The New York City Department of Education runs more than 1,400 school facilities across the five boroughs. Most of these are over 50 years old. Some are more than a century old. As the impacts of climate change pile on — increased temperatures, unpredictable flooding, and air pollution among them — their age has begun to show. On top of educating more than 900,000 youth, the city’s public schools are asked to serve many purposes: hubs for community organizing, cooling centers on hot days, and evacuation shelters in case of natural disasters. When buildings lack air conditioning, or proper ventilation, or systems to manage stormwater, they can’t perform these vital functions.
Climate organizers and policymakers are calling for a “Green New Deal for Schools” to prepare public school buildings for the needs of a changing climate. Last September, Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and New York congressman Jamaal Bowman proposed a bill that would invest $1.6 trillion in public schools over the next decade, including $486 billion in upgrades to educational facilities. Organizers in New York City are arguing for “Green Healthy Schools” with infrastructural retrofits to make public schools net-zero, contributing no greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Advocates claim retrofits could make New York City’s schools resilient, comfortable, and functional in the face of a changing climate, whilst also using 50 percent less energy and saving taxpayers $175 million per year. ALIGN and TREEage lobbied during this year’s city budget deliberations for a $600 million “down payment” on deep retrofits for 500 schools in environmental justice communities by 2030, but the measure didn’t make it into the final city budget.
For the activists and organizers at TREEage — a student organizing movement of New York City public high school and college students — this battle is not only about climate policy but also functionality, comfort, and equity in their schools. TREEage’s advocacy has focused on the subpar conditions in school buildings, from poor air quality to high temperatures, to expose the effects old infrastructure has on students and their education. We spoke to two TREEage activists and high school seniors Joaquim “Iz” Greenawalt and Brianna Abad about their experiences fighting for climate equity in their classrooms. – AS
What do you do at TREEage and how did you get involved?
I’m going into my second year on staff as a Manhattan borough organizer, but I was involved for about a year before as a member, going to different workshops and lobby days.
As a kid, I loved the outdoors. I got into conservation a little bit through that. I was in kindergarten when Hurricane Sandy hit — seeing my neighborhood flood was a really formative memory. And then we continued to see extreme weather. I got involved with Jennifer Gutierrez, Tiffany Cabán, and Shahana Hanif. I was organizing as part of the global climate strikes that were going on, and I realized that my bread and butter was policy. My favorite part of every year was picking the demands, but I wasn’t super at home for the rest of it. I realized that TREEage was exactly what I was looking for because it has that grassroots organizing piece, and it also has this policy piece to it up in Albany.
I’m going into my second year as a borough organizer for Queens. I first learned about TREEage when I received an email from my school. I was interested in learning more about how New York City politics works and taking more actionable steps to ensure a healthy environment for all of our students and families. I learned about a political campaign internship with state senator Kristen Gonzalez. I was able to do a little bit of everything. I speak Spanish, so I was also able to talk to a lot of Spanish-speaking voters, and hear from their side of the story, and encourage them to get their voice out. In those two months, I learned how much I loved working with people who are dedicated to grassroots campaigning. So I just wanted to continue working with TREEage.
You’re both still students in New York City public high schools. Were there any experiences that have shown you the need for the climate retrofits that you guys are calling for?
I remember, actually, last September there was a lot of rain going around in the city. Schools weren’t canceled, so I still had to do my one-hour thirty-minute commute. And I got to class with soaking wet shoes. The floors of the school were flooded. I saw students suffering with soaking wet shoes. My computer suffered water damage. It was just hard to concentrate in class. I think those were the signs of how much we need to really focus on climate efforts. Not a lot of students know what to do when it comes to these big floods. It’s kind of out of our hands. So I would like to see more environmentalism in our education.
Last year after that storm a pipe burst in the basement of our school, so the teachers had to close their office and move upstairs all of a sudden. Every time you walked by that room, you would see that everyone was cramped and it was loud.
Our classrooms are always too hot or too cold, and you really struggle to focus. Students have very little choice and power to change what’s happening to them, and I think you feel that when you’re a student. Most people don’t really have a choice where they go to school. It reflects other disparities in our school system.
The disparities that already exist are worsened by any climate issues. We’ve had some really bad flooding in the city in the past couple of years, even after unnamed, non-hurricane storms. Some people’s houses flood and it’s no problem. They can move into a hotel, they can go somewhere else, they can easily replace everything. At my school, I’ve seen classmates who have flooding or have other issues and it’s just much, much harder for them to start again.
I agree. With the Green Healthy Schools initiative, we really do prioritize climate justice. There is a lot of disparity within school populations, and a lot of students do come from very different demographics. One of our top priorities is that those resources be well-allocated.
What’s unique about TREEage is how concrete they are about the retrofits and changes they propose for schools. I’m curious if you see concrete needs for improvement in your individual schools now that you’ve been working with TREEage.
