Schools can help mitigate environmental injustices suffered by low-income, high minority communities by increasing greenness on their property

Green infrastructure (GI) – which includes such features as natural corridors, parks, and urban forests – provides both environmental and social benefits. As a result of historic and systemic discrimination, GI is often harder to find in areas where residents have lower incomes and among communities of color. One strategy for promoting equitable access to GI for children is greening schoolyards. This study explored how race and income might relate to the distribution of GI in schoolyards versus adjacent neighborhoods in four school districts across North Carolina, USA.

The researchers focused on elementary schools within four urban school districts in the state: Charlotte, Fayetteville, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem. The school demographic variables included a consolidated race and ethnicity category (People of Color versus White) and the percent of students who receive Free or Reduced Lunch (FRL) as a measure of socioeconomic status (SES). Similarly, the demographics of the neighborhoods surrounding the schools were measured by a Social Vulnerability Index based on SES and race and ethnicity. Greenness and total canopy cover were measured by a land cover classification scheme: 1) bare ground; 2) roads/parking lots; 3) buildings; 4) grass/lawns; 5) trees/shrubs; and 6) water. The researchers ran statistical analyses to determine if relationships existed between GI and race and ethnicity in both neighborhoods and schoolyards in each city and all four cities together. Then they used statistical analysis to examine relationships between GI distribution and race and income for schoolyards and neighborhoods.

The analyses showed that (a) green space is more equally distributed in public schoolyards than in surrounding neighborhoods and (b) green space in schoolyards was not related to socioeconomic or racial composition of students. Green space in neighborhoods, however, was not evenly distributed, in that the more socially vulnerable neighborhoods had less green space than less vulnerable neighborhoods.

This research highlights the potential for schoolyards to help mitigate environmental injustices suffered by low-income, high minority communities. Low canopy cover on many schoolyards suggests there is opportunity to increase GI on the school property. Increasing GI in schoolyards can benefit all students, and particularly those with less access to green spaces as a result of historic discrimination practices. Schools can increase accessibility to green spaces in underserved communities by integrating shared use policies with surrounding communities, preserving and planting trees, and creating other opportunities for the community to benefit from the GI present on the schoolgrounds.