The central approach for achieving environmental literacy proposed by the Blueprint for Environmental Literacy (Blueprint) is to integrate environmental literacy efforts into California’s increasingly coherent and aligned K-12 education landscape so that all teachers are given the opportunity to use the environment as context for teaching their core subjects. An Environmental Literacy Task Force (ELTF) in 2014 to create a blueprint for achieving environmental literacy for all California students. Task Force members worked in teams to develop recommendations on such topics as expanding access to environmental literacy and healthy, green learning environments, ensuring availability of high-quality instructional materials, ensuring integration between formalii and informaliii (including Expanded Learningiv) education systems, defining environmental literacy learning outcomes and assessment, cultivating sustainable funding sources, ensuring availability of high-quality educator professional learning, and increasing access to environmental literacy experiences for California’s diverse populations. 

Out of this work, six guiding principles emerged as keystones for the Blueprint for Environmental Literacy for California:

1. Equity of Access: We must achieve environmental literacy for all California students, not just a few.
2. Sustainability and Scalability of Systems: We must identify and commit to securing dedicated and sustained funding sources for environmental literacy and work within the current context of California's education transformation to harness momentum and create long-term impact.
3. Collaborative Solutions: Collaboration among the many stakeholders and community partners involved in environmental literacy is critical to implementing the recommendations contained in this document.
4. Commitment to Quality: Students must have access to high-quality learning experiences and materials inside and outside of the classroom that cultivate environmental literacy. Formal and informal educators must have access to high-quality professional learning opportunities. 
5. Cultural Relevance and Competence: The success of environmental literacy efforts in California will hinge upon culturally competent educators utilizing educational resources and approaches that are responsive to the culture and experiences of the state's diverse students and families.  
6. Variety of Learning Experiences: Students can best develop environmental literacy through a combination of learning experiences in and out of the classroom, including outdoor and informal education, experiences in green school buildings and grouns, and students' local parks, and in residential outdoor science programs. 

These principles are defined in more detail in the ELP, and they informed six essential overarching strategies to achieve environmental literacy for all California students: 

1. Systematically integrate environmental literacy concepts into statewide educational priorities, including new academic standards, new and revised curriculum frameworks, state-adopted textbooks and learning materials, professional learning programs, and the emerging new state accountability and assessment systems. Use funding allocated for implementation of the California CCSS and NGSS to enhance professional learning for educators around environmental literacy instruction.
2. Strengthen collaboration across the state between key stakeholders, including formal and informal educators, state agencies, and divisions of the California Department of Education. The Task Force recommends re-envisioning, adequately funding, and increasing the capacity of the California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC) Networkvi as one important way to catalyze collaboration at the regional and state levels. CREEC should also work to increase educator access to instructional materials and professional learning resources, including resources for teaching environmental literacy outdoors, in the local community, in residential outdoor science programs and other informal educational settings, and in green schools and schoolyards.
3. Leverage the State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s influence and create a public awareness campaign to build broad support for the importance of environmental literacy, and encourage and support increased allocation of state and locally controlled funding to environmental literacy programs.
4. Implement changes to relevant state law and policy, and ensure that relevant existing laws are funded and effectively implemented.
5. Create an “Environmental Literacy Steering Committee,” with representation from multiple stakeholder groups, which will oversee the implementation of the recommendations in this Blueprint, including the development or strengthening of capacities necessary to implement this work.
6. Develop a coherent strategy for funding environmental literacy across the state by identifying the resources needed and judiciously matching existing and new funding sources with key priorities. The ultimate goal is to develop sustained funding to support statewide, enduring, and high-quality environmental literacy efforts.