JUNE 2026

The Oaklandside, an independent nonprofit newsroom reporting on and serving Oakland, CA, does the story:

"A student-led campaign against idling cars at Oakland schools" - COMPLETE STORY

 

This story covered two Schools Are Not Drive-Thrus idle-free student-led and measured studies/campaigns at two Oakland schools: Oakland Tech (2025) and Lazear Charter Academy (2026). These projects were implemented by Green Driving America with funding provided by the East Bay Clean Cities Coalition. It starts out...

"Anyone who lives or works near a stretch of street where cars are idle knows the acrid smell of exhaust. For many Oakland students, that’s the smell surrounding their school entrance, where parents idle in the line to drop off and pick up their children day after day, exposing them to emissions."

MAY 2026

U-32 Middle & High School completes a Green Driving America Schools Are Not Drive-Thrus© project idle-free study/campaign in Vermont

 

Thanks to a grant award by an anonymous Upper Valley (VT and NH) foundation, Steve Sheeler, an 8th grade social studies teacher at U-32 Middle and High School in Montpelier, VT, advised his Middle School Seeking Social and Environmental Justice group in a campaign to address the harm and waste of idling on school grounds for the fall 2025/spring 2026 semesters. DETAILS

MAY 2026

Lazear Charter Academy completes a Green Driving America Schools Are Not Drive-Thrus© project idle-free study/campaign in California

 

Thanks to a grant award by the East Bay Clean Cities Coalition, Esperanza Magallanes a 7th grade science teacher at Lazear Charter Academy, a K-8 school in Oakland, guided her class in a campaign to address the harm and waste of idling on school grounds for the fall 2025/spring 2026 semesters. This campaign included five steps, with a final data collection. DETAILS

MAY 2025

Green Driving America completes a Schools Are Not Drive-Thrus© project at Oakland Technical High School, thanks to a grant award by the East Bay Clean Cities Coalition (CA)

 

Joseph Senn, an AP environmental science high school teacher at Oakland Technical High School, worked with his class in a student-led study/campaign in the spring 2025 semester that addressed the harm and waste—CO2 emissions and local air pollution—of largely unnecessary idling at the dismissal zone in front of the school! As in all Schools Are Not Drive-Thrus projects, Green Driving America provided idle-free zone signs, idle-free information handouts, and customized key chain incentives.

OCTOBER 2024

We welcome Kaleigh Krause as a volunteer intern attending Dartmouth College to give The Clean Transportation Path© project webinar presentations in Vermont driver education and high school STEM education classes.

 

Ms. Krause, a Junior with a major in Environmental Studies, gave her thoughts regarding transportation: "I see immense value in clean transportation because people are always going to commute and travel." "Clean transportation certainly has limitations and negative impacts, but I believe it is imperative that we work the kinks out because transportation accounts for almost 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions."

JUNE 2024

Wayne Michaud, executive director of Green Driving America, is a Zoom webinar presenter at the PacNorthwest Driver & Traffic Safety Virtual Conference.

 

The virtual workshop was organized by the Oregon Department of Transportation's Transportation Safety division and by the Traffic Safety Education program at Western Oregon University. Wayne, as one of six presenters, presented Smart Driving from the Start© before an audience of Oregon and Washington driver educators in consideration of implementing a funded project in one or both states in 2025.

APRIL 2024

Wayne is presented with a Certificate of Recognition at the San Mateo County Office of Education's 2024 Sustainable and Climate-Ready Schools Challenge Symposium.

 

Wayne was joined by Gay Buckland-Murray, Carlmont High School principal, at the event in Redwood City, CA, following a Green Driving America Schools Are Not Drive-Thrus© idle-free study/campaign at the school in the 2022-23 school year. The effort was led by the school’s Green Team which included the conducting of initial and final measuring of vehicle idling, resulting in a 75 percent reduction of idling.

APRIL 2024

We welcome an intern from University of Vermont to give The Clean Transportation Path© project webinar presentations in Vermont driver education and high school STEM education classes.

 

This volunteer intern, a sophomore, majors in Environmental Studies and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. The intern stated, "I am a strong advocate for the shift to energy-efficient vehicles and the widespread use of public transportation, so as to limit individual and community impacts on climate change and air quality." This was Green Driving America's fifth intern presenter since 2021. Volunteer interns, while not considered organization employees, are paid a stipend for each presentation.