Sustainable school buildings

Have you been searching for a really good article on sustainable school building design?  One that addresses LEED standards but goes above any beyond?  I found a good one!  It actually was written in 2006 but it is still very much applicable today.  The article "Sustainable K-12 Schools" (found here) is written by the Leonardo Academy, based in Madison, WI.  

They note the following elements of sustainable design and operations that have direct effects on student performance:

• daylighting
• thermal comfort
• indoor air quality
• acoustics

Topic for discussion: When it comes to sustainable school buildings, what is most important to you?  

Students for Solar Schools

Students at Westlake High School (in Westlake Village, California) are starting to make some big waves-- solar waves that is.  They created the "Students for Solar Schools Initiative" (SSS), a student-run campaign to "engage schools in the renewable energy movement."  Since their recent start, two other California schools as well as a high school in New York have joined their movement.  

The SSS program was featured on the website Treehugger as well as Discovery channel's Planet Green website.    Students for Solar Schools Initiative also has a Facebook page with over 380 members.  

Here at the Sustainable Oregon Schools Initiative we are looking for ways to get high school students more actively involved in their sustainability efforts too.  That's why we also created a SOSI Facebook page.  Our hope is that high school students across the state can use our Facebook page as a starting point to get the conversation rolling about engaging their administration with sustainability efforts, and work with each other to see their progress.  The idea is still in the initiative stages and we have not done any outreach to Oregon high schools yet.  

Topic for Discussion: 

• Are you a teacher at a high school and would like to be involved in either the SSS project or the SOSI Facebook page?  Let us know!
  
• Are you a high school student and want to be more involved?  Share your voice!  
• Are you an administrator that wants your school to be more involved in grass-roots efforts?  Explain why!  

  

Early Childhood and Sustainability

Recently someone wrote us to ask why we did not include Pre-K in our "K-12 schools" mission.  Is Pre-K any less worthy when they are housed in the same building as Kindergarten, First, and Second-graders? he asked us.  So here at SOSI we got thinking.  We asked each other and we asked our Steering Committee what we should do about this.  Do we change our website to now say "Pre-K-12?"  It just didn't seem feasible.  

But what I can offer is some validated research (and my perspective) on the matter.  Here is what other's have to say about sustainability in Early Childhood.  Any further thoughts are inspired and/or credited to "The contribution of early childhood education to a sustainable society," edited by Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson and Yoshie Kaga, published by UNESCO-France in 2008.  

(or found here: www.ecdgroup.com/docs/lib_005710328.pdf)

There are several things to note:

1. Importance of local relevance:  young children especially need locality in order to create meaning and relevance. 
2. Education for sustainable development should start in early childhood as that is where we develop the values and core beliefs that shape the rest of our lives. 
3. Some educators fear that teaching young children about sustainability opens them up to the "doom and gloom" of our potential future.  But this is not necessarily true.  It also means making sure children play outdoors and discover the beauty of nature.  It means helping children understand that we are all inter-connected (ie: intercultural education).  And it means using the 7 R's (this is the first time I have actually heard this one!): reduce, reuse, recycle, respect, repair, reflect, and refuse.  

While I admit to having not read the entire paper (it is over 100 pages long..) what I do gather from it is that yes, sustainability in early childhood education is important.  But what we do here at SOSI can often be transferred to the ECE practices.  It is entirely possible to take the SOSI website and make it relate to our youngest students.  For example, (and this comes from the resources section of our website) food offered in schools must support student health, limit the use of toxic chemicals on the grass our students play, and the air in which they breathe, and the schools & community should operate as an integrated whole.  

 So while we will not be changing our website and flyers to specifically say "pre-K" or "pre-school" we do not intend by any means to leave this out.  Our children are our future and we support any efforts of those working towards sustainability in early childhood.  

Topic for Discussion: 

Perhaps what we can do is this:  If you are an early childhood learning center and your school has done a significant job in educating your students, teachers, parents and/or community about sustainability, send us your School Story.  A template can be found by going to www.sustainableschools.org/action/stories.htm   We are happy to share your success on our website!