View a snapshot of three schools embracing new methods to improve sustainability and educate students in the process.

Feature image: The LEED, TRUE and WELL Platinum Connie & Kevin Chou Hall in Berkeley, California. Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley.

While TRUE certification for zero waste has strong roots in manufacturing and distribution industries, a growing contingent of schools, from preschool to university, are pursuing TRUE to build circularity principles into their operations and education. Owned and administered by GBCI, TRUE certification defines zero waste as 90% or higher waste diversion from landfill, incineration and the environment. It is complementary to the LEED rating system.

Three LEED- and TRUE-certified schools are setting the standards for experiential learning and instilling important skills and values into the next generation. The TRUE and LEED Platinum Environmental Nature Center and Preschool (ENC) in Newport Beach, California; the TRUE Gold and LEED Platinum Rochester School in Chía, Colombia; and the TRUE, WELL and LEED Platinum Chou Hall at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business in Berkeley, California, have all pursued both leadership standards as part of their sustainability strategy.

The Environmental Nature Center and Preschool

Founded in 1972, the Environmental Nature Center provides transformative experiences through connection with nature. Respecting the natural environment and being mindful of resources is an intrinsic value at the ENC, which connects over 50,000 community members to nature annually through its on-site preschool, school field trips, Traveling Naturalist programs, community programs, nature camps, service-learning programs and professional development opportunities.

"With both LEED and TRUE certification, we looked at the process as a means of holding ourselves to task," explains Bo Glover, the ENC's executive director. "The certification process helped us identify ways to improve, and empowered us to advocate for more low-waste choices with vendors, and to ask more of those who visit our campus. We're bringing others along in this process, and it can become an educational experience for everyone involved."

The TRUE and LEED Platinum Environmental Nature Center and Preschool (ENC) in Newport Beach, California. Photo courtesy of the ENC.

Today, the ENC and preschool have instituted policies across the property to educate visitors, students and their families alike. Neither the ENC nor the preschool uses single-use plastic or Styrofoam, which means students' lunches and resources brought onto the property must adhere to the standards.

"The kids are easy; it's actually the parents that have a harder time with our zero waste policies," Glover explains. "But our best zero waste advocates haven't been staff or teachers-it's the children. They understand why we're doing this and reinforce those rules at home. It's neat to see, particularly from kids this young."

Through reusable items, zero waste event policies, switching to paperless documents and adjusting practices after a zero-waste audit, the ENC now boasts a 97% waste diversion rate, a particularly significant feat considering the number of new visitors contributing to its waste stream, compared to staff trained on zero waste practices.

"It's our goal to incorporate our TRUE certification into even more of our programming," says Lori Whalen, assistant director. "We have such an opportunity here to change visitors' and students' perspectives. We just hosted a zero waste challenge at our summer nature camps, and it was very motivational to see how involved campers became. We look forward to getting them even more involved!"

Left: ENC students at a waste diversion education event. Photo courtesy of the Environmental Nature Center and Preschool. Right: The Rochester School in Chía, Colombia. Photo courtesy of Jorge Humberto Quintero Velez.

The Rochester School

In Colombia, the Rochester School became the first K-12 school in the world to earn TRUE certification. Sustainability has been a long-held value for the school, which first achieved LEED certification in 2014, and then recertified Platinum in 2022 under LEED v4.1 for Operations and Maintenance.

By staying updated with the most current LEED standards through recertifications, the school was able to align its existing practices more easily with the TRUE rating system. TRUE certification came as a next step to further the school's existing sustainability goals.

Similarly to the ENC, community involvement was a key strategy in the school's waste diversion plans, reinforced by a sustainability curriculum, integrated throughout the grade levels and overseen by a sustainability director, Jorge Quintero. The sustainability curriculum teaches students how to monitor waste streams, such as organic and inorganic residues, and the adoption of a closed-loop system for materials, ensuring that resources are reused and repurposed whenever possible.

"This approach uses the school itself as a learning tool," explains Liliana Medina Campos, MSc, LEED AP BD+C. "I believe the education sector, in general, urgently needs to strengthen sustainability education. Effective waste management requires us to rethink, redesign, reduce and act accordingly-and that's the commitment we've made at Rochester School."

"Not only does the school continue to be recognized globally and nationally as a leader, but it also enhances the learning process for our sustainability team, managers and teachers," adds Quintero. "Through this, we identify how to keep improving and better educating our students."

Connie & Kevin Chou Hall

At the University of California Berkeley, the TRUE certification process began as soon as Connie & Kevin Chou Hall opened to students in August 2017, and today it boasts Platinum-level LEED, WELL and TRUE certifications. The certification process was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team, including students (undergraduate and graduate), staff and faculty.

"We initiated the TRUE certification for Chou Hall as our beacon to demonstrate that zero waste is definitely achievable for the entire campus," explains Lin King, manager of Cal Zero Waste at UC Berkeley, who oversees waste management for the entire campus.

Since Chou Hall is a public academic building with new building visitors annually, if not daily, awareness and education campaigns are essential. Those tactics include setting up tables outside the building at the start of every semester, sending monthly newsletters to give updates on tips and tricks, providing uniform signage above all waste bins, and sharing reminders and updates in the building's main entrance.

An education table at a community engagement event by Chou Hall. Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley.

This community engagement work is vital to the building's success, due to its infrastructural nuances. When Chou Hall opened, there was one obvious element missing: trash bins. Everything produced in Chou Hall had to be compostable, recyclable or reusable, including all the items sold in the building's cafe. If a building user brought in any trash, they had to "pack it out."

By eliminating the option of placing everything in a trash bin, the Chou Hall zero waste team nudges building users not only to sort correctly, but also to think about the waste that they are generating. By creating this "zero waste zone," the team helps people make better, more informed choices in favor of recycling, composting and reuse.

An education in zero waste

Zero waste is a communal activity: Everyone within a facility contributes to its total waste. As a result, everyone also has the power to divert waste. This makes ongoing education and training an essential strategy to achieve and maintain TRUE certification-something schools are uniquely equipped to prepare for.

As these schools have discovered, zero waste quickly becomes an experiential learning scenario that enforces new mindsets and skill sets through behavior changes-for staff, faculty, students and their families alike, at all levels of schooling.

At the ENC preschool, the very beginning of a students' learning journey, faculty have eyes on their future impact. "The results of our zero waste programs may be years down the road for these students," Glover acknowledges. "We hope our preschoolers will carry the environmental ethics they learn here throughout their lives."

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