provide K-12 education that is responsive to and supports student leadership and equitable solutions to collectively build a more ecologically and socially just world.