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E-NEWS Summer 2026
Attention teens: Become a SAVE Ambassador this year and be a positive force for Virginia's environment!
Keep Virginia Beautiful's statewideStudent Ambassadors for Virginia's Environment (SAVE) Programempowers high school juniors and seniors to become environmental leaders in their communities. Through education, service projects, and advocacy, SAVE ambassadors gain hands-on experience addressing environmental challenges while inspiring others to protect and beautify Virginia's natural resources. The SAVE Program gives students the opportunity to lead meaningful environmental projects, develop leadership skills, and connect with peers and others who share a commitment to creating cleaner, greener communities across the Commonwealth.
We are recruiting now for the 2026/2027 school year! Applications are due by September 15th. If you know a teen who is passionate about the environment, this is a great opportunity for them to take their efforts to the next level.
Love Where You Live! Big change begins with everyday actions. During our annual statewide LOVE VA campaign, individuals, families, schools, businesses, organizations, and communities across Virginia are invited to take part in activities that make their corner of the Commonwealth cleaner, greener, and more beautiful.
This year we launched the Keep Virginia Beautiful Network as a hub for clean up and green up activities, and it's where all the action for LOVE VA will take place. You can find or create volunteer activities; report results for your litter cleanups, recycling activities, plantings or other beautification efforts; request native Virginia wildflower seed packets to support your work; and be inspired by our collective efforts through cumulative metrics for results, pictures of activities, and a Leaderboard feature for friendly competition. Reporting your results also enters you into drawings to win sustainability prizes, and there are even cash prizes for most litter collected!
Every activity counts, from picking up litter on your own to organizing larger events. Be sure to log your efforts and join your fellow Virginians in acts of service to show our love for the places where we live, work, and play. Virginia is home. Let's show it some love this autumn!
Together, Keep Virginia Beautiful and the CoStar Group do beautiful things as part of LOVE VA!
LOVE VA was launched in 2023 and has been made possible each year by the generous Presenting Sponsorship of theCoStar Group. Not only have they provided critical financial support, their employees and families have volunteered every year as part of LOVE VA activities! In partnership with Capital Trees, Richmond Parks and Recreation, and Keep Virginia Beautiful they have planted trees and pollinator gardens, facilitated the removal invasive species, and conducted litter cleanups at Canoe Run Park in Richmond.
The Greatest Virginia Greenup was the Greatest Ever!
The Greatest Virginia Greenup is a statewide call to action to beautify the Commonwealth from the first day of spring (March 20) to the first day of summer (June 20) each year. Virginia communities come together to clean, plant, restore, and strengthen public spaces.
This year, we launched a first-of-its-kind statewide platform, The Keep Virginina Beautiful Network, as part of the Greatest Virginia Greenup. This free, mobile-friendly platform made it easier than ever for Virginians to organize cleanups, report their impact, and earn recognition for keeping our Commonwealth beautiful. For the first time, every litter cleanup across the state — whether led by a scout troop, a corporate team, a state agency, adopt-a-highway volunteers, civic groups, schools, or a single dedicated neighbor — could be tracked, measured, and celebrated in one place.
Thank you to everyone who was part of the Greatest Virginia Greenup and reported results on the new Network platform! The results were AMAZING: more than 5,000 volunteers engaged across 58 localities with 192 litter cleanup reports filed and over 5,700 bags of litter collected! Just over 7,000 native Virginia wildflower seed packets were distributed to support efforts, and 52 sustainability kits were awarded as prizes for participation. Plus, big congratulations to our cash prize winners for most litter collected: Keep Suffolk Beautiful, Keep Norfolk Beautiful, Clean Gloucester Clean Commission, Keep Loudoun Beautiful, the Fred & Spotsy Cleanup Crew, Lynnhaven River NOW, and the Tri-County Lakes Administrative Commission.
We are proud and energized by the stellar showing of Green Grant awardees announced this summer. 30 grants totaling $25,500 were awarded to groups across the Commonwealth dedicated to improving their communities and our shared environment.
Similar to past grant cycles, we invited project proposals in the categories of Litter Prevention, Cigarette Litter Prevention and Recycling, Community Beautification, and Recycling and Waste Reduction. For 2026, we created the new category of Environmental Education as a way to grow the reach of the GreenGrants program. We were thrilled to see that Environmental Education received the highest number of proposals and over 50 percent of submissions were from first-time applicants.
To learn more about the groups who were awarded and their projects, please clickhere.
We are grateful to our panel of judges who reviewed and scored the applications, as well as our sponsors who make GreenGrants possible: Altria, PepsiCo, GFL Environmental, and TowneBank.
Now in its 15th year, Green Grants has awarded $416,750 in funding to support 509 projects throughout Virginia. GreenGrants is a testament to the collective impact that is achieved when we come together to do beautiful things!
The vast majority of our funding for statewide programs for litter prevention, recycling, and beautification come from the private sector and from supporters like you. Thank you!
Let's work together! Learn more about ways to engage and sponsorship opportunities HERE
Plus, please consider a gift of any amount to support our work:
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