Milwaukee Public Schools and Reflo converted asphalt-covered schoolyards into green, nature-based community spaces that capture stormwater, reduce heat and expand equitable access to nature. School selection and site design were led by the communities most affected by environmental racism, ensuring that local priorities and lived experiences shaped how investments were made.
Milwaukee's public schoolyards — serving a student population that is 82% economically disadvantaged and 91% students of color — are dominated by impervious asphalt that drives polluted stormwater into Lake Michigan, worsens urban heat and leaves densely populated, historically underinvested neighborhoods without safe green spaces. The schools with the least fundraising capacity, often those facing the highest environmental burdens often have the fewest resources to address them and limited fundraising capacity to transform these spaces on their own.
- Formed the Green Schools Consortium of Milwaukee
- Launched a community-based school selection process, ensuring the schools chosen for redevelopment reflected community priorities rather than top-down planning
- Replaced asphalt with permeable pavement, native landscaping, bioswales, cisterns and shade trees
- Utilized low-maintenance materials, weather-resistant furnishings and strong tree guards to address vandalism and upkeep
- Formed community "green teams," with paid student maintenance roles, to build local ownership and job skills
- Created a Sustainability Project Specialist position and later a Climate Justice Curriculum Coach to embed sustainability and climate education into ongoing district operations
- Ran a paid student environmental internship program and an annual Green & Healthy Schools Conference, turning each schoolyard redevelopment into a pipeline for exposure to green jobs and an opportunity to share knowledge with other communities
- Transformed 31 schoolyards since 2019
- Removed more than 1 million square feet of asphalt, added over 280,000 square feet of new green spaces and converted more than 500 acres of impervious surfaces into community assets across Milwaukee
- Captured an estimated 34 million gallons of stormwater and planted more than 4,000 trees, directly reducing pollution in Lake Michigan and cutting urban heat in some of the city's most paved neighborhoods
- Engaged more than 16,000 students in hands-on outdoor learning and more than 125 youth in paid environmental internships
- Prompted the Milwaukee Board of School Directors to adopt three climate justice resolutions and create two new sustainability staff positions
- Influenced the City of Milwaukee's 2023 Climate and Equity Plan and its “Nature in the City Policy,” including the adoption of a goal to double the number of annual schoolyard redevelopments
- Drew replication interest and site visits from peer cities, including Seattle, Atlanta, San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Providence and Baltimore
- Selected for the national Children & Nature Network Cities Program, positioning Milwaukee's community-led, equity-first model as a national reference point for green schoolyard programs