Climate policy work opens your eyes, where all of a sudden, you see everything. You see inefficiency everywhere, something that could be changed or that you’d like to organize. I think we are concrete. That matters a lot to us.
Hunter, where I go, is a little bit of a unicorn because it’s administered by CUNY, not the DOE. It has been very interesting to exist in a school that’s a little bit separate from the work, because one of the things you see a lot is that privilege. We live in a very segregated school district, and so some schools get to do a lot more than other schools: they have much better funding and resources. The more you go into other schools in the city, the more you see the range that exists. And the more I’ve come to realize that there’s just more disparity than I ever thought there could be.
In May 2024, TREEage members, students, and teachers at Transit Tech High School welcomed elected officials and community members for a tour of the conditions in their building.
It also really opened my eyes to how our schools really need to be revamped and electrified. Schools don’t really take into account enforcing climate justice initiatives and maintaining a safe environment for our students to learn. I’ve talked to a lot of students who have different experiences in their communities, in their schools, but I think something that we all ultimately share is this desire to mobilize together as a collective power.
How would you describe the future that TREEage sees for New York City schools?
One of the things we talk about a lot is courage and the idea of daring to dream, realizing that we do deserve better, and we live in a city that can provide it. It’s a future where students realize that they deserve these safe conditions. Just because it’s been that way for as long as they can remember, doesn’t mean it has to be that way for forever.
I would say TREEage’s outlook for the future is definitely optimistic. One of the reasons why I decided to join TREEage was the hope that it made me feel — just seeing how a lot of students come together and organize for these impactful movements. It’s something that really makes you think about, “Oh, these are the next steps we have to take.” Every step that we can take right now, it really does build up to a greener future.
I honestly think you can’t help but be hopeful for that greener future, especially when you look even at change over time within our organization. Last year, I think, was our biggest-ever Albany lobby trip. We took 400 students up. We saw the Superfund Act pass, and we didn’t think that that was going to pass. You meet the people who are doing the work, and all of a sudden, your climate anxiety goes to bed a little bit because you realize how much you trust them.
@treeage_team last week, over 400 students joined us in Albany fighting for the #ClimateJobsandJustice package! we’re fighting for the passage of the full NY HEAT Act, the Climate Change Superfund Act, and $1B in climate spending this budget season 🌱 🚨budget negotiations are STILL ONGOING! have a story to share how #ClimateJobsandJustice ♬ original sound - TREEage
In March 2024, TREEage organized a trip of over 400 students to meet with legislators in Albany.
Are most of your organizing activities focused on lobbying legislators or on talking to people in the New York City school system?
Our role as borough organizers, essentially, is to interface between the schools and the top of the organization. I do a lot of one-on-ones with students who want to start climate clubs or get things going, who want to do different kinds of volunteering. Although a lot of the work of the organization is a mix between lobbying and workshops and other educational things.
I like getting to know the students on a personal level first. I know some students who may be interested in lobbying, some others may not be but they might be interested in learning a bit more about the social media work that we do, or the political and policy teams that we have. At the end of the day, I’m also a student, so I know how it is to be in their shoes. It’s mainly coordinating volunteer work surrounding climate initiatives.
@treeage_team 🚨 Zuzu from Beacon High School in Midtown Manhattan tells her school’s story. Students and teachers should not be subject to toxic fumes every day. We deserve #GreenHealthySchools. Want to share what’s happening in your school with the environment? Overheated classrooms, toxic air quality, gross bathrooms, or run-ins with rodents? Post your video tagging @TREEage_Team & hashtagging #GreenHealthySchools and #MayorAdamsFixMySchool ♬ original sound - TREEage
Zuzu, a student at Beacon High School in Manhattan, shares her experience attending the school, which experiences strong fumes from neighboring taxi repair shops.
What is the Green Healthy Schools initiative TREEage is advocating for? What specifically is it asking or fighting for?
The Green Healthy Schools initiative is asking our government to take more climate-urgent initiatives. It started when we heard about a lot of different experiences students had. Some of our borough organizers work in Manhattan. Some of our borough organizers work in the Bronx. That experience with natural disasters and this lack of resources that we see in our schools really began the initiative. Ever since then, I think we’ve had very specific policies. Our main ask is upgrading and electrifying 500 schools by 2050.
A TREEage Instagram post features testimony from high schoolers in all five boroughs about conditions in their schools.
As a strategy for the campaign, we knew that we wanted to identify a few specific schools that we could go really in-depth with and look at their issues. We ended up picking five. The organizers were a big part of that because we were on the ground and looking at: What schools did we already have relationships with? What schools looked like we could really get a lot done?
I was able to train a few students to testify when it came to the hearings. Hearing from and communicating with those specific individuals who are passionate about the issue, it’s been a big contribution to the work we’ve been doing.
