April 2nd, 2008

By John DeForeSan Francisco’s SF Climate Challenge, previously covered in this October GRN report, has announced the winners of this year’s competition. At the top of the list is the Yick Wo Elementary School, which serves the North Beach and Chinatown neighborhoods. Surprisingly, while the contest kicked off with the announcement of a $5,000 top prize, the SFCC’s press release said Yick Wo would receive $7,500. Did the school go above and beyond?

Paul Scott, creator of the Challenge, explains that “they did do something special: They won both the Best School and the Greatest Absolute Savings prize.”

The teachers gave the kids energy conservation lessons and also committed to turning off lights in empty classrooms and reducing appliance usage, said principal Yvonne Chung.

After the children’s conservation-related drawings went home, the parents “took it to another level” by reducing their heating consumption, she said. They submitted their power bills to the Climate Challenge and helped win the money for Yick Wo’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO).

The PTO plans to use the money to support literacy, music and art enrichment programs, Ms. Chung said. (And maybe some continuing eco-ed?)

While onlookers might have expected huge corporate teams to enter as a green version of institutional team-building, Scott says of the winners that “Yick Wo had twenty-seven team members” whose efforts resulted in “more than 2,000 lbs of CO2 saved by team members with positive energy savings.

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