The following blog, by Jackie Ostfeld (Outdoors Policy Manager for the Sierra Club) is cross-posted from the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference blog. Spots are still available, so reserve your seat at this exciting conference today.

Think fast — which industry provides more jobs for America: the outdoor recreation economy or the oil and gas sector? Answer: the outdoor recreation economy, and by a huge margin.

An oft-overlooked economic driver, protecting and connecting people with the great outdoors supports 6.1 million jobs right here in America, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. In fact, in 2011 our National Parks alone generated $30.1 billion in economic activity, contributing 252,000 jobs to the American workforce. Outdoor recreation bankrolls more jobs than a host of economic behemoths like oil and gas (2.1 million jobs), information (2.5 million jobs), transportation and warehousing (4.3 million jobs) and construction (5.5 million jobs). Supporting these outdoor recreation jobs (not to mention the additional $80 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue that they generate) is consumer spending to the tune of $646 billion each year.

Unfortunately, we may not be adequately preparing the next generation of job seekers to participate in the outdoor economy, which has seen steady five percent growth since 2005. Today’s children are spending less time exploring and enjoying the great outdoors than their parents did just a generation ago. Young people are using most of their free time on increasingly sedentary and indoor activities. For instance, youth spend more than seven hours a day on electronic media. And it’s not their fault, they have nowhere to go. One in five kids cannot even access close-to-home outdoor spaces because they do not have safe parks or playgrounds nearby.

We need to do more to ensure that we are teaching relevant skills to today’s young people so that they may contribute to the conservation and recreation economy, where they can earn a living in protecting and connecting people with America’s great outdoors. Our work starts by making sure all people, beginning with little kids, have every opportunity to explore and enjoy the natural world where they can develop an appreciation for the great outdoors. Then we need to make sure that young people have the appropriate skill sets to protect and restore our public lands — the places on which a robust outdoor recreation economy depends.

The “Green Jobs in the Great Outdoors” workshop at the Good Jobs Green Jobs National Conference will bring together experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities for ensuring we have a workforce well-equipped to take on green careers in recreation and conservation. For example, you’ll hear about Sierra Club’s Outdoors program which is both connecting people (young and old) with the great outdoors and training the next generation of outdoor leaders. You’ll hear about conservation and restoration skills training programs provided by the Student Conservation Association and the various programs and initiatives housed with our federal land management agencies to prepare current and future generations for careers protecting and connecting America with the natural world.

This year’s conference theme is Let’s Get to Work: Climate Change, Infrastructure and Innovation. Protecting our public lands for the public benefit allows us to grow an economy that greens our planet and our pockets. Outdoor recreation supports three times more American jobs than does the oil and gas industry, so let’s grow our economy by keeping the oil and gas in the ground and protecting the lands on which the outdoor recreation economy and 6.1 million Americans’ jobs depend.

This blog is by Simeon Grant, Executive Director of Green Technical Education & Employment. It is cross-posted from the 2013 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference blog. The conference will be happening April 16-18 in Washington, D.C. Reserve your spot today!

California recently held its first cap-and-trade auction in its attempt to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted by major corporations. The initial auction raised $55.8 million. If this process is successful, California hopes to raise more than $200 million annually.

The state Air Resources Board and the legislature are currently determining where this revenue will go. While many of the stakeholders are haggling over which projects should be funded to reduce GHGs, it seems our youth are conspicuously absent from these conversations, especially youth from communities of color.

Without a doubt, any environmentally-friendly projects that spring from this new system in California, and all others throughout this nation, should include youth with specified training and environmental design, with an emphasis on career opportunities.

The legislature continues to debate where the funding should go, but it seems to prohibit technical training. California should nurture its future by investing on the people who will be forced to implement these burgeoning environmental policies — our children.

We’re Conveners of the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference, April 16-18 in Washington, D.C., because we believe that building a dialogue about climate change, how we can address it, and how we train youth and other workers to be part of this new, clean economy is vital to the future of our country. 

