Organizations and Groups in the USGBC's Center for Green Schools

The US Green Building Council's (USGBC) Center for Green Schools is dedicated to increasing the number of green schools. Here are some of their organizations, groups and initiatives.

The Coalition for Green Schools
An alliance of the nation's leading educational and environmental associations, including the American Architectural Foundation, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, National PTA, National School Boards Association and many others, the Coalition is in pursuit of a common mission: provide every child in America with a green school. For more information or to apply click here.

The 50 for 50 Green Schools Caucus Initiative
This initiative equips state legislators with the knowledge, tools and networks they need to advance effective state policies that promote the benefits of green schools. For more information click here.

Mayors' Alliance for Green Schools
The Alliance unites mayors from major cities and small towns across the country around a common goal: bringing the benefits of green schools to their local communities. For more information click here.

USGBC Chapter Green Schools Committees
Across USGBC's national chapter network, more than 1,000 Green Schools Committee volunteers are leading local and regional campaigns to promote healthy green school buildings. Committees raise community awareness, host green schools events, give presentations, support local schools, engage educators and work with local media to share their stories. For more information click here.

USGBC Students
Representing college and university-based groups of students from all disciplines who come together to green their campuses, communities and careers, USGBC Students has 60 active groups and expects to engage more than 250 student groups nationwide over the next five years. For more information or to get involved click here.

Center for Green Schools Fellows
The Fellows program connects carefully selected and extensively trained green schools experts to serve as full-time sustainability officers to local school districts for three-year terms. Fellows provide dedicated, hands-on project and organizational support for district-wide green schools initiatives. For more information click here.

Congressional Green Schools Caucus
Under bipartisan leadership on Capitol Hill, and with programmatic support from the Center for Green Schools, the Caucus brings together nearly 60 federal legislators to educate and inform Congress on the enormous impact of greening our nation's schools. For more information click here.

Take Action
You can promote green schools in your community or school district by supporting a green schools resolution. Policies endorsing green schools have been enacted in state legislatures, by school boards, and by city councils across the country. Good first steps towards passing a green schools resolution are identifying local partners, making the case, working from a sample resolution and learning best practices from other communities . For more information click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved

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Green School Buildings Offer Many Benefits

Green school construction offers many benefits including thousands of new jobs. Green schools use an average of 33% less energy and 32% less water than conventional schools. A 2006 study sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, the American Institute of Architects, the American Lung Association, the Federation of American Scientists and USGBC found that building green would save an average school $100,000 each year in energy costs along – enough to hire two new additional full-time teachers, purchase 5,000 new textbooks, or buy 500 new computers.

Green schools have a superior indoor environment, with clean, fresh air, free of dangerous chemicals from everyday products like carpets, paints and cleaning materials.

Green school buildings make use of as much natural daylight as possible, maximizing students’ ability to concentrate and stay physically and emotionally healthy while at the same time dramatically reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Green schools’ better lighting, temperature control, ventilation and indoor air quality contribute to reduced asthma, colds, flu and absenteeism, helping improve learning, test scores and lifetime student earnings. And green schools boost morale and improve teacher retention.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved

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USGBC's Center for Green Schools

The the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Center for Green Schools envisions green schools for everyone within this generation. To help achieve this objective the USGBC provides resources for green builders, school administrators, elected officials and community members.

S. Richard Fedrizzi, the President, CEO and Founding Chair of USGBC believes "there is no other market that speaks more powerfully to the benefits and potential of green buildings than our schools."

According to Fedrizzi, "The Center for Green Schools at USGBC is helping to engage educators in creating sustainable learning environments for their students and apply solid research to inform leadership—from school boards to college presidents—about the benefits of healthy, high-performing schools. They are working with state and local governments to draft smart, practical policies, and they provide trainings and helpful resources to those who need it most—K-12 schools serving lower-income families, under-resourced institutions and community colleges. The Center serves to convene conversations with key decision makers, collaborate with leading education and environmental associations and create tools and resources that help make green schools possible."

Fedrizzi also states that, "Advocacy tools are also being created and disseminated to support USGBC Student Groups and our nationwide network of more than 1,000 Green School Committee volunteers. We want to inspire innovation that can be replicated and deployed at lightning speed to every school and every college and university campus in this country and beyond."

The Center for Green Schools web site is filled with facts on the benefits and costs of green schools, including the ways green schools foster learning, decrease student and teacher absenteeism from respiratory and other illnesses, reduce energy and water bills, and provide models for teaching the world’s future leaders about sustainability to benefit communities for generations to come.

They provide profiles of green schools, examples of policies governments and school districts have instituted to ensure future schools are green, an extensive list of resources and links, and a social networking site where visitors share their experiences, best practices, and creative ideas.

The USGBC’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Schools green rating system provides green-building guidelines and offers third-party verification to ensure schools’ stakeholders that their buildings incorporate the best in science, design and technology to make their schools truly green.

For more information on the Center for Green Schools, click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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