We enjoyed attending the Green Schools Conference in San Diego last month. It was a pleasure to reconnect with--and meet new members of this community.

Our favorite parts were the open plenary, with Cody Petterson, board member of the San Diego Unified Public School District, delivering a powerful keynote and of course, the Green Book Zone.

Jaimie has been educating for sustainability for over 30 years. She created a practical guide to help school leaders understand why education for sustainability matters. The guide offers a mini audit and explores the connection between your students’ mindsets and the curriculum. These are the first steps toward building a purposeful and coherent core curriculum that empowers students to shape a thriving, sustainable future.

Get Jaimie’s 3-Step Guide Toward Educating Students for a Sustainable Future here. 

Jaimie’s new book, Response-Able: How to Live Well Over Time on Planet Earth has been opening meaningful conversations with educators, students, and communities about what it means to live responsibly on our shared planet. Below are recent developments and opportunities connected to the book and the learning experiences it is inspiring. 🌍📚

Upcoming events include the Hudson Valley Youth Climate Summit on March 18-19, an IB Webinar for DP on March 25, Deeper Learning NY on July 14-15, and the annual Curriculum Design Studio on August 3-7.

We are reaching out to colleagues and friends to share what we are working on and to help amplify the important work happening across our community. Our goal is to spread the word about our initiatives while also highlighting and celebrating the meaningful projects and contributions of those around us.

The Nakujali Foundation is seeking financial support to help cover the basic costs of its operations and build a healing center.

Nakujali Foundation seeks $20,216 USD to construct a Healing and Empowering Center in Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda. The center will address critical gaps in mental health support, economic opportunity, and community resilience through sustainable, locally-managed programming focused on art, yoga, education and mindfulness.

Join us for a dynamic virtual event dedicated to sustainability, innovation, and empowering the next generation of leaders to tackle real-world environmental challenges.

The Hudson Valley Youth Climate Summit brings together students, educators, community agencies, and sustainability-focused vendors to showcase impactful work, share innovative solutions, and collaborate toward a more sustainable future.

Join us at the Hudson Valley Youth Climate Summit! They are still accepting proposals! This virtual, two-day event will take place on March 18–19, 2026, bringing together students, educators, community organizations, and sustainability-focused vendors to explore ideas, innovations, and actions that support a more sustainable future.

Proposals are welcome from:

• Students (Grades 4–12), including Career & Technical Education (CTE) students

• Educators sharing instructional practices, research, or classroom projects

• Community organizations & local agencies focused on sustainability or climate action

• Sustainability-focused vendors offering tools, services, or solutions for greener communities

Response-Able is now available from all retailers!

This book is the result of months of reflection, collaboration, and care, and we are grateful to everyone who supported it along the way.

Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting this work!

Last fall, Rosemarie, our program specialist, travelled to Uganda to deliver a series of workshops on sustainability education.

During her visit, she worked alongside educators, community members, and youth leaders who are actively shaping the future of their communities. The workshops focused on sustainability education as a tool for understanding local and global challenges, strengthening systems thinking, and empowering young people to take informed action.

We invite you to explore this story and spend time with the beautiful picture book that emerged from this collaboration.

We are very happy to share the launch of a brand new webpage created expressly for Response-Able, Jaimie P. Cloud’s upcoming book. This space was designed to bring the project to life, offer readers a first look at what is coming, and gather all the updates in one place.

You can explore the new page here: https://www.jaimiepcloud.com/

Check out this fun video of Jaimie engaging with students at the Chinese International School in Hong Kong.

The Student Kitchen is a nonprofit focused on culinary education for New York City middle and high school students. The goal of the program is to equip students with the confidence and the skills to cook for themselves and families, make healthy choices, and better understand where their food comes from. Through live demos and workshops, The Student Kitchen works hands on with participants at their schools and in their communities. They also assist with mutual aid efforts and community projects.

There is a great deal of good news that we are excited to share!

First and foremost, the official cover is out! This milestone makes the project feel wonderfully real and we are loving its dynamism.

We are very excited to share the book blurb:

For young people and all those who love them, this is an uplifting and practical book of wisdom. Written with a game on mindset, Response-able  is a must read for those who want to participate in thegrand course correction toward a sustainable future. 

Our Oxford International Curriculum for Sustainability continues to gain momentum!

Since its publication, the series has won the 2024 GESS Education Award, was nominated for the BESA Sustainability and Net Zero Award 2025, was presented by Daniella Tilbury to the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) during a meeting of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Steering Committee in Geneva.

Recommended Reading: Connected to Place by Matt Daggar

We recommend keeping an eye out for Connected to Place: Regenerating Nature, Communities and Local Economies through Systems Change, a new book by Matt Daggar coming in November 2025.

Stories from Nora Bateson — “How Our Ways of Knowing Shape Our Collective Future”

In this piece, Nora Bateson, calls for a more relational, context-rich “warm data” approach to achieve social and ecological regeneration and sustainability.