If you haven’t walked into a school lately and seen it for yourself, the schools in your community are likely in a state of disrepair. A new report out today by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) provides a revealing look at the current state of our schools and highlights the critical need to modernize school facilities to meet current health, safety and educational standards. The first “State of our Schools” report, finds that schools are currently facing a $271 billion deferred maintenance bill just to bring the buildings up to working order – approximately $5,450 per student. Our country’s future competitiveness relies on the success of its students. If they fail, we all do.

Aging facilities are a big concern, but decades of deferred maintenance and patch up repairs have also contributed to this decline. Poor air quality, extreme classroom temperatures, bad lighting and more are all things students are having to put up with and are barriers to learning. 

The report’s findings are a poor reflection of education as a high priority. On average, the date of construction for our schools is 1959. A 1995 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report indicated that 15,000 U.S. schools were circulating air that at the time was deemed unfit to breathe. The last comprehensive study of our schools was conducted 18 years ago. 

“…In a country where public education is meant to serve as the “great equalizer” for all of its children, we are still struggling to provide equal opportunity when it comes to the upkeep, maintenance and modernization of our schools and classrooms,” President Bill Clinton said in the report. 

Beyond providing an education, schools are the anchors of our communities. They affect public health, home prices, a community’s ability to attract new residents and economic viability. Additionally, if we’re to adequately prepare the next generation to meet the challenges of climate change, we must start in our schools. Today’s students must learn environmental literacy and occupational skills to navigate a carbon-constrained world. They will require learning environments that are safe and healthy and that model the green future that we must rely on them to build.

The report makes key recommendations that put us on track to begin to remedy deteriorating schools, including:

• Expand data collection on the building age, size and site size.
• Improve fiscal reporting and fiscal and maintenance procedures.
• Improve collection of capital outlay data.
• Provide financial and technical assistance from the Department of Education.
• Mandate a facility condition survey take place by GAO every 10 years.

We can’t say that we value education above all else and send our children to schools that are falling apart every day. We must invest in modernizing and repairing our schools, and meeting other recommendations in this report to create a better learning environment and remove barriers to learning. Improvements will also create jobs in our local communities and restore pride in our educational system. 

Officials at the Green Bay School Districts started thinking about the District's energy use in 2002. Since then, they have done a series of energy audits and made a number of energy efficiency improvements have helped the District save, an estimated, 46.5 million-kilowatt hours of energy, 5 million-therms of gas, 163 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and $9.7 million.

These improvements — which are being done by a “green team” of local contractors that includes several members of SMART Local 18, IBEW Local 158 and UA Local 400 — allow the District to better use and monitor its energy use. Some of the projects include:

• The installation of Direct Digital Controls (DDC) systems at 37 of the District’s schools allowing the District to better regulate and monitor each building’s energy use;
• The replacement of outdoor air control dampers in order to better control the air entering and leaving the buildings;
• The use of a Peak Demand Limiting system that encourages the schools to pre-cool their buildings and limit energy use during high-demand times;
• The development of new HVAC control sequences that optimize energy savings; and
• The installation of pass-through lighting in the middle and high schools that dim the lights when the hallways are not in use.

Not only do these projects help the District to cut the size of its energy bills, they create a better learning for the students along with new educational opportunities. Several of the schools have incorporated the ideas of energy efficiency and sustainability into their curriculum — ranging from the elementary schools where students are taught about the importance of turning off the lights to the high schools where students can learn about renewable energy and energy conservation careers.

The BlueGreen Alliance recently stopped by the Green Bay School District to talk to the faculty and contractors who are working on these energy efficiency projects. From these interviews, we made a series of three interviews videos about the energy efficiency projects, how they are being incorporated into the school curriculum and the importance of having trained individuals working on the projects. These videos can be watched below or on our YouTube or Facebook pages.

