BRIGHT GREEN CLASSROOM

Environmental literacy for the climate crisis

Bright Green Future uses storytelling to showcase climate solutions in-action and guide discussions on putting ecological knowledge into practice directly in our communities.

The book makes concepts like the circular economy, regenerative agriculture, and climate justice accessible and AWESOME for high school and college students:

  • Energy: How principles of symbiosis can get us to 100% renewable energy more quickly and equitably.

  • Zero-waste: How wisdom from ecosystems can revolutionize the way we make everyday products.

  • Cities: How to design walkable cities centered in social justice.

  • Food and farming: How farms can heal degraded land and draw carbon out of the sky.

The goal is to provide young people with a deep understanding of sustainability thinking to become stewards of our Earth in a renaissance to heal the planet.

Ready-made lessons in every chapter

Each chapter includes “Keep Exploring” questions to develop lessons and activities. Check out this chapter preview on how ecosystems can revolutionize the way we make everyday products:

Critical thinking on sustainability

We can’t solve the climate crisis with the same thinking that caused it. Bright Green Future introduces students to new types of critical thinking to help us design holistic solutions.

  • Systems thinking

    Learn how problems intersect and overlap. See how top-down and bottom-up actions affect each other. Explore how holistic solutions can address several issues at the same time to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

  • Community thinking

    It’s import to ensure that the major changes needed to avert the climate crisis, benefit our local communities. BGF centers the adoption of new models and technologies in social justice.

  • Regenerative thinking

    Students will learn how we can regenerate degraded land and natural resources, while building the community resilience to adapt to climate change.

 Civic engagement

Bright Green Future provides key questions to help young people discover the work that feels meaningful to them and their communities:

  • What vision or project for a better world compels you?

  • What’s meaningful and impactful to the people and ecologies around you?

  • Who’s already working on that vision?

  • What can we offer each other?

After dozens of inspiring stories on ways to address our environmental crises, these questions can help orient students towards local projects that speak to them.

The authors are also connected with hundreds of activists and innovators at leading environmental organizations and are excited to forge opportunities and partnerships.

Careers and innovation

The diversity of examples in Bright Green Future show how many different ways there are to join this renaissance to empower people and planet. The book broadens the range of careers and opportunities that are part of the solution:

  • Energy: Energy justice advocacy, clean power tech, electric mobility, economic development in regions dependent on fossil-fuel jobs

  • Industry: Circular product design, materials science, extended producer responsibility, socially conscious business, cooperative economics

  • Cities: Grassroots real-estate development, walkable city planning, sprawl repair, green infrastructure, community organizing

  • Farms: Food justice and sovereignty, farmland access, soil science, farmworker rights advocacy, international development, ecological land management

Sneak peak into stories from the book

Bright Green Future strives to make important concepts accessible by showing them in action through real-world stories. Here’s a sampling of what’s in the book:

  • California counties take control of their energy resources to achieve 100% clean power by 2025

  • Native American community builders create a new model for designing cities

  • Laid-off coal miners transform abandoned surface mines into regenerative food forests

  • Scientists use an ancient bacteria to create plastic that can biodegrade in the ocean

  • Marine biologist mimics how coral reefs make limestone to create rock for concrete out of thin air

  • Guatemalan farmer uses wisdom of rainforest ecosystems to empower farmworkers

  • Buffalo rancher restores degraded grassland during the biggest drought in a thousand years

  • Community farm trains Black and Indigenous farmers to decolonize our food system

  • Startup reimagines metals in our electronics like nutrients in an ecosystem

  • Electric bus company works to save public transit and revolutionize access to mobility

Get the educator’s discount

Educators receive 25% off signed copies of Bright Green Future. Use the form below to request a discount.

Feel free to share about your work. We love to collaborate on projects, hosts discussions, and learn from your wisdom and experience as an environmental educator!

Discussions and workshops

We host discussions on envisioning a sustainable society in collaboration with schools and leading environmental organizations. Our presentations engage students and activists to think deeply about the future of our dreams and provide real cases of the changemakers who are building it now.

You can request the author of Bright Green Future to speak at your school or facilitate a creative design workshop.