Sustainability Summit
The Center for Green Schools at USGBC is now accepting applications to attend this summer’s School Sustainability Leaders Summit from June 27-29. The Summit will be held at our offices in Washington, D.C. and is designed for school district or school system staff who are the point-people for sustainability within their organization.
The Center for Green Schools had barely begun to take our plans for Green Apple Day of Service on Sept. 29 beyond water cooler conversations, when two powerhouses came forward asking how they could help: Interface Global and Harvard University.
When tw…
In his 2012 Earth Day Proclamation, President Obama outlines the case for green schools and recognizes the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program as a driver for improving school sustainability, health and education for 21st century jobs.
“In order to solve our climate problems, we need a coalition of leaders.” This was the message delivered by Boston Latin School’s Youth Climate Action Network leaders, Rebecca Park and Eshe Sherley, as they addressed two dozen peer students who had gathered to envision how a rooftop sustainability learning center could shape their educational experience in and out of school.
As the energy conservation intern in Cornell University’s Sustainability Office, I was privileged to lead Cornell through its pilot year participating in Campus Conservation Nationals! When we first decided to participate in the competition, we didn’t know what to expect. Unsure of the savings we could make as well as the challenges we would face, we began to put together a vision for our campus-wide energy conservation competition.
Tiffany is responsible for coordinating marketing pieces for the Center for Green Schools, as well as other initiatives at USGBC. She concentrates on ways to get the Center’s message out to folks and give them the tools they need to empower their …
It’s not zero sum. It’s not either/or. It’s not this or that.
Instead, when it comes to sustainability and resiliency, we need (and thankfully we’re seeing) a great convergence.
Not only do the agendas of these two great causes overlap, but their destinies must be forged together.
On Feb. 29, the District of Columbia’s Mayor Vincent Gray was joined by local university presidents to sign the District of Columbia Mayor’s College and University Sustainability Pledge. The Mayor’s goal is for the nation’s capital to become the ‘Greenest College Town in America’ – ambitious, yet attainable with the collective energy of local universities.
Over the last three and a half years, I’ve had the pleasure of watching colleges and universities across the country prove their ability to lead and innovate as sustainability doers. Green buildings are a starting point for institutional leadership, but by no means the end. From students and faculty, to staff and senior administrators, to boards and alumni, I’ve observed a groundswell of environmental stewardship, pedagogy and practice indicating that the changes these champions are putting into place are here to stay.
The green building movement has made great strides in recent years, but it’s not enough. In order to put up a good fight against ever-increasing environmental and economic pressures, we need a united front of the public and private sector, and to approach issues at the city — or district — scale.
District sustainability currently experiences the same limited level of awareness that individual green buildings did a decade ago, when the U.S. Green Building Council announced its first 12 LEED Certified projects, of which there are now over 11,000.