Links for the individual videos are as follows:

• Greening Green Bay Public Schools (5:00): http://youtu.be/NvT2hMWOalE
• Teaching an Energy-Wise Generation (1:31): http://youtu.be/Le7ZlOviMuE
• People Behind Green Bay's Energy Savings (2:16): http://youtu.be/TZQbSi9rFhw

More information about the School District's energy efficiency improvements are available at the following:

• SlidShare.Net: Green Bay Area School District Energy Conservation Story
• District Administration: School District is Greener with Energy-Savings Building Controls
• Focus on Energy: Take Control of Demand
• Green Bay Press Gazette: Green Bay Schools Energy Efficiency Efforts Save $5.6M From 2003-09 As Officials Search For Ways to Go Green

See photos from our stop on the BlueGreen Alliance's Flickr page.

Thank you to all the individuals who took time to talk to us including:
Jeff Christens, Green Bay Public Schools, Service Steamfitter, UA Local 400 Member
Luanne O’Leary, Green Bay Public Schools, Manager of Trades & Internal Service Systems
Eric Ahlgrim, Eland Electric, Journeyman Electrician, IBEW Local 158 Member
Bob Baierl, Eland Electric, Foreman, IBEW Local 158 Member
Dan Christens, Ace Electric, Master Electrician, IBEW Local 158 Member
Miles Cornell, Tweet Garot Mechanical, Pipefitter/HVAC Technician, UA Local 400 Member
Mary Hock, Tweet Garot Mechanical, Sheet Metal Technician, SMWIA/SMART Local 18 Member
Jeff Jarolimek, AutomatedLogic, Senior Project Engineer
Katie Klarkowski, Eland Electric, Apprentice Electrician, IBEW Local 158 Member
Mark Rasmussen, Automated Logic, System Specialist
Allen Rymer, Green Bay Public Schools, Electronics Technician

The following is cross-posted from the NRDC's Switchboard blog.

Wrapping paper sales drives, cereal box top campaigns, donation solicitations—as a child of California’s public school system, I was introduced early to fundraising. And while I have nothing but fond memories for the rotating disco ball awarded to me as a top magazine seller of my middle school, I am now beginning to wonder, what if there was a better way to close the funding gap?

Ohio legislators and schools have an answer: a resounding yes, in the form of energy efficiency. Recently named the nation’s leader in energy-efficient schools—259 of them LEED certified—Ohio’s education system, by using technologies and retrofitting inefficient buildings to use energy more efficiently, is redirecting capital from fossil fuels toward the schools’ bottom line: improving education. Implementing energy efficiency upgrades saves an average of $100,000 in annual operating costs, or enough money to hire two new teachers, buy 200 new computers, or purchase 5,000 textbooks.

While there are many factors that have led to this favorable outcome, including supporting state policies like Senate Bill 221, playing a central role is energy efficiency performance contractor Brewer-Garrett.

Providing energy efficiency services for more than half a century, Brewer-Garrett works in local schools, manufacturing facilities—including a cheese factory—, and commercial buildings to maximize the efficiency of their energy consumption and minimize their energy bills. Based in the Cleveland area, the company’s long-term success can be traced to the always-in-demand service they provide: lower energy bills.

“Money is tight in Ohio,” says Energy Service Sales Consultant Dan Mitchell.  “[Clients are wondering]” where do you save money?  How do you make improvements?”

Energy efficiency performance contracting is one surefire way. Through a partnership—“marriage, really,” says Mitchell, Brewer-Garrett guarantees that a client aiming to increase a building’s energy efficiency will see significant enough savings to makemoney off of their initial investment, sometimes within as little as two years.  If a client does not see a project’s savings exceed its costs, Brewer-Garrett writes the customer a check for the difference.  “We have a lot of skin in the game,” says Mitchell. “We’re not in the business to write checks.”

What’s more, the company, employing analysts, engineers, and contractors, offers not only audits and consulting, but also the engineering expertise to see a project through in entirety. “A turnkey solution,” says Mitchell, and one that helps clients unlock energy savings to reduce local pollution and energy bills.

