School Environmental and Climate Action Analysis Tools: Empowering Youth to Drive Systems-Level Change

Date: September 15, 2026
Time: 3:45 PM – 4:15 PM
Ballroom G

This workshop introduces a comprehensive school site analysis tool (checklist, interview questions, and rubric) developed by Ten Strands in partnership with CalRecycle, leveraging the Green Ribbon Pillars and the 4Cs Whole Systems Framework (campus, curriculum, community, and culture). Learn to engage students in evaluating their school’s environmental and climate action efforts across systems to gather baseline data and understand areas of growth. Participants will leave equipped to guide students in analyzing these results to develop and advocate for sustained recommendations that align with their school context and existing initiatives. Attendees will leave this session with a practical, ready-to-use toolset and a clear action plan for turning school sustainability assessment into authentic student-led leadership. This is a critical session for administrators, educators, and sustainability professionals looking to move beyond aspirational goals to tangible, data-driven action. You will gain strategies to effectively engage students as community scientists, using the CalRecycle-partnered analysis tools (based on Green Ribbon Pillars and the 4Cs Framework) to generate school-specific baseline data. The key importance is learning how to guide youth in analyzing this data to develop context-aligned, sustained recommendations and advocate for change across their school systems.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

By the end of this session, attendees will:

• Learn about Ten Strands new site analysis tools and how they are being implemented in a statewide data project with CalRecycle and youth tested as part of Ten Strands’ California Youth Environmental Data Leadership Program (CYED).
• Gain strategies to effectively engage students in collecting and evaluating school site baseline data on environmental and climate action efforts.
• Understand how to support the analysis of baseline data gathered using the school site tools to identify specific areas of growth for environmental and climate initiatives.
• Empower youth to develop sustained, context-aligned recommendations and advocate for continued environmental and climate action efforts within their school systems.

Speakers:
Sarah Whiting, Director of Client Engagement and Data Science Services, Ten Strands
Andra Yeghoian, Chief Innovation Officer, Ten Strands

Through her roles as a teacher leader, district level TOSA, and county level coordinator, Sarah Whiting has gained experience building educator capacity in individual teachers as well as teams ranging from grade level to district, regional, and state-wide teams. Having taught at private, charter, and public schools over her 11 years of teaching 2nd-8th grade as well as possessing a multiple subject, single subject science, and administrative credential, she is well versed in bringing environmental literacy to different subjects, grade levels, and types of educators. Having received training in design thinking from Stanford and PBL from the Buck Institute, she focuses on bringing more hands-on, phenomenon driven, integrated educational experiences to students across the state. Sarah’s goal is to meet educators where they are, help them identify goals that best align with their students’ or staffs’ needs, and support them in meeting those goals through a data-driven approach.