White House Summit for Sustainable and Healthy K-12 School Buildings and Grounds

On April 26, 2024, the White House hosted the first-ever White House Summit for Sustainable and Healthy K-12 School Buildings and Grounds.

Over 90 students, teachers, advocates, school administrators, facilities and grounds experts, and labor leaders came together at the White House alongside the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss deployment of the unprecedented levels of federal funding available for school infrastructure, clean energy, and healthy schools. The White House Summit highlighted stories from schools across America where communities are taking action to create more sustainable buildings and grounds that tackle the climate crisis, improve learning, and protect children’s health. The Summit also underscored the opportunities for good-paying, union jobs—including jobs that don’t require a college degree—made available by the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic clean energy agenda. Participants had the opportunity to join an in-person workshop on the new “direct pay” provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, which are helping schools to directly access the benefits of clean energy tax credits for the first time ever.