Americans Care About Green Schools

Rachel Gutter
Director, Center for Green Schools
U.S. Green Building Council

As a former teacher, I’ve seen first-hand the transformative effect that great educational environments can have on teacher motivation, student performance and community engagement. I also know that parents are unfailingly dedicated to their children’s education and will do just about anything to give their kids an advantage in life.

Over the past year, we at the Center for Green Schools have witnessed thousands of volunteers, educators, school administrators and policy makers transforming our nation’s schools into inspiring places where children learn and thrive. 2011 was a landmark year for the green schools movement, so you can imagine that it was tough to whittle down the long list of accomplishments to 10 big wins. But we did.

Today the Center, along with its founding sponsor, United Technologies Corp., released its “Best of Green Schools 2011” list, highlighting these 10 leading states, cities, districts and decision makers that have gone above and beyond in their efforts to ensure every student has the opportunity to learn in a healthy, safe environment. With the Best Of list, we celebrate schools and regions from across the nation – from K-12 to higher education – for their commitments to measurable and innovative sustainability initiatives and their contributions to the Center’s mission to green every school in America. This year’s recipients ranged from federal collaborations to individual school victories. Here’s a taste of trailblazers who rose to the top of our list:

Best Moment for the Movement, U.S. Department of Education, Green Ribbon Schools
Green Ribbon is the first comprehensive and coordinated federal initiative to focus on the intersection of environment, health and education.  In my mind, this program is the biggest thing to happen to the green schools movement, ever. To date, 33 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to participate.

Best City, Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia School District and its community partners have made amazing progress in 2011 toward the greening of their 291 public schools. The district has a commitment that all new schools certify to LEED Silver and has been rolling out a plan to address the city’s existing schools. This year, Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School – a Title 1 school where 90 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch – made AYP for the first time after moving into the district’s first LEED Platinum facility.

Best Collaborators, Kentucky
State Representatives Jim Decesare (R) and Mary Lou Marzian (D) led their colleagues in the Kentucky General Assembly to unanimously adopt a series of resolutions in support of green schools and have encouraged their legislator peers in other states to replicate their efforts to work across party lines. Last month, Jim and Mary Lou invited bipartisan group of decision makers from six states around the region to visit the nation’s first net-zero school and discover common ground on the topic of green schools. I was there to see that common ground wasn’t hard to find – who doesn’t support healthy, high-performing schools that educate healthy, high performing students?

The Best of 2011 list comes on the heels of a third party, nationwide survey we commissioned earlier this year, which revealed that one third of Americans think that the majority of U.S. schools are in “poor shape.”  Moreover, 90 percent of respondents indicated that the condition of our nation’s schools is no better than adequate. The same survey revealed that Americans see school modernization as a high-priority investment. And despite what Congress would have us believe, nearly three out of four Americans support federal investment in school building improvements focused on creating healthier learning environments, saving tax dollars or lowering carbon emissions.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that at least 25,000 U.S. schools are in need of extensive repairs and more than 10,000 of those schools have air that is unfit to breath.  On the flip side, research has shown that, on average, green schools save $100,000 per year on operating costs. Greening our schools just makes sense and our hats go off to this year’s designees for their practical and forward thinking.

At the Center for Green Schools, we view the greening of America’s schools as an imperative, and think that no elementary, middle, high school or higher education institution should be left behind. Whether it’s finding out if your state is participating in Green Ribbon, convincing your school board to implement sustainable practices or teaching your kids to turn off lights and recycle, join parents around the country who are getting engaged and working to transform the way we design, build, operate and maintain our schools.

For more information on each of this year’s recipients, please visit: centerforgreenschools.org/bestof2011 or read the press release.

From Red to Blue, States Across the Country Adopt the Green Ribbon Schools Program

Nathaniel Allen
Advocacy Lead, Center for Green Schools
U.S. Green Building Council

Just weeks after the Department of Education released the framework for the Green Ribbon Schools award, 22 states have announced their participation in this voluntary program. From Pennsylvania to California, red to blue, states are realizing the Green Ribbon Schools program is a way to achieve current goals around the improvement of their education systems. In case you’ve missed the buzz, the Green Ribbon Schools program is an initiative from the U.S. Department of Education, in collaboration with other federal agencies, to recognize and award schools demonstrating excellence across three categories: healthy learning environments, building efficiency and environmental education.

