By Shermakaye Bass
Summer’s ending and school’s recommencing — and along with the sound of bells ringing comes the simultaneous groan of kids nationwide. But this year, more American students than ever will return from vacation to a new backdrop, a green schoolhouse.
Yep, the little red school-house of yesteryear is getting a redo, making way [...]

[Read more →]

By John DeFore

Joining the existing array of programs addressing school bus pollution this fall (the EPA’s Clean School Bus USA, for example) is a new effort bringing the Texas Parent Teacher Association together with the state’s Commission on Environmental Quality.
The project, announced earlier this month, will supply funds to the PTA for bus pollution-control [...]

[Read more →]

By Nima Kapadia
As college students make their way to campuses across the nation for the fall semester, many are thinking ahead to future careers in business, teaching, technology or sustainability. Sustainability?
Yes, says Arizona State University graduate student Brigitte Bavousett Hill, who hopes to use her Master’s Degree in Sustainability to help other countries lower their [...]

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
A coalition of Jewish groups signed a statement last week urging an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050, in keeping with what scientists say is needed to avert a climate disaster. The Jewish Community Priorities for Climate and Energy Policy is supported by a diverse alliance of Jewish groups spearheaded [...]

[Read more →]

By Nima Kapadia
From degree options to the availability of financial aid and extracurricular activities, college applicants consider a variety of factors when choosing a school.
A college’s sustainability practices are becoming another key factor, and The Princeton Review is trying to help students and parents by including a new category of “green ratings” in its [...]

[Read more →]

By Barbara Kessler
With gas prices pressuring wallets everywhere and climate change warming the planet, people are looking to the sun for some salvation. It’s paradoxical yes, but so sensible. The sun’s energy burns brightly on Earth and is capable of powering our homes and potentially our cars, if that power can be efficiently harvested.
For the [...]

[Read more →]

By Kelly Rondeau
You’ve heard of No Child Left Behind. Now comes a new program with serious educational goals, but a different approach: No Child Left Inside proposes to re-invigorate environmental education by tapping into kids’ innate curiosity about nature. And communities across America are embracing the fresh, bottom-up concept by holding No Child Left Inside [...]

[Read more →]

By Michele Chan Santos

At Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland, California, students are not permitted to have gum, soda or candy. Nor are they eating the notorious “mystery casseroles” filled with the USDA surplus-of-the-day and derided by school children throughout time. Instead, they eat fresh fruits and vegetables with every lunch, and fresh fruit [...]

[Read more →]

By Harriet Blake
The greening of America’s college campuses is happening from coast to coast. Stanford University hosts a green dorm project; the University of Texas has started the McCombs Green Team; and Northwestern University sponsors the annual Green City Summer Institute.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, home to some of the world’s finest [...]

[Read more →]

By Bill Sullivan
Charles Harris is here, there and everywhere. While the rest of the Winston Solar Car Team dotes over “Sun Hunter”, the eighth such vehicle in the organization’s nearly 20-year history, the captain surveys the scene, making sure everyone is playing his or her proper role.
“Everyone here is motivated. You don’t have to [...]

[Read more →]

By Harriet Blake
As the 7th annual Conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) continues this week (May 5-8) in Pittsburgh, many environmentalists are finding themselves in disagreement on the subject.

[Read more →]

By Bill Sullivan
Charles Stone expected to encounter a skeptic or two. He had done his research, and this outside-the-box idea seemed to make good sense, but the Director of Transportation for the Mansfield (Texas) Independent School District figured he still would have some explaining to do.
“Natural gas is a little unusual,” he says. “Most people [...]

[Read more →]