The city’s Keep Winter Park Beautiful & Sustainable (KWPB&S) Advisory Board Green Schools Grant Program awards mini grants to public and private schools serving Winter Park residents to help support their efforts to achieve sustainability goals and beautify their campus while engaging and educating students in the practices of sustainability.
Project Suggestions
Access the printable Green Schools Grant Project Suggestions
Buildings, Energy & Water
- Participate in an energy conservation week [turn out lights, use flashlights]
- Create water-less planters: waste reduction & water conservation
- Used rain barrel design for water conservation calendar & rainwater reuse
- Create reminder poster to report wasting water
- Do a hands-on outdoor activity & renewable energy
- Establish energy benchmarks for school & compare data with other schools as part of math project
- Educate on green buildings in classes [LEED, etc.]
- Learn about different types of renewable energy with interactive activities
- Explore opportunities within their school for energy conservation [LED lights, motion activated lights, timed water faucets, etc.]
Community Engagement & Green Economy
- Volunteer at food banks [Second Harvest Food Bank, Loaves & Fishes Community Services]
- Collect food & funds for those in need [spring break food drive]
- Organize a school beautification day [landscaping & painting projects]
- Set up a school-wide sustainability Earth Week [meatless Monday, transportation Tuesday, water Wednesday, trashy Thursday, civic Friday, shop green Saturday, nature Sunday]
- Bring in guest speakers for sustainability education workshops
- Organize & raise awareness about local volunteer opportunities for cleanups of natural spaces
- Have students calculate their environmental/carbon footprint as a class project [utilize interactive websites]
- Partner with other local schools to engage in a green school challenge [who can be more sustainable with recycling, waste diversion, energy conservation, etc.]
Local Food & Agriculture
- Build green houses or school gardens to grow food
- Implement a food rescue program [guest speaker talks about striving to end food waste & hunger]
- Offer cooking classes with food that is grown on campus
- Learn community partners about gardening styles & techniques [hydroponics]
- Influence better nutrition [sample & vote on future cafeteria menu options]
Mobility & Urban Form
- Develop a flyer to send home to parents to help reduce emissions on campus
- Schedule a walk to school week
- Increase car-pooling efforts
- Map out more efficient bus routes
- Increase bike storage on campus & encourage the use of such
Natural Systems & Resources
- Install rain barrels & educate about stormwater
- Create awareness of different habitats [adopt a dolphin]
- Build, hang & maintain bird feeders
- Take a field trip to different ecosystems [Everglades]
- Build & install native bee houses
- Plant trees & increase educational efforts on deforestation
Waste Diversion & Recycling
- Create water-less planters [waste reduction & water conservation]
- Design recycling posters
- Deliver recycle bins
- Come up with creative waste reduction [reuse old cardboard in art projects]
- Start a recycling club, green central station
- Learn about litter & act to donate recess to campus clean up
- Develop recycling rewards competition/program [which class recycles the most, individual students, etc.]
- Teach beautification & reusing by holding a door decoration competition using pieces of trash [clean, no food, etc.]
- Develop composting efforts in the cafeteria & implement educational tools on such efforts
2026 KWPB&S Green School Grant Recipients
| School | Project |
|---|---|
| All Saints School | Create an outdoor play kitchen using natural and recycled materials to encourage imaginative play, hands-on learning, and early environmental stewardship. |
| Audubon Park School | Launch Sustainable Stories, a student-led project highlighting local sustainability-focused businesses through research, storytelling, and community partnerships. |
| Dommerich Elementary School | Introduce a pedal-powered blender bike to teach renewable energy, nutrition, and sustainability through hands-on, student-powered learning experiences. |
| Edgewater High School | Implement A Plant in Every Classroom and Office to improve air quality, promote wellness, and engage students in plant science and campus-wide sustainability. |
| Glenridge Middle School | Develop the Harmony Garden, an outdoor learning and reflection space featuring native plants, pollinator habitats, and community-focused sustainability education. |
| Howell Branch Academy | Expand garden-based learning with an outdoor activity center while restoring a retention pond using native plants to improve water quality and biodiversity. |
| Methodist School for Early Education | Expand the outdoor vegetable garden with a dedicated “Kinder-garden” area to deepen hands-on learning about local food systems and growing food. |
| Orlando Gifted Academy | Create an Urban Habitat Patch transforming campus space into a living classroom focused on native plants, water conservation, biodiversity, and community engagement. |
| Park Maitland South | Design Soundscape, a sensory green space integrating music, art, and pollinator-friendly landscaping to teach sustainability and environmental stewardship. |
| Welbourne Nursery & Preschool | Enhance outdoor learning spaces with gardens and sustainable infrastructure to embed conservation, recycling, and hands-on environmental learning into daily activities. |