A nearly two-year journey of collaboration between Long Beach Unified and student environmental activists came to a head on Wednesday as the district approved the new and updated green energy policy at their regular board meeting.
The policy was originally slated to be approved at the board’s July 18 meeting but was postponed due to a motion by Board Member Juan Benitez to ensure the inclusion of stronger language and a tangible timeframe for 2045.
LBUSD’s Green Schools Operations Energy and Sustainability Policy 3510.1—updated to include the word sustainability in the title—intends to address climate change and promote environmental justice through actions that will limit and eventually end the district’s use of fossil fuels.
“This is the most intentional commitment to environmental sustainability at a structural level,” Board President Megan Kerr said.
The policy was mainly updated to reflect an aspirational date to 2045, in alignment with state and district goals.
The updated plan also includes examples of energy and sustainability projects. In order to further stress the importance of climate change, a brief statement of urgency “recognizing that energy used for operating buildings, vehicles, and machinery is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change” was also added.
Students from the Long Beach Green Schools Campaign (LBGSC)—a student organization that has worked alongside the district throughout the policy-making process—first brought up the issue of transitioning to clean and renewable energy in 2020. At the time, the district was focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and returning to in-person learning, but this did not deter the students.
Over the span of a year and a half, LBGSC continued to raise awareness of their cause by hosting a climate rally in September 2021 and continuously bringing out student and ally speakers to give public comment at LBUSD board meetings. The group also worked alongside the district’s facilities team to draft the now-approved policy and to ensure a sustainability element would be a key factor of the Facilities Master Plan.
“We’re so grateful that instead of hearing, ‘No we can’t pass this,’ we were told, ‘Let’s find a way to make this happen,’” Lily Palmer, a Millikan High School junior and LBGSC member, said during public comment.
Despite some changes to the policy language, the three main goals remain the same:
- Maximizing the use of renewables
- Acquiring new zero-emission machinery to replace old equipment as well as phasing out older machinery and equipment
- Reducing vehicle emissions
“We want to be in alignment with the state goals,” David Miranda, executive director of facilities development and planning said, “but we absolutely will aspire to beat that target and do more as a school district.”
Board Member Erik Miller who seconded the motion to postpone the approval at the last meeting, recognized the importance of the decision.
“[This step] is important not just from a district standpoint, but, as our young people said it best, [when] talking about the next generation and what they will get to experience,” Miller said.
“When we do this work, we know that we’re not just doing it for us students, we’re doing it for Long Beach communities, we’re doing it for the Long Beach/LA area,” Poly High School sophomore and LBGSC member Ruthie Heiss said.
The approval of the policy was met with a buzz of excitement and relief among LBGSC students and their supporters, who expressed their gratitude towards the Board for allowing their voices to be heard and to be an active part of the process.
“I’m just really happy that it was a collaborative process with the school district and that we were able to do it all together today,” Diana Michaelson, Poly High School senior and LBGSC president said.
“Even though we knew it was going to pass, there was still just that hesitation, especially after what happened last time,” Dia Rubio, a Poly High School sophomore and LBGSC member, said of the delayed approval.
Now that the policy is approved, students and the district are focused on establishing a Climate and Sustainability Task Force—a group of at least seven diverse members including LBUSD students, staff and stakeholders—to monitor and track the progress of implementing the plan.
“Once we establish it, we’ll be able to report back to the board on the progress and just where we are with respect to each of these goals,” Miranda said.
“Words are nothing without action,” Heiss said. “We’re in the most important stages of our work; beginning the actual implementation of whatever our words we just put down on paper are.”
Correction, Aug. 19: A previous version of this story stated that LBUSD had set an aspirational goal of transitioning to fully renewable energy by 2040. The plan sets an aspirational goal of transitioning by 2045.