The Center has been supportive of Green Ribbon Schools since the concept was introduced, in large part because the program provides a clear connection point for the many federal programs and initiatives relating to healthy, high performing schools, as well as the many non-governmental organizations working to advance the green schools movement. And since the launch of this program, there has been a tremendous outpouring of support from the NGO community to assist schools and states interested in pursuing the Green Ribbon Award.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan commended the Center’s work with Green Ribbon at the Sustainability Summit saying, “the U.S. Green Building Council is working with school districts and universities to incorporate green technology into schools. These schools not only are good for the environment, they provide a better learning environment for students—and they are cost efficient. The council is bringing together the nation's strongest advocates for education—representing more than 10 million members across the country to build a national infrastructure of healthy, high-performance schools that are conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money.”

States are viewing their participation in Green Ribbon as a way to use their existing standards, resources and grants to achieve sustainable goals – reduce operational costs, increase STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning, and improve student and staff health. Moreover, state departments of education are realizing they’re not alone in these efforts – there is a host of existing federal resources to help ensure schools can be high performing in the standards that Green Ribbon sets out.

The progress of the Green Ribbon Schools program to date has been nothing short of extraordinary. Rarely do multi-agency initiatives come together with the speed – and careful quality – demonstrated by the launch of Green Ribbon. And with this week’s release of the Proceedings Report from the 2010 Sustainability in Education Summit, we’re reminded that the Department of Education is also following through on one of the summit’s key recommendations: demonstrating their strong commitment to improving sustainability in education, and ultimately ensuring the vision of every child in a green school.

For more information, and to view the proceedings report, visit:

http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/strat/sustainability/summit-2010.doc

Department of Education launches Green Ribbon Schools Program

Nathaniel Allen
Associate, Schools Advocacy
U.S. Green Building Council

With today’s announcement from Secretary Arne Duncan, the Department of Education has finalized the criteria for the Green Ribbon Schools program and is inviting schools to participate in this landmark initiative. This program is truly the biggest thing to happen to the green schools movement, and the opening of this voluntary recognition program creates a new center of gravity for the many organizations, associations, coalitions and individuals working to advance and the Center’s mission to put every child in a green school within this generation.

I strongly encourage all local schools to visit the Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools website to review the criteria, which is divided into three pillars – (1) healthy learning environments, (2) environmental impact and energy efficiency and (3) environmental literacy – and work with their state education authority to submit their application.

The speed and efficiency with which the Department of Education has been able to develop and launch this program, collaborating closely with EPA and other federal agencies, is incredibly noteworthy, and shows that there is a clear national priority for green schools. Further, when this initiative is considered alongside the implications for green schools currently contained within the American Jobs Act, it’s clear the green schools movement has reached a tipping point.

Since the announcement to launch this program last April, we’ve been proud to express our excitement around this initiative and work collaboratively with leaders from the public sector and NGO community to promote the success of this program. This is a proud moment for everyone working to advance the green schools movement, but I’d to personally congratulate our friend Jim Elder, Director of the Campaign for Environmental Literacy, who originally conceived the idea for this program and has worked tirelessly to build a nationwide network of make Green Ribbon Schools a reality.

Department of Education Announces Landmark Green Schools Program

Nathaniel Allen
Associate, Schools Advocacy
U.S. Green Building Council

Today, the federal government launched an initiative that may be the biggest thing to ever happen to the green schools movement.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley announced the creation of a Green Ribbon Schools program. (Read the Green Ribbon Schools press release from the Department of Education.)

Modeled after the Blue Ribbon Schools program, which recognizes academic distinction, the Green Ribbon Schools program will be a voluntary award, recognizing schools that are demonstrating excellence – or making notable improvement – toward sustainability. Though still in development, the program will evaluate schools across four categories: environmental education; energy efficiency and resource conservation; healthy operations and maintenance; and community engagement and service learning.

L to R: Sean Miller, Earth Day Network; Danielle Moodie, National Wildlife Federation; Jim Elder, Campaign for Environmental Literacy; Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education; Rachel Gutter, Nathaniel Allen and Jason Hartke, Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council.

The program is a milestone in collaboration among the Department of Education, EPA and White House CEQ, and it will undoubtedly raise the profile of green schools. But more significantly, if one looks closely within the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and the Department of Energy, there are dozens of programs, grants and initiatives that can relate to healthy, high-performing schools. The Green Ribbon Schools program has the opportunity to help connect these dots and advance change at a level we've not yet seen.

Kudos to our friend Jim Elder, Director of the Campaign for Environmental Literacy, for originally conceiving this idea. We've been proud to work closely with Jim, as well as our colleagues at the National Wildlife Federation and Earth Day Network, to help advance this concept to reality. (Read our shared press release.) In total, 75 state and national organizations signed on in support of this program prior to today's announcement. This is a landmark day for green schools, and we give the federal government tremendous credit for advancing an initiative that will help ensure the vision of green schools for everyone within this generation.