In a region struggling to retain capital and jobs, saving money otherwise exported to import dirty energy is a very smart investment indeed.  As more and more buildings realize these savings, more and more jobs are created, both by the building owners and by Brewer-Garrett, which, in addition to hiring nearly ten percent of its 150 person workforce in the past year, is still on the lookout for more new employees.

Beyond increasing its own workforce, Brewer-Garrett is impacting the economy of Cleveland—and Ohio as a whole—by retaining local capital to support job creation. How does energy efficiency create jobs?  As the amount people spend on energy bills declines, the money that would have been spent on fossil fuels is instead redirected to hamburgers and haircuts, which take more labor per dollar to produce.

The economic advantages of energy efficiency are indeed plentiful, but a different type of green benefit cannot be forgotten: the emissions reductions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. “The greenest energy is the energy you don’t use,” Mitchell points out. Having completed projects that cumulatively save 96 million kilowatt-hours annually, Brewer-Garrett’s work is equivalent to taking nearly 13,000 cars off of the road. Given that Ohio’s electricity is largely generated from dirty coal-fired power plants, these savings have significant environmental, as well as health, implications.

And many projects also have educational implications beyond the monetary savings they provide for schools, by engaging students in the upgrade process. Cleveland State, currently working with Brewer-Garrett on improvements slated to reduce the school’s energy consumption 20%—saving $62.9 million—by 2021, utilizes the efficiency initiative to educate students on energy management. Students of other Ohio schoolsare also benefitting from the hands-on learning opportunities that come with energy efficiency upgrades.

To see that student and faculty engagement plays an integral role in a school’s energy management scheme, Brewer-Garrett partners with energy education specialist theGreen Apple Project to translate their energy upgrades into curricula. Employing an energy project education toolkit that includes, among other things, technologies that measure the energy use of different appliances, the Green Apple Project engages students to be aware of energy management both in school and at home.

Especially in today’s world, lessons in energy efficiency seem much more valuable than the ones I got selling wrapping paper.

Image 1: Brewer-Garrett partnered with Great Lakes Cheese to increase the efficiency of their operations and drive down energy costs. Credit: Greg McDonald, Brewer-Garrett.

Image 2: The recently completed student center at Cleveland State is LEED certified. Credit: Brewer-Garrett.

When students at 78 schools return to school next fall, they will see a new plaque in the award case. There, nestled between the trophies for the basketball championships won and academic honors earned, students will see the first-ever Green Ribbon Schools award handed out by the U.S. Department of Education.

At an award ceremony on Monday, the Department recognized these schools — including 43 elementary, 31 middle, and 26 high schools in 29 states and the District of the Columbia — for their commitment to giving students a healthy learning environment and an understanding of the importance of environmental sustainability. How they do this is as varied as the students they teach. Some examples include:

• STAR School in Flagstaff, Arizona, which is the nation’s first school solar powered charter school.
• Acorn School in Mena, Arkansas that has a vegetable garden and greenhouse on its 15-acre campus.
• Flagstone Elementary School in rural Castle Rock, Colorado where Student Helpful Energy Resource Officers (HEROs) have successfully reduced the school’s energy use by over a third.
• Savannah Country Day School in Savannah, Georgia — the first school be designated as a National Wildlife Federation Eco School Green Flag Recipient — where students “learn simple machines by hoisting their science teacher up and down one of the many hundred year old live oaks” on campus
• The Benernard High School in Bernardsville, NJ, which holds an annual battle of the bands to support environmental initiatives.
• The Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that has one of the largest non-profit solar projects in the area and has helped area residents recycle 320 tons of waste.

The students at these schools may not truly understand how lucky they are. As Nathan Alforod-Tate, the Vice President of the Senior Class at Detroit School of Arts (DSA), said at the recent Good Jobs, Green Jobs Midwest conference in Detroit, “In my four years at Detroit School of Arts, I did not realize how blessed and fortunate I was to enroll in such a school as DSA… DSA has provided us with the opportunity to think with a broader horizon, not with just the arts and academics but with a more eco-cognizant mindset.”

