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Green Schools John Henry Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC) USGBC Green School Advocate jhenry@eirc.org www.greenschoolsforteachers.wikispaces.com.
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Green Schools John Henry Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC) USGBC Green School Advocate jhenry@eirc.org www.greenschoolsforteachers.wikispaces.com
Green School /grEn skül / n. a school building or facility that creates a healthy environment that is conducive to learning while saving energy, resources and money
Currently, Sustainable Practices are an option, not a way of life
1273 Wood- and coal-burning fires shroud English towns in smoke. Local regulations attempt to control the problem but fail. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are about 280 parts per million (ppm).
1750 Industrial Revolution begins in Manchester, England. Coal powers the mills.
1899 America's first environmental law is passed. The Rivers and Harbors Act makes it a misdemeanor to dump refuse into navigable waters without a permit.
1904 America's first solar-powered electrical plant is built in St. Louis by the Willsie Sun Power Company. Soon another plant is built, in the Mojave Desert at Needles, California. But within a few years Willsie is driven out of business by cheaper coal/gas facilities.
1937 The term "greenhouse effect" is coined by Glenn Thomas Trewartha, a professor whose obscure textbook on weather describes how water vapor, CO2 and other gases act like glass in a greenhouse.
1948 Smog chokes the small industrial town of Donora, Pennsylvania. In five days twenty people die, and 6,000 are sick or hospitalized. Air pollution becomes a national political issue.
1952 London smog, the product of a thermal inversion, kills 4,000 people in two weeks. Four years later, England's Clean Air Act becomes law.
1958 Atmospheric CO2 concentrations reach 315 ppm. In Hawaii, Dr. Charles Keeling begins the first continuous long-term study of atmospheric CO2 levels.
1963 First Clean Air Act in the US is passed into law. American smokestacks are subjected to pollution controls.
1970 First Earth Day, one of the largest demonstrations in US history, is held.
1969-73 The National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act all become law. The Environmental Protection Agency is created.
1972 First UN conference on the environment is held. The United Nations Environment Program is created. It will be the framework for international cooperation on environmental issues.
1978 Fuel-economy regulations are introduced in the United States for passenger vehicles. New cars must now get at least eighteen miles per gallon.
1979 Revolution in Iran sends oil prices surging, prompts "second oil crisis." Carter installs a solar-powered water heater on the White House roof
1981 Election of Ronald Reagan brings environmental backlash. Interior Secretary. Federal grants for solar energy are slashed. The solar water heater on the White House is junked. America's nascent alternative energy industry collapses.
1985 - The Alliance For NJ Environmental Education is Founded (ANJEE)
1985 Hole in the ozone layer is discovered over Antarctica. 1986 Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 reach 350 ppm.
1988 Senator Al Gore holds hearings on climate change. NASA climate scientist James Hansen predicts rising sea levels and dangerous extreme weather by the end of the next century if fossil fuel consumption is not drastically reduced.
1988 UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is created
1994 - The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) began its development founded and spearheaded by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior scientist Robert K. Watson
1997 Kyoto Protocol is negotiated. Industrialized countries agree to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. US Senate refuses to ratify Kyoto.
In 2000, US Green Building Council established the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system as a way to define and measure “Green Buildings.”
July, 2000 State of New JerseyExecutive Order #24 Governor James E. McGreevey Designates that all new school design shall incorporate the guidelines developed by the US Green Building Council known as Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) to achieve maximum energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in the design of schools.
2001 President George W. Bush renounces the Kyoto Protocol as bad for the US economy. Other nations carry on without the United States and continue their ratifications of the treaty.
2005 Kyoto treaty comes into effect and is eventually ratified by all major industrial nations except the United States. Work to reduce emissions accelerates in Japan, Western Europe and even among some US state and local governments.
2007 International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates cost of stabilizing greenhouse gases at $1.8 trillion.
Green Buildings could be considered Economic Stimulus
The process of greening a school building can be considered the ultimate teaching and learning lab
2006-2007 the US Green Building Council - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Schools is created) 2007 Green Schools Advocacy Campaign begins
LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: • sustainable site development • water savings • energy efficiency • materials selection • indoor environmental quality
LEED for Schools is… A nationally recognized benchmark for building and maintaining green schools that recognizes the unique nature of K-12 environments
In school terms, LEED is like a report card for buildings, demonstrating to the community that a facility is built and/or operated in a way that supports the health and wellbeing of occupants and saves energy, resources, and money
LEED for Schools… • Provides comprehensive tools for schools that wish to build green or transition an existing building with • measurable results
In order to achieve the vision of “green schools for every child within a generation,” we must not only build new schools that are green, we have to transform our Existing Schools. The Transition is about Leadership
Making the Case For Green Schools Be the Advocate… if not you who - if not now when