D65 Sustainability Plan: May 6 2025
Evanston/Skokie School District 65 is celebrating and sharing our first D65 Sustainability Plan as a holistic, district-wide, enduring commitment to addressing climate change. Every decision we make is with our students — current and future — at the heart. That is why we are committing to transforming our policies, practices and daily actions to ensure a healthy and just future for our students, staff, families and generations to come.
D65 School Board unanimously approved 4:70 Resource Conservation Policy revisions to move our D65 Sustainability Plan into Policy at the May 5, 2025 School Board Meeting.
D65 Sustainability Plan: Sustainable Schools, Healthy and Just Futures includes goals centered around the following four categories:
Teaching and Learning
Healthy Environments
Sustainable Operations
Transportation and Mobility
Our Sustainability Plan plan is the product of six months of dedicated work. Thank you to our working group of 20+ staff, students, caregivers, Evanston and Skokie staff, and multiple local community based organizations who worked collaboratively and tirelessly to formulate this plan.
We know climate change does not affect all people equally. Some communities experience disproportionate impacts because of existing vulnerabilities, historical patterns of inequity, and systemic injustices like redlining. We have made an intentional effort to center Climate Justice in our plan, to ensure that everyone — especially communities that face the greatest burdens — have equal access to healthy environments.
This transformation will take a team effort. Small changes like composting, recycling and turning off the lights matter. System-wide endeavors like adopting this Sustainability Plan for our school district matters. Together, our students, staff and school community have the power to make a real difference, not just by learning about sustainability and climate justice but by stepping up and engaging in meaningful changemaking right here in our schools and community.
Looking forward: D65 commits to annual reporting of progress towards our Sustainability Goals by creating a public dashboard in addition to periodic reviews and plan updates.
To learn more, visit our D65 Sustainability webpage.