Hopefully seeing this award every day, along with the education they receive, will help inspire our next generation of leaders to continue the serious work of ensuring we leave this planet better than we found it.

Learn more about the Green Ribbon Schools Award at the following:

U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools: Highlights From the First Ever Honorees

Video of the Plenary Remarks

Photos

The following post is from Erin Bzymek, Press Secretary for the BlueGreen Alliance.

This week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley recognized 78 schools as part of the Department of Education’s first-ever Green Ribbon Schools at Stoddert Elementary School in Washington, D.C.

Now, you may be wondering, what exactly is a Green Ribbon School and why should this program matter to you whether you have school-age kids or not?

To begin with, the award recognizes schools’ achievement in raising awareness of environmental impact, health and education. This year, it was based on three pillars of achievement: reducing environmental impact (i.e. waste, water and greenhouse gas emissions), ability to improve the health and performance of students and staff and environmental and sustainability literacy of school graduates.   

In part, this voluntary program came about in response to the critical shift going on now in the global economy. In order for America to compete in this 21^st century economy we can’t just make fast cars or manufacture the highest quality products. To truly compete, Americans have to engineer the fastest most fuel efficient cars and manufacture the highest quality products with the least waste. And so we need to prepare today’s students for this new economic reality. 

What better way to for students to learn and see how and why to make the world around them more sustainable than in their own classrooms?

Students sitting in classrooms today are the future of the American economy. They will be the ones building, designing, teaching, selling, implementing, and maintaining all the facets of industries that will drive the global economy. It’s as important to invest in our children as it is in the technology they will be charged with operating and innovating.

Modern, greener schools in America must also be part of the green economy. Apart from providing critical hands-on education, taking on this initiative means healthier classrooms for our children to learn in, as well as good jobs for American workers. 

To prepare the workforce of the next generation, we have to make a commitment to ensure our students have both a good learning environment and a well-rounded education that includes learning about the environment. 

To the students and staff at these 78 schools, you should be proud of the work you’ve done and your communities should be proud of the recognition you’ve received. Take this important opportunity to be an ambassador for the green economy today and as you move through the rest of your education. 

It was a packed house on the second day of the Good Jobs, Green Jobs East Conference in Philadelphia during a workshop on the Job21! initiative — a grassroots effort by the BlueGreen Alliance to create and keep good jobs in the 21st century. Jobs21! National Co-Chair Tarryl Clark was joined by BlueGreen Alliance Regional Program Manager Lee Geisse, Michael Peck founder of the MAPA group, Rick Engler from the New Jersey Work Environment Council and United Steelworkers District 4 Director John Shinn to discuss opportunities to move America forward to a cleaner environment and safer communities, while creating good jobs for American workers.

Clark introduced the Jobs21! plan at the outset. "Seven million jobs were lost during the recession," said Clark. "We need a real plan. We got together with a whole lot of people to build this plan."

Each of the panelists followed up with their own thoughts on how to create and keep good jobs in the U.S. Shinn spoke about the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and the shift in the economy which led to America bleeding jobs in the 2000s.

"We've forgotten what economic patriotism is," Peck added. "We need to talk about what kind of policies we can put in place... to get our American mojo back."

"There's total paralysis in Congress right now," said Shinn. "But, we can be innovative and find ways to do things."

Jobs21! focuses on growing and keeping jobs in the industries of the 21st century — renewable energy, energy efficiency, manufacturing, transportation, recycling, green chemistry, broadband Internet, and smart grid. Panelist Lee Geisse noted that we already have many people working in these industries and spoke of her background as a greaser at a steel plant in Ohio and the buy-in she and her co-workers have in creating steel that ends up in wind turbines. "We have a sense of ownership," she said.

Michael Peck discussed the Gamesa plants that have been creating jobs in Pennsylvania building wind turbines and the idea of union-coops, where workers own the factory they work in and reap the benefits of successes. "The ownership movement in this country is a huge movement, 100 million Americans are members of a cooperative. When you put people first, you end up being profitable."

