Jennifer Fowler is in charge of all things environmental at Orange County Public Schools in Orlando, Florida. Her official title is Senior Director for the Environmental Compliance and Sustainability Department with Orange County Public Schools. This means she works on two critical fronts. In environmental compliance, she ensures that students and staff have safe and healthy spaces for learning by overseeing regulations on issues like asbestos, indoor air quality, and the petroleum storage tanks that service the district’s school buses. On the sustainability side, she leads wide-ranging initiatives aimed at creating a more eco-friendly future for the district.
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Under her guidance, Orange County Public Schools has soared, adopting ambitious 2030 sustainability goals that cover a broad range of key areas, such as transportation, health and wellness, school gardens, conservation, and recycling programs. It’s been nothing short of a total overhaul.
Ultimately, Jennifer sees her role as fostering a culture of sustainability—not just by setting goals but by making environmental awareness part of daily life. She points to her own children, who grew up recycling and now continue the habit in college and beyond. Jennifer’s hope is that by instilling these values through her job, the next generation will naturally embrace sustainable practices as a lasting way of life.
We spoke with Jennifer to learn more about her climate-focused work and the impressive steps the district is taking to build a greener future. Here’s what she had to say.
Talk us through your pathway to this job.
I started with Orange County Public Schools in 2008 as their Director for the Environmental Compliance Department. I’ve always had the solid waste recycling program underneath that department. And so really it started off with just recycling. And in 2009, our Chief Operations Officer at the time said we need to work toward sustainability. That role fell to me, and I took it and said, “Well, where do we need to go?”
In 2020, we really made some changes. The energy management team was reorganized over to me, which then officially created our sustainability office. We did a huge push on developing the Orange County Public Schools 2030 goals—that really took the district to the next step. I’m really proud of that.
How did you create the district sustainability goals?
We had input from over 47,000 people! We had a lot of advisory councils: We had teacher and student advisory councils. We had advisory councils with peers outside [the school districts], with Orange County government and with the City of Orlando. We went and did a listening tour [where] we talked to departments. And we also had survey questions that went out to parents.
From the time it first started to where it’s evolved to now is just amazing. When we started, back in 2009, sustainability wasn’t discussed. We’ve evolved and moved forward as sustainability has grown and become what it is today.
How does your job relate to the climate crisis?
The United Nations says [sustainability is] “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” And for me, that is exactly what we’re trying to do with the school district.
We are preparing our students, and the work we’re doing now is impacting our students and is going to give them that promising future. It’s about our kids and what we’re preparing them for.
Do you think the real-life impacts of climate change are altering the sustainability landscape?
That could play a role because the world has changed and more people are realizing the cost and the risks. We are preparing for [extreme weather] and looking at how we manage our schools and making sure that they’re comfortable, knowing that the temperatures are going up. We are having hotter, longer periods of hotter days.
What are some of the programs that you’ve successfully implemented?
I’m excited [about] our electric buses. We’ve started with six buses. We piloted that to see the benefits and how they can be used. As we go forward and we’re implementing another 20, we’re learning and making sure that they are being used appropriately, that they are effective and efficient and we’re meeting the needs of the district.
I’m also excited about our food recovery program. We have a grant with the USDA—a two-year pilot that is working toward food recovery. We are working toward recovering food scraps from our cafeterias so that they can be turned into compost. We’re learning, we’re doing it slowly because we want to make sure we know how to give all the schools what they need to be successful.
What do you love most about your job?
The impact I’m making for our kids and our schools and our staff. I’m seeing the positive impact and we’re working toward making sure we’re finding even more solutions to help them.
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Tell the House: Support the Indoor Air Quality and Healthy Schools Act