GreenPlan Philadelphia -- A planning project to help provide a long-term, sustainable road map for using, acquiring, developing, funding, and managing open space in the city’s neighborhoods.
Philadelphia Sustainability Awards -- The awards celebrate Greater Philadelphia's environmental innovation, economic development and vibrant communities.
Pennsylvania Buy Fresh Buy Local-- Organization creates food guides, coordinate tasting events, organize farmers' markets and sponsor farm tours, among other activities.
PhillyCarShare --A non-profit organization that provides members with access to a fleet of vehicles on an hourly basis.
Philadelphia Green: The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society -- A not-for-profit membership organization that provides events, activities and publications for novice gardeners, experienced horticulturists, and flower lovers of all ages.
There’s a shiny green report card out in Warren County, Kentucky this month.
The county’s school district won the Alliance to Save Energy’s 2009 Andromeda Award for its programs, which include $4 million in energy savings over the last five years, a 28 percent energy use reduction, a daily curriculum that focuses on energy efficiency and Energy Star ratings on four buildings. But the star of their show undoubtedly is the new Richardsville Elementary, a Warren County School on target to become the nation’s first net zero energy public school when it opens in fall of 2010 (see photo above).
Going green” may be all the rage these days, whether it’s at a school, hospital, office or municipality. At Solomon Schechter School in Westchester County, N.Y., “green” has been part of the philosophy from the start.
Founded in 1966, the conservative Jewish day school serves nearly 1,000 students. It incorporates the environment not just in the curriculum but in every day life, says chief operating officer Rahel Rosner.
“Our philosophy is based on the Hebrew expression “Min Ha’ Aretz,” meaning “with the earth,” she says.
“We’ve always lived with the earth, “ says Rosner, explaining that it is part of the Jewish culture. The K-12 school has two campuses – one located in White Plains for K-6; the other located in Hartsdale for 7-12. Each site is comprised of about 24 acres that are heavily wooded and well-maintained for nature walks.
Barack Obama has been getting an earful from environmental leaders wanting changes for the nation. Now, thanks to Sidwell Friends School, where his daughters are enrolled, he’ll no doubt be hearing from Malia and Sasha about ways the Obama family can green it up at the White House.
Sidwell, an elite private institution with Quaker roots, has become one of the nation’s most ecologically active schools, offering an education where environmental stewardship is foremost and the buildings are being reborn as models of green construction.
It’s back to the books for kids across America and going green in the classroom has never been so easy. With the help of a popular program called the Go Green Initiative, teachers have quick and simple access online to all the tools and resources needed to green a classroom, an entire school, or even a school-district.
Serving as the charter and flagship school for the Go Green Initiative, Walnut Grove Elementary School, in Pleasanton, Calif., first found out about the program in 2002 whenJill Buck, a mother of three, and PTA president, got creative and began asking “What else could we do to go green?”
“The school was doing some gardening, composting and recycling, but I wanted to do more, so I sat down at my kitchen table and started writing up the initiative,” said Ms. Buck (pictured left). “That was in 2002, and since then the program has just grown and grown: we’re now operating in all 50 states in the US, we’re in 13 countries, and on 4 continents; our website gets over 2 million hits a month; it’s an amazing program. Schools are finding us on the Internet and simply by word of mouth.”
Walnut Grove’s principal, Bill Radulovich, comments, “It all started here on my campus, as Jill (Buck) was my PTA president. As the charter school for this program, she first starting designing ideas to partner with waste management to help us with recycling waste, and that grew into networking and working with the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) funds that are distributed to different programs.
“Where once we had cardboard boxes to hold are recycling items, we now have huge 55-gallon gobblers, these huge barrels with slots that are really cool. She helped us gain more methods in the form of recycling and reusing and how to be more efficient overall.”
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 for a 21st-century incarnation. Of this country’s 100,000 private and public schools, approximately one a day are now registering for LEED certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
These little green schoolhouses still teach the “Three R’s” (reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic), but they’ve added three more – “Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.” And they’re doing it not just through energy-efficient building principles or water-conserving whiz-bangs, but through curricula, community-outreach projects, cafeterias, landscaping, new buses and transportation policies. One school in Oregon, Clackamas High School, has a city-wide cellphone battery recycling program and last year planted its own orchard.
The greening of America’s schools is a phenomenon to behold. Less than four years ago, Arizona and Washington state were two of the first to require all new public building construction meet LEED Silver requirements. Now dozens of states have green ground rules for schools. New York prohibits the use of non-green cleaners, while its neighbor New Jersey has mandated that all new schools be built to LEED specs. The 58 member schools of the Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools Program marked the project’s first anniversary this year (Kentucky made national news when it banned the sale of non-cafeteria foods on campus a couple of years ago).