Engler spoke about the work his organization is doing to ensure our kids go to modern, green schools. "We have 2,500 schools in New Jersey and 50 percent of them are older than 50 years old. If you modernize schools, you save on average $100,000 a year." He added that you create good jobs, both in construction and in the supply chain of materials needed to modernize schools.

The session wrapped with a discussion with the audience, focused on ideas to implement and efforts already underway to realize the potential of 21st century industries.

This blog is cross-posted from the American Federation of Teachers. If you missed it, you can also read what Michael Williams, Senior Policy and Legislative Advocate for the BlueGreen Alliance, had to say about the Green Schools National Conference in his earlier blog.

The Lorax isn't the only one speaking for the trees. AFT members from California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico, New York and Texas, as well as our union allies from  the AFL-CIO and the BlueGreen Alliance, attended and presented workshops at the second annual green schools national conference Feb. 27-29 in Denver.

Members from the United Federation of Teachers in New York City and the Douglas County Federation in Colorado gave presentations about their school programs, covering the gamut of environmental initiatives, starting with recycling and progressing to vertical vegetable gardening and wind power. In each case, school employees initiated the programs, which became wildly popular among students and the community.

Ritz has bumped up attendance from 40 to 93 percent, helped create 2,200 youth jobs and won an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His speech at Columbia University, "From Crack to Cucumbers," along with several videos, including a TED talk in January , have drawn a national following, including an invitation to the White House.

Another UFT member, special education teacher Mitch Porcelan from Brooklyn, gave a presentation about his efforts to reconnect students to the natural environment and create meaningful learning experiences. His students, who spend time gardening and studying outdoors, have improved their performance significantly on standardized tests.

Members of the PeaceJam Club from Ponderosa High School in Douglas County, Colo., presented a session on their extraordinary environmental efforts addressing recycling, e-cycling, energy management and renewable energy. The PeaceJam Club, sponsored by school secretary and AFT member Debbie Ruiz, is part of an international education program that brings together students and Nobel Peace Prize laureates. As the students explain it, most wars are fought over natural resources, so their club aims to prevent war by protecting natural resources.

Ponderosa building engineer Carey Kalisch, also an AFT member, has spearheaded room-by-room HVAC scheduling using digital controls, and energy savings by cutting down on the number and type of lights. But it's not all on him. One student explained that it's "really important to be polite to teachers" when requesting fewer overhead lights in a classroom. Teachers will be persuaded, he said, when they see that the result is calmer kids and fewer headaches.

Beyond energy savings, Ponderosa PeaceJammers students also have mounted an enormous recycling program, reversing their school's ratio of garbage to recycling. Ponderosa now recycles 81 percent of its trash stream. The kids have helped organize several electronics recycling events that have seen nearly 500,000 pounds of electronics collected to be recycled responsibly. The PeaceJam Club won a $10,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind for Schools Program to install a wind turbine, and Ruiz wants to build an outdoor classroom nearby.

"These kids get it," says Ruiz. "They’re not interested in the usual teenage things or consumed by the usual teenage angst. They realize the world is a bigger place and they have a responsibility to make it a better place."

Among other AFT delegations at the conference, members of the Denver Federation for Paraprofessionals and Nutrition Service Employees took away some useful lessons from organic food vendors, said local president Bernie Jiron. The most useful was learning about the advantages of gluten-free food in preventing asthma and allergy attacks, particularly in children with disabilities.

And educators attending a session by David Sobel of Antioch University learned that teachers may be frightening little children inadvertently with stories about how humans are wrecking the earth—without saying what kids can do to help. Sobel urged educators to train students as environmental stewards, beginning with getting kindergartners outside to play in the natural environment.

New York State United Teachers leaders from Rochester helped run the AFT booth, distributing information about healthy school buildings, indoor air quality and green jobs, as well as featuring models of green walls by the Bronx Green Machine.

