Green Schools Initiative

Background

According to the EPA, 50% of classrooms have poor indoor air quality, and asthma is the primary cause of school absenteeism from a chronic illness. A typical California school generates 2,000 tons of carbon per year. With 12,000 schools in California, that equals 24 million tons per year. Schools that are asphalt jungles, where kids have no connection to nature, are models of un-sustainability.

If we are to prepare our children for the future, don't we need healthy, green, high-performance schools that engage students in critical thinking and hands-on, experiential education? If we want green jobs, how will we create them if we don't start with green schools?

It's clear: green and healthy schools are fundamental to a high quality education. But until the Green Schools Initiative, there was no organized group raising awareness among parents, teachers, and decision-makers about how to join forces to transform our schools into environmentally healthy and ecologically sustainable places to learn, work, and play. Our children don't have a hard time imagining the healthy and sustainable schools that they want. So, why is it so hard for adults?

Organization Mission

The Green Schools Initiative was founded in 2004 by parent-environmentalists who were shocked by how un-environmental their kids' schools were and mobilized to improve the environmental health and ecological sustainability of schools in the U.S. The Green Schools Initiative believes it is essential to protect children's health – at school and in the world beyond school – and the organization works to catalyze and support "green" actions by kids, teachers, parents, and policymakers to:

• Eliminate toxics
• Use resources sustainably
• Create green spaces and buildings
• Serve healthy food, and teach stewardship.

Full Circle Fund Role

Currently, Full Circle Fund is working to help Green Schools:

• Devise a strategic business model for a statewide, locally implemented certification program
• Build high-level, key strategic partnerships with public and private entities who would become co-sponsors of the statewide certification program
• Create an exciting parent outreach and mobilization campaign
• Establish and implement a sustainable growth plan for the organization.

NAME: Green Schools Initiative
LOCATION: Berkeley
WEB: greenschools.net
GRANT TERMS: 2010-2011
TEAM LEADS: Meredith Thomas and Marc Thibault