Interview by Sumbul Mashhadi
School campuses are among the largest public spaces in our communities, yet many are still dominated by asphalt that traps heat and sends stormwater into the street. School greening is about reimagining those spaces with trees, gardens, and green infrastructure that make campuses cooler and healthier while capturing stormwater instead of losing it.
Dr. Sonali Abraham leads the Pacific Institute’s research on school greening research work, which found that Los Angeles (LA) County’s nearly 1,900 public school campuses generate about 3.15 billion gallons of stormwater runoff each year. That is rain landing on asphalt and rushing straight into storm drains instead of soaking into the ground. Roughly two out of every three of those gallons have the potential to be captured and used, benefiting schools and the surrounding community.
Q1. School greening sits at an interesting crossroads of water, climate, community wellbeing, and equity. How did you find yourself working at that intersection, and what keeps pulling you back to it?
Sonali: I came to this work somewhat organically. About four or five years ago I was working on a project looking at funding gaps for stormwater in LA and what we uncovered was that schools were just underfunded constantly. And we were like, wait, why? That seems like an area everyone should be able to get behind.
As we dug deeper, I got more passionate about it, because the space has huge potential to capture stormwater, reduce flooding, and cool neighborhoods, and it serves a really vulnerable population- our future generations. Greening, equity, and community are often thought about as separate from water, when water is deeply connected to all of it.
On a more personal level, during that same time, I became a parent. It’s now impossible not to think of the kind of school I want my child, and every child, to grow up in.
Q2. You have been in a lot of rooms lately where this work is generating real energy like panels, conversations with policymakers, and community organizations. What’s the question that keeps coming up that you think still isn’t getting enough attention?
Sonali: The biggest challenge I keep hearing is funding and capacity. Even with enthusiasm for school greening, schools are asked to do a lot already and don’t have enough staff and resources to make it happen. We are also learning that decision-making in schools is really difficult. The people on site and the people at the district level are so separated that everyone wants to do this, but no one is sure who is actually making the decision and how.
Second is the role of community organizations. The people on the ground who push these projects forward provide the momentum and understand how to make these things happen well, so helping create and facilitate those partnerships with schools is really key.
The third piece, and this is where the Pacific Institute can play a strong role, is driving system-wide policy.
I am seeing a lot of individual projects, which is great and must continue, but at the same time, we want school greening to become the norm rather than one-offs. That could mean limiting asphalt on campuses, expanding stormwater requirements to schools, or creating consistent funding streams. The challenge now is creating the policies and sustained investment needed to make school greening the default, not the exception.
Q3. If you picture a school that’s actually gotten this right, kids playing in the shade, water being captured instead of wasted, a neighborhood that feels the difference, who do you most want to see benefit from that, and how far off does that future feel?
Sonali: I want to say up front that this is already happening. We have seen great examples in California and across the country where children are playing under trees, rainwater is being captured, and the campus is a community asset. So, it is not that we need to prove it works. We need to figure out how to make it the standard.
I always hesitate to say who should benefit the most, because every child should benefit from these spaces. That said, declining school enrollment is felt most in under-resourced communities, the ones most affected by school closures, aging infrastructure, and limited funds for improvements. Those are also the communities that will gain the most from greener, healthier campuses. Like any environmental issue, school greening is an environmental justice issue.
School greening should be viewed as an investment in children’s health, education, and overall wellbeing.
It is about much more than adding green space for aesthetics. I grew up in Abu Dhabi, where all our schools had a significant amount of asphalt. At the time, it never occurred to me to question why we spent our days surrounded by pavement in one of the hottest climates in the world. Now, through this work, I often look back and think how different that experience could have been if our schools had been greener.
One of the things that excites me most is that this work brings together people from so many different sectors- education, water, public health, landscaping, planning- all working toward the same goal. It feels like we’re creating something really meaningful, and I’m excited to see where it goes.
Probably the hardest part of this job is reading the accounts and seeing how it really affects people on the ground.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Sonali Abraham
Senior Research Specialist
Pacific Institute
sabraham@pacinst.org