At the general session, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan drew applause by calling for environmental literacy in the upcoming ESEA reauthorization. U.S. Department of Agriculture official Janey Thornton spoke about the federal government's healthy food initiatives for schools. And community activist Majora Carter wowed the crowd with a presentation about the greening of her rundown neighborhood in New York City.

The BlueGreen Alliance is a coalition of labor unions, including the AFT, the Steelworkers, the United Auto Workers and others, and environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Other allies at the conference included the National Wildlife Federation's Eco-Schools USA program, the Collaborative for High Performance Schools and the Center for Green Schools , which is preparing for its Green Apple Day of Service on Sept. 29. [Annette Licitra]

March 6, 2012 from the American Federation of Teachers

California

The sun was beaming at American Canyon High School in American Canyon California on Tuesday, putting the solar panels that cover the campus to good use. American Canyon High School is deemed the greenest school in the nation and is the first school to complete the certification process for the Collaborative for Performance Schools, a green compliance standard. With such an accolade, this setting reinforced the message from environmental, labor, state and local leaders at the press event on Tuesday — we must green our nation’s schools to save money, create jobs and improve our environment.

Carl Pope, a co-founder of the BlueGreen Alliance, expressed that he hopes in the future American Canyon High School will not still be the greenest school in America but instead an “ordinary school,” and one of the many schools in our country to provide an environment where students can learn and grow. As new schools are built to green standards and older schools are renovated, this goal is achievable.

Kamera Smith, a student at American Canyon, takes great pride in her school. Spending so much time in a school so focused environmental protection shows students innovative ways of learning and produces responsible citizens.

This idyllic setting demonstrated how successful a well designed, green school can be, with the school producing as much as 66 percent of its own energy. The U.S. Green Building Council reports that modern, green schools can save $100,000 per year on operating costs – enough to hire at least one new teacher, buy 200 new computers, or purchase 5,000 textbooks. American Canyon High School incorporates innovative green design throughout the campus, taking advantage of natural day lighting in all classrooms, using low flow water fixtures, and harnessing photovoltaic solar and geothermal energy.

Speakers included BlueGreen Alliance co-founder Carl Pope; Dr. Barbara Nemko, the Napa County Office of Education on behalf of Supervisor Tom Torlakson; Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada of the California Assembly; Belia Ramos Bennett City Councilmember of the County of American Canyon; Dr. Patrick Sweeney, Superintendent of the Napa Unified School District; Don Evens, the Napa County Unified School District Construction Supervisor; Brett Risley, Business Manager at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 104; Jon Riley, President of the Napa Solano Central Labor Council; and Kamera Smith, student at American Canyon High School.

Check out a story on the event by the American Canyon Eagle.

Minnesota

Winters are cold in the upper Midwest, and energy costs for schools are a no small budget item. On Wednesday, the BlueGreen Alliance’s Jobs21! National Co-Chair Tarryl Clark joined local labor and education leaders to tour George Gibbs, Jr. Elementary school in Rochester, MN to highlight how the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified school was saving taxpayer dollars and energy and how modernizing more schools to be energy efficient will create jobs in Minnesota. Gibbs Elementary schools is one of only a handful of LEED-certified schools in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The school opened its doors in 2009.

The press event prior to the tour was led by Clark and featured Russell Hess, the Political Coordinator for the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA); Jim Kelly, Coordinator of Design & Construction Services at Rochester Public Schools; and Kit Hawkins, President of the Rochester Education Association.

“We can modernize our schools and make them greener, helping our students, teachers and support staff, while reducing pollution and waste. Investments in green schools will create jobs, both in construction and in other industries that supply the materials for these upgrades,” said Clark

“We’re exceptionally proud of this facility that not only is saving taxpayer dollars but also is reducing pollution and energy waste,” said Kelly.

Hess added, “Many other schools in our state need to be modernized and made more green. That’s an opportunity for better schools and for good jobs for thousands of construction workers in our state that have been stuck on the bench waiting to work.”

The press event and tour were covered by the Rochester Post Bulletin and KAAL-TV.