Our History

One lesson on a hot June day in 2011 and just $70 in supplies led to many new adventures and growth each year. Read some highlights below:

2011: CiS is founded with a single lesson in a Beverly, MA classroom.
2012: Governor Deval Patrick participates in and endorses the program.
2013: CiS receives a $100K Cummings Foundation grant and hires its first two employees.
2014: CiS is awarded Excellence in Environmental Education from the MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
2015: CiS reaches 250+ participating classrooms. Students make 11 million changes to lower their carbon footprint.
2016: CiS is ranked the #2 Co-Op site, worldwide, for Northeastern University students.
2017: National Green Schools awards CiS with the Sustainability Award for Outstanding Education Program with Proven Track Record.
2018: CiS reaches its 20,000th student and receives a $100K grant from the Woodard and Curran Foundation to build SCiLL.
2019: CiS designs and begins building SCiLL, the Northeastern University longitudinal study begins, and Fidelity designs the CiS Web Platform to track its actions around sustainability.
2020: Northeastern and CiS’s initial study results reveal a strong impact in the classroom. CiS launches an online learning platform in response to the pandemic.
2021: CiS celebrates its 10th year and wins generous grants from the Cummings Foundation, Project Innovation, & Braitmeyer Foundation.
2022: SCiLL shell is delivered, built out, branded and launched into schools in May & June! Almost 500 students visit SCiLL within the first half of the year.