638 educators from around the world joined our latest International Baccalaureate (IB) webinar on how to integrate Education for Sustainability (EfS) into the Primary Years Programme (PYP). The engagement was exceptional!

For anyone who was unable to attend, we will soon receive the chat comments and the full recording, and we will be pleased to share both. You can write to admin@cloudinstitute.org

We are also pleased to confirm that two additional IB webinars will take place later this year, focusing on the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (DP). Dates will be announced soon.

A recent report and series of contract negotiations spotlight how teachers’ unions across the U.S. are using collective bargaining to demand climate action in schools.

In Chicago, the teachers’ union secured commitments for installing solar panels, enhancing indoor air quality monitoring, and integrating climate curricula. Meanwhile in Minnesota, educators pressed for an environmental task force and free transit access, and in Los Angeles, the demands include electrifying bus fleets and installing EV charging stations at schools. These moves underscore how contract talks are powerful levers for climate progress.

Oregon has passed a new law requiring climate change and sustainability to be integrated across school subjects — thanks in large part to the persistence of Mikayla May, a student at Caldera High School in Central Oregon.

Mikayla became the driving force behind House Bill 3365 after noticing that her classes taught the science of climate change but not the solutions. “We’re only taught the problems and the causes of climate change,” she said. “We don’t learn anything about the solutions.” Determined to change that, Mikayla partnered with Oregon Educators for Climate Education and testified before lawmakers, helping push the bill through the 2025 legislature.

We were delighted to deliver a recent webinar for Oxford University Press, as part of our ongoing collaboration on the Oxford International Curriculum for Sustainability. The session, led by Jaimie Cloud, invited educators from around the world to explore how sustainability can be meaningfully integrated into everyday teaching and learning.

If your school, organization, or network is interested in learning more about Education for Sustainability, Jaimie Cloud offers engaging webinars and professional development sessions tailored to your community’s needs. Contact us to schedule a session or learn more.

The Green Schools Conference (GSC) returns for its 16th year and registrations are now open!

Bringing together educators, school leaders, advocates, and changemakers who drive whole-school and district sustainability, this energizing two-day event explores bold, practical solutions to advance green schools, focusing on environmental impact, health and well-being, sustainability literacy, and systemic change at every level of education.

We are thrilled to announce the new Cloud Institute for Sustainability Educationwebsite — your refreshed gateway to exploring, engaging with, and advancing Education for Sustainability (EfS).

For 30 years, The Cloud Institute has empowered educators, students, and communities to rethink how we learn, live, and lead in a more sustainable world. Now, our new site reflects that legacy with an enhanced user experience, streamlined navigation, and deeper access to our work.

At the Cloud Institute, we are always excited to spotlight new resources that bring education for sustainability to life in vivid, accessible ways. Last spring, we shared a wonderful new Earth system science website called Story.Earth, developed by our long-time partners, WorldLink. Like us, WorldLink’s work is deeply inspired by the ideas of Buckminster Fuller—cultivating systems thinking, futures thinking, and ecological literacy.

Last week, we gathered with an incredible group of educators, leaders, and changemakers for our annual Curriculum Design Studio. This signature workshop is always a highlight for us at the Cloud Institute, and this year was no exception.

Over the course of the week, participants came together in a hybrid format—both in-person and online—to design, refine, and reimagine curriculum that prepares young people for a sustainable future.

In October 2025, the Cloud Institute will be offering an Education for Sustainability workshop in the Nakivale Refugee Camp in Uganda. This is a project initiated by Rosemarie, our program specialist here at the Cloud Institute.

We are proud to share that the Oxford International Curriculum for Sustainability has been nominated for the BESA Sustainability and Net Zero Award 2025!

We are thrilled to invite you to a special event celebrating the upcoming release of my new book, Response-Able: How to Live Well Over Time on Planet Earth!

🌎 Pre-Sale Launch Event Details

• Date: May 15, 2025

• Time: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST

• Location: Online (registration link will be shared after you sign up)

We are excited to announce the upcoming release of Response-able: How to Live Well Over Time on Planet Earth, a powerful new book by sustainability education pioneer Jaimie P. Cloud!

In Response-able, Jaimie invites young people—and the young at heart—to reimagine their relationship with the world and step into their role as creators of a sustainable future. This book offers a refreshing and empowering guide for anyone ready to think differently about how we live, learn, and lead on planet Earth.

By pre-ordering, you are helping to cover the final publishing, editing, and marketing costs—and ensuring this important book reaches more readers who can use it to make a difference.

We are proud to share that our team member, Rosemarie Desmarais, has published a review of Stephen Sterling’s latest book in the Australian Journal of Environmental Education.

The review is open access and offers a clear, thoughtful summary of the book’s key insights and contributions.