USGBC’s Center for Green Schools

The the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Center for Green Schools envisions green schools for everyone within this generation. To help achieve this objective the USGBC provides resources for green builders, school administrators, elected officials and community members.

S. Richard Fedrizzi, the President, CEO and Founding Chair of USGBC believes “there is no other market that speaks more powerfully to the benefits and potential of green buildings than our schools.”

According to Fedrizzi, “The Center for Green Schools at USGBC is helping to engage educators in creating sustainable learning environments for their students and apply solid research to inform leadership—from school boards to college presidents—about the benefits of healthy, high-performing schools. They are working with state and local governments to draft smart, practical policies, and they provide trainings and helpful resources to those who need it most—K-12 schools serving lower-income families, under-resourced institutions and community colleges. The Center serves to convene conversations with key decision makers, collaborate with leading education and environmental associations and create tools and resources that help make green schools possible.”

Fedrizzi also states that, “Advocacy tools are also being created and disseminated to support USGBC Student Groups and our nationwide network of more than 1,000 Green School Committee volunteers. We want to inspire innovation that can be replicated and deployed at lightning speed to every school and every college and university campus in this country and beyond.”

The Center for Green Schools web site is filled with facts on the benefits and costs of green schools, including the ways green schools foster learning, decrease student and teacher absenteeism from respiratory and other illnesses, reduce energy and water bills, and provide models for teaching the world’s future leaders about sustainability to benefit communities for generations to come.

They provide profiles of green schools, examples of policies governments and school districts have instituted to ensure future schools are green, an extensive list of resources and links, and a social networking site where visitors share their experiences, best practices, and creative ideas.

The USGBC’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Schools green rating system provides green-building guidelines and offers third-party verification to ensure schools’ stakeholders that their buildings incorporate the best in science, design and technology to make their schools truly green.

For more information on the Center for Green Schools, click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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