What does it look like when education actually rises to meet the climate crisis?
As of 2025, seven of nine planetary boundaries have been crossed. Planetary boundaries—described by the Stockholm Resilience Centre as “critical global processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth”—define the limits within which humanity can safely operate.
Like us, the leaders at the Villars Institute believe that education is one of the most powerful levers for planetary change. Yet, as the Villars Institute notes, many schools remain stuck at the level of awareness, without the tools or confidence to act.
That’s why the Villars Institute joined forces with HundrED to create the Spotlight on Planetary Health. The spotlight uplifts innovative education solutions that go above and beyond the standard approaches of environmental awareness to create opportunities for targeted action and systemic change. Our approach to teaching with the Solutionary Framework made the list of top 10 innovations, chosen from 224 submissions worldwide and reviewed by an advisory board with expertise in planetary health education. We were the only organization from the U.S. selected.
The Spotlight on Planetary Health Education was created to address a critical gap: students know about climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation, but most don’t have the tools or the confidence to do anything about it. The result is eco-anxiety—a growing sense of dread without a corresponding sense of agency.
At IHE, we teach how to guide students to take informed action. The result is increased student confidence, agency, optimism, and the skills to be positive changemakers.
Our Solutionary Framework guides students through identifying a real problem in their community, investigating it through a systems lens, developing solutions that do the most good and least harm for people, animals, and ecosystems, and then putting those solutions into practice. It’s not just a unit or a workshop; it’s a way of thinking and acting that students carry with them.
Here are some of the ways that students have taken action related to preserving, conserving, and promoting planetary health:
In response to concern about storm surge and coastal flooding: Students presented a plan for a town-wide emergency alert system to help residents during coastal flooding. They also installed a high tide meter at the town landing to track tide levels and raise community awareness of climate impacts.
In response to the high carbon footprint and health impacts associated with meat consumption: Students worked in tandem with the school nutrition staff to establish Meatless Mondays and led presentations for students and staff about the initiative.
In response to the functional extinction of the American Chestnut Tree in most US states: Students grew chestnut seedlings, planted them on campus, tracked growth, and created educational materials to inform the public about supporting the species’ survival.
In response to biodiversity loss due to deforestation, including dwindling availability of local medicinal plants: Students learned to identify and test plants for active bioenergetic properties, to propagate seedlings and repopulate them in the wild, and to catalog and create a compendium of medicinal plants in the area.
Teachers in more than 70 countries are using the Solutionary Framework to support student-led action. In Maine, hundreds of students have tackled food insecurity, water quality, and fast fashion. In Mexico, we’ve trained more than 300 teachers across 30 campuses. In just the past two months, dozens of teachers from across the US and around the world shared how their students are taking real action on real problems—and discovering that they have more power than they thought.
We’re proud to be recognized alongside nine other innovators from around the world who are meeting this moment. HundrED describes this Spotlight as “the starting point for a new global community of purpose.” We think that’s a good description of the solutionary movement, too.
Learn more about the Solutionary Micro-credential Course and how we are training educators to facilitate meaningful student-led action projects that give students more awareness and a sense of agency around what’s happening on our planet.