The Office of Sustainability Schools Program offers a variety of services and resources for school administrators, teachers, and facilities staff to support reducing waste on campus and to inspire young people to take action at home. 

Our free educational offerings include:

• Assistance with developing a unit plan of study in resource conservation, the 4R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot-Compost), and zero waste

• 5E resource conservation and waste reduction lesson plans with step by step instructions and student activity sheets aligned to Next Generation Science Standards

• In person and virtual K-12th grade interactive classroom presentations and assemblies on the 4R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot - compost), worm composting, waste reduction, and plastic pollution prevention

• Student-facing activities by borrowing our reuse kits such as making a tote bag from old T-shirts and building solar ovens with reusable boxes. 

• Online interactive and in classroom 4R's Unit Games

• Assistance with becoming a certified Green Star School classroom based on the actions that students can take at school or at home

What is Green Star Schools?

Green Star Schools (GSS) is an online platform where you can find and share environmental action projects. The site is currently administered by the County of San Mateo Office of Sustainability (OOS) for any educational institution in San Mateo County. Use the GSS website to find action projects and tools to help your classroom, school, or district to conserve resources and reduce its carbon footprint. Additionally, classrooms and environmental clubs can receive recognition under the Green Star Schools Certification Program. For more details about this program or assistance for signing up, please contact us at sustainability@smcgov.org (Subject line: Schools Program/GSS).

San Mateo County Parks have partnered with the County’s Office of Sustainability to bring the new and improved Youth Exploring Climate Science (YECS) program to your middle or high school classroom. This program provides no-cost climate science educational programming to middle and high schools across San Mateo County. The program empowers students to explore why the climate crisis is happening, what and who will be impacted, and how individual actions can tackle climate change to protect our communities. Special programming is available to focus on sea level rise (Youth Exploring Sea Level Rise Science) and wildfire (Youth Exploring Wildfire Science). Programming is available in-person, virtually or as a hybrid for your students.

The YECS Program is still accepting bookings for Spring 2023. For access to the YECS Program Curriculum and technical support to integrate this curriculum in your classroom: Contact Kamille Lang at klang1@smcgov.org to schedule.  

Learn more about the YECS program here: https://seachangesmc.org/yecs/ 

The San Mateo County Environmental Health Services Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Middle and High School Education Program has created a 45-minute interactive presentation that explores: 

• How to identify hazardous products

• The impacts of hazardous products on health and the environment

• How to properly manage and safely dispose of HHW

• Safe alternatives to hazardous products

Please join us in welcoming our new Office of Sustainability (OOS) Schools team member, Stephen Winsor. 

Stephen has a background in both education and wildlife biology research. Before joining the Office of Sustainability, Stephen served as a science department head and teacher/mentor at a Bay Area school and has worked with K-12 schools and universities across the country. He is passionate about inspiring an appreciation for Earth's natural resources, and he is looking forward to working with all of you.

Do your students, or even you, have broken electronics, toys, and appliances?

The Office of Sustainability’s Surplus Property Program aims to find ways to beneficially reuse surplus equipment from the County of San Mateo departments such as furniture, office supplies, and much more. Retired property is posted online for auction on GovDeals. Unlike the general public, school administrators and teachers can request items FREE OF CHARGE. This can be done before the auction of an item ends by following these easy steps:

1. Visit https://www.govdeals.com/SanMateoCounty to see the listings of all available surplus properties. Register for a bidder account if you have not done so already.

2. Email OOS_surplus@smcgov.org with a link to the requested item. State the school or school district that you are from, and your GovDeals username.

3. We will pull the item from auction, and provide pickup instructions. You are responsible for the removal, packing, loading, and transportation of the item.

4. Need an item but don’t see it on GovDeals, then email us the requested items and quantity. We will contact you if the requested items become available.