Schools to Get "Green Ribbon" Awards for Doing, Teaching

By Paula Melton

Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Education

Students learn how to plant and maintain a tree during a ceremony announcing the federal Green Ribbon Schools recognition program.

 

The Green Ribbon Schools program recently launched by the U.S. Department of Education will award schools not only for creating sustainable indoor and outdoor learning environments but also for incorporating environmental education into the curriculum. Developed in partnership with other federal agencies as well as nonprofits, including the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Wildlife Federation, the program will start accepting nominations in fall 2011 and expects to award its first “green ribbons” on Earth Day 2012.

The Green Ribbon Schools program is designed to fulfill a number of environmental and educational goals. Its emphasis on indoor environmental quality and outdoor learning areas aims to give educators and school districts an incentive to provide a healthier learning environment than many students currently enjoy. Efficiency upgrades to luminaires, building envelopes, and HVAC equipment can help schools save money as energy prices continue to rise. These elements will spill over into classroom instruction as well, providing opportunities for hands-on learning that program developers hope can improve science education and environmental literacy nationwide, and help prepare students for green jobs in the future.

As with the Blue Ribbon Schools program—which recognizes academic achievement and improvement at both public and private schools—each state’s  chief school officer will nominate the highest-performing schools to the Department of Education for consideration. For the Blue Ribbon program, however, states already had testing mechanisms in place to help them rate their highest academic performers. Most states will need to work with districts to develop nomination criteria for the Green Ribbon program—a process that is expected to streamline any established local recognition efforts and could bring greater awareness to many school districts, educators, and parents regarding the importance of environmental education and the impact of sustainable learning environments. “We will provide resources, models, and technical assistance for state-level evaluators,” explains Department spokeswoman Sara Gast, but the Department will not mandate how each state chooses its nominees.

Jim Elder, director of the nonprofit Campaign for Environmental Literacy, says in a press release that the program “sets a very high bar for schools to aim for.” However, what the bar is and how high it will really be are not yet clear. Gast says the program would be “intentionally broad and encompassing” so that states would have more leeway to use existing programs. “We will give states the liberty to select their metric in each area, but in order to be nationally competitive, it is quite likely that they will go with the widely accepted metrics, such as LEED, where they exist,” she says. Recognition standards for the program—such as whether minimum energy performance is required to qualify and how improvements in energy savings and indoor air quality might be measured and verified—will not be released until fall 2011.