Partners for Sustainable Schools is formed as a DBA of the Institute for Sustainability Education and Ecology. In its early years, PSS focused on our "Hope in Action" student conferences and  the "Cool School Challenge", an in-class climate education program developed in partnership with the University of Oregon.

Inaugural "Hope in Action" conference (an event that brought together hundreds of students from across Eugene/Springfield for a day of learning about environmental and climate issues, who in their community are working on solutions, and ways students can take action). In total, PSS hosted over a dozen Hope In Action conferences from 2009-2019.

PSS continues building school partnerships at the middle and high school levels in Lane County with the "Cool School Challenge" program, and became the Regional Coordinator for the Oregon Green Schools program (and continued to coordinate the program until 2022).

PSS develops and launches the "Green Partnership Schools" (GPS) program: a 4th grade-level lesson series that focused on the interconnectedness of living systems, human impact on essential resources such as soil, water, and air, and actions students could take in their schools and homes to be responsible Earth stewards.

PSS adds a 5^th grade lessons series to the GPS program, that focused on connecting classrooms with local community partners working on environmental and climate issues and built upon what students learned in the 4^th grade lessons, while steadily increasing the number of classroom sessions provided at the 4^th grade level.  At the apex of the GPS program, PSS was working with nearly 20 Lane County schools at the 4^th and/or 5^th grade levels, and with nearly a dozen community partners paired with specific schools.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted the GPS program in early 2020, and PSS began visioning for a program that could increase our impact and scope—thus the Our Future Student Leadership Network was born. The Our Future network was co-created, and continues to operate, entirely in collaboration with student ideas, efforts, and feedback. Our Regional Leaders develop projects, events, and initiatives, and work with community partners to amplify climate action, awareness, and justice efforts throughout the state of Oregon. We look forward to what the network will accomplish in the 2025-26 school year!

Our Future is honored to be a featured non-profit in a permanent climate exhibit being built in the Natural Sciences Hall at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The network is part of the "Resilience, Adaptations, and Solutions" Community Story Hall, and will feature a short video with some of our Regional Leaders as well as some information about how to connect with the network. Stay tuned to learn more about this exciting exhibit!