Part of what I had to do, too, is that Adams had earmarked money for school electrification upgrades. A big question that we had before launching a year ago was: What’s the status of those repairs?
You’re activists, but you are also students. Do you feel like you’ve gained a better grasp on the efficacy, or maybe inefficacies, of certain approaches?
In this city, we’ve seen a lot of attempts to regulate private business and industry. Like Local Law 97 passed in 2019 to limit building emissions, but we have a very, very powerful real estate lobby, and so we’re still having rules and regulations hearings on it. As someone doing lobbying, you really see exactly what you’re fighting against.
There’s also a lot of restrictions when it comes to implementing climate initiatives. For example, in my school, we were thinking about collaborating on this Fordham study that was going to measure the air quality and how that impacts education. When I proposed the idea to my principal, she was a little concerned about how it would go forward. It definitely has taught me a lot about negotiation and making sure that they do meet the demands, but also understanding the side of the school and trying to use that experience as something we could address over time.
It’s one thing to be advocating on a broad scale. Then you come back to your own building in your own school that has faculty and administrators who can be sympathetic, but it’s jobs or their schools they worry about. I’m curious what it was like, this real last-ditch, pedal-to-the-metal effort to get Green Healthy Schools into the revised city budget last June.
I think overall, it is always really exciting and really hopeful to get to do those big pushes because you meet so many people, you go to so many events, and you feel like you’re on fire because you’re seeing all this momentum building. I mean, you need patience. If we want to talk about things organizing has taught me, patience is one of those. The rules and regulations process is so long, budgeting is crazy and so opaque. You have a lot of days where you’re just sitting there twiddling your thumbs, waiting for whatever news is going to drop.
Yeah, I agree. I couldn’t have put it any better. I think it is a pretty tumultuous time, but it does fill you with a lot of hope for the future, and just seeing all the work that we’ve done throughout the year come to fruition — it’s been great.
A Green Healthy Schools campaign video posted by TREEage during New York City budget negotiations in June 2024.
Although the full $600 million proposal for Green Healthy Schools didn’t make it into the budget, it still felt like some kind of a win. How did that work inform your push? Where are you guys going now?
The plan is definitely to keep pushing Green Healthy Schools. These things take time. The Climate, Jobs, and Justice package has been going for a long time, and Green Healthy Schools probably will be too. But we have a lot of momentum. We have good student networks, and so I think doing the same again but better is our plan.
This is a pretty big election year, of course, when it comes to issues on the macro scale: Is the US going to be a nation that treats climate change policies like priorities or not? I’m curious: Do you have any thoughts or feelings or involvements in those fights at all?
As a young person, I’m not even eligible to vote, but just looking at it from an observer standpoint, I’m seeing a lot of people around my age feel concerned about our future because we don’t really have too many candidates who are passionate or specific about the climate policies that they will enact if they are elected. But I think that feeling makes us want to mobilize more individuals so that we can build the future that we want to see in the city and nationally.
I’m thinking back now to my senior year of high school, because I’m going to be a senior in college. Do you feel like you are leaving TREEage in good hands? Do you feel like there’s a real mobilization of New York City school students for climate policy, climate justice?
I think so, definitely. We don’t totally leave the organization just because we graduate. You’ll no longer be an organizer, but a lot of people do remote work or help in some way. It’s more of a goodbye for now, not a goodbye forever. I was at the DOE climate summit last year on Governors Island, and it was really cool to see the amount of students there in different organizations. I think we have every reason to believe the future is bright in the city and things have only been improving.
I don’t think it would be like a final goodbye, but I do think it’s passing the torch on to future leaders. Even when you go to local events, talking to students who are like five years old, or talking to students who are entering middle school, entering high school, and just hearing about how their neighborhoods have been affected by inadequate climate resources — I would say it’s encouraging them to explore a bit more about what future they want to see.
What would each of you see to be the most exciting possibility of passing Green Healthy Schools, passing Climate, Jobs, and Justice, for schools in New York? What’s the greatest need that you could see it fix?
Since there is a lot of inequality in schools that our administration doesn’t really address, I would say having more of our education invested towards ecological literacy and some of the actionable steps you can take. I don’t really see schools connecting students to organizations like TREEage or other organizations that are part of this bigger coalition. It leaves students unaware about their surroundings. When we educate our future leaders, we are able to envision such a brighter future that is greener and healthier. Everyone deserves to live in an environment where they can breathe clean air. And that shouldn’t just be a luxury; it should be equal for everyone.
If we don’t imagine a better future, we can’t possibly start to build it. And so at schools where we already see those steps, we see this blueprint towards Green Healthy School districts that can be replicated everywhere, where students can go to school knowing that they have the power and the freedom to imagine what they want to see in the future.
