How Denver Public Schools Made Students the Center of its Sustainability Plans

When Trena Marsal joined Denver Public Schools in 1999, the district had no sustainability department. Its buildings, now 56 years old on average, ran on pneumatic controls and massive boilers she calls "energy hogs." Sustainability was treated as a cost center, not a strategy.

At the K12 Facilities Forum, Marsal, who climbed the ranks to become DPS's Chief Operations Officer, shared how that changed.

Start with the buildings, but don't stop there

The early work was practical: energy audits, retrofits funded by bonds and utility rebates, and building performance tracking. Over time, the goal shifted from fixing what's broken to "managing what matters."

The turning point came from students. As one high school student put it, with extreme heat, storms, and severe weather in the news, "the only thing that doesn't seem extreme is our response," Marsal said.

That student-led passion pushed the Board of Education to adopt a policy calling for DPS to be a national leader in sustainability, climate action and environmental justice. Sustainability was no longer just a facilities job – it became everyone's job. The result was a 23-goal climate action plan, built through two years of weekly meetings with students, that targets a 90% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The results so far?

• A sustainability team that grew from two people to 11
• Nearly 10 MW of solar panels installed on DPS schools
• 11 solar-powered outdoor classrooms
• 88 active school gardens
• About $12M in dedicated sustainability infrastructure funding
• 117 graduates earning a “Seal of Climate Literacy” through an innovative DPS curriculum that educates students on sustainability and environmental justice

In recent years, DPS has seen big challenges: declining enrollment, budget cuts, and board turnover. Marsal's advice to other school facilities and operations leaders is to stay prepared and innovative and keep students at the center of it all.

After all, it’s the job of school systems to prepare students to tackle the challenges of today to make a better tomorrow, not just for themselves, but for all.

"You can learn more from one student’s voice than we even learn from each other," she said.