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Fairfax County Public Schools earned 44 of the nation’s 108 Green Flag honors in 2025, giving the school system more recognized campuses than any other district in the country.

The National Wildlife Federation awards the distinction to schools that demonstrate exceptional sustainability education and student leadership on environmental issues. Across Fairfax County, students are composting food waste, testing water, cultivating gardens and finding new uses for discarded materials.

At Lemon Road Elementary School in Falls Church, dozens of fourth- through sixth-grade students spend one lunch and recess period each week working with the school’s Eco Defense Squad. They collect compost and litter, recycle dried-out markers and care for campus gardens.

Fourteen miles away at Terra Centre Elementary School in Burke, environmental projects stretch across grade levels. Kindergartners gather acorns for the Virginia Department of Forestry to grow into trees, while first graders plant tulips in a test garden and track when they emerge in the spring.

Fifth graders grow corn in vertical farming units. Sixth graders test water for nitrites, nitrates, oxidation levels and pH.

“We are so proud of our students for creating positive changes in their own schools and in the world we all share,” Superintendent Michelle Reid said. She said the work reflects the district’s goal of developing ethical, globally minded students capable of improving their communities.

Sustainability becomes part of school life

Terra Centre prekindergarten teacher Laure Grove also serves as the school’s Get2Green lead, coordinating an expanding collection of environmental programs.

During “Don’t Be Wasteful Wednesdays,” students use cafeteria share tables and composting to reduce food waste. The school also operates a Green Team during the school day and an after-school Eco Club.

Grove said the projects have grown into a schoolwide culture supported by Principal Rebecca Gidoni, families, community volunteers and local businesses that donate supplies. Teachers now approach Grove with their own ideas and reserve space in the garden for classroom projects.

Students and families collect plastic bags that are recycled into benches for the campus. One fifth-grade teacher cares for chickens hatched through the school’s annual spring embryology program, while another teacher donates sheep’s wool for students to use as nesting material in bird studies.

Each area of the school grows grass from winter through spring to support lessons involving native species, including blue crabs.

Wildlife fills the Lemon Road campus

At Lemon Road, students have built boxes for bluebirds and bats and raised monarch and painted lady butterflies from eggs in their classrooms. They care for as many as 10 turtles in an interior courtyard, observe trout living in an aquaponics system and maintain a group-style birdhouse for Purple Martins.

“Everyone interacts with living things here,” Principal Ashley Castillo said.

Castillo said the hands-on projects help students practice collaboration and problem-solving while learning how their decisions affect the wider world.

Other activities include growing microgreens for students to sample and making reminders for light switches to encourage classrooms to conserve energy.

Sixth graders have also helped organize stream cleanups and swap meets where families exchange gently used belongings. Donated items have ranged from blankets, kitchen supplies and suitcases to costumes and a sewing mannequin.

Student-led sustainability even reached the kitchen through the “Chop Chef Challenge,” founded by sixth grader Asher. Competitors must prepare a dish featuring a selected vegetable. The previous year’s ingredient was locally grown buttercup squash.

Asher said the contest encouraged families to cook at home, eat healthier foods, cut packaging waste and experience different cultures. A batch of buttercup squash brownies made by his sister’s first-grade teacher was a particular favorite, he said.

Katie Busch, Lemon Road’s STEAM and outdoor education teacher, said she wants children to understand that they can make a difference while developing a stronger connection with nature.

“It is so easy to go through our lives without realizing how connected we all are,” Busch said. “I think we need to both bring ourselves out into nature more and bring nature into our lives; it goes both ways.”