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Tag: Environmental Issues

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Inter-American Development Bank, 2015

Rise Up Against Climate Change! A school-centered educational initiative. 

Module 2

There is nothing more stimulating than deciding to improve the space in which one lives and works. In so doing, one can change the way one lives. Doing this alone, while possible, is extremely difficult. Doing it as a group is a great experience! Many traditional communities have social arrangements that facilitate collaborative work, such as indigenous communities in many Latin American and Caribbean villages. In Mexico this collective form of work is known as tequio; the inhabitants of a place come together to carry out the work, whether it be constructing a house for newlyweds, a church for the town, a collapsed bridge, or any other job that can be completed quickly and efficiently when done in collaboration. Would you like to initiate a similar adventure in your school?

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Published on

Inter-American Development Bank, 2015

Rise Up Against Climate Change! A school-centered educational initiative. 

Module 3

Educational spaces, apart from their functionality and efficient use of natural resources, should be conducive to learning and offer comfort and security to the people entering them. This requires construction and maintenance processes that keep in mind both the occupants and the environmental conditions that surround them.

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DLR Group

School facilities are evolving from traditional indoor learning spaces to multiple-dimensional spaces that use the entire campus as a learning environment. During our school planning work sessions and design charrettes with students, the message they consistently convey to our designers is the desire to freely move outdoors during the day. It is clear that access to outdoor spaces enhances the overall educational and social experience. Studies by the American Institutes for Research and the Council for Educational Facility Planners International indicate students’ overall health and test scores can benefit from outdoor activity.

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Richard Weeks, 2010. Last Wednesday evening, the fictitious Liberty District School Board spent an hour discussing rental fees for the new Liberty Elementary School playground and athletic fields. During the televised discussion, the district’s school business official passed the superintendent a note that read, “Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the possi- bility that the pressure-treated wood on the playground is contaminated with arsenic?” The superintendent passed the note back to her with this response: “Now is not the time nor the place to discuss the possibility of leeched arsenic all over the playground. Please handle this tomorrow.”

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The Center for Green Schools, 2014.

Several years ago, the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University was involved in the planning of green school projects in and around our community of Fort Collins. We saw the potential for these buildings to be more than healthy, high-performing facilities; we saw that they held the capacity to teach students and community members about sustainability. Through the design, construction, and operations of these schools, we realized that not only is an educational component beneficial, it is imperative to the long-term sustainable operations of green school buildings and grounds. We saw that even the noblest of green building design intentions can be lost if sustainability is not integrated into the facility’s operational practices and educational program.

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The Center for Green Schools, 2014.

A partnership between Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)® and the Center for Green Schools (the Center) at the U.S. Green Building Council wasn’t—at first glance—an obvious one. HMH, a global learning company that focuses on delivering best-in-class content to students and teachers, came to the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting to observe and learn from like-minded organizations that were pursuing innovative solutions to global challenges. The Center, a nonprofit with a mission to put every student in a green school within this generation, was at CGI cultivating partners to lead the movement toward healthy, safe, and resource-efficient schools. Our goals proved to be entirely complementary, and after just a year, our unconventional partnership has already been transformative in achieving our shared goal to educate all students so they graduate prepared for a more sustainable future.

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The Alliance's K-12 and higher education programs empower students to change the culture of their academic environment to one that embraces energy efficiency.  Students lead no-cost behavior changes, building retrofits, events on green careers, and other initiatives that save energy within and beyond their school building.  They also contribute to integrated demand side management where applicable.

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See Action, State & Local Energy Efficiency Action Network

Historically, energy efficiency programs have relied on financial incentives to motivate people to purchase energy efficient products.  Behavior‐based energy efficiency strategies rely on other motivations that influence people’s energy consumption. These non-financial influences can be powerful motivators that encourage people to reduce their energy consumption. For example, some utilities send their customers home energy reports, which present that customer’s energy use relative to similar home.

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The Center for Green Schools, 2013.

A toolkit for Behavior-based energy conservation in k-12 schools.

This report examines five public schools that have reduced their electricity use by an astonishing 20 to 37 percent through successful behavior-based strategies.  These exemplar schools vary in their attributes and are spread across the United States, but their programs are linked and defined by shared elements and strategies.

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