Guest Viewpoint: The Go Green Initiative is essential to the mission of public education

From the genesis of the Jeffersonian model of American schools, the core mission of U.S. public education has not changed: to prepare the next generation for the challenges of the future and successfully promulgate democratic principles to the generation that follows.

Our public schools have served the needs of our society through many changes in our nation and world. That is why we must take a fresh look at environmental education as essential to fulfilling the core mission of American public schools.

If the U.S. Census Bureau is correct, the world’s population will swell to 9 billion in 40 years. If the world’s natural resources are evenly distributed among each person, people in 2050 will only have 25 percent of the natural resources available to them that people in 1950 had. Simply put, it won’t matter what profession our children choose, each of them will face the reality of managing the environment around them.

If our public schools are to make sure the next generation is ready for the challenges it will face, then we must teach today’s students the skills they will need to manage the resources at their disposal.

It’s time our school communities embrace one simple truth: In the next few decades our children will desperately need the natural resources we either save for them or take from them.

Schools create a tremendous amount of waste, most of which can be recycled, reused, reduced, or composted. There is no better training ground for teaching youths the principle of environmental stewardship than our schools.

In just one school year, a random sampling of 17 Go Green Initiative schools recycled enough paper, plastic, cardboard, and aluminum to save 6,500 trees, 2 million gallons of water, and 5 billion BTUs of energy use.

Extrapolate the achievements of those 17 schools to the nation’s 100,000 K-12 public schools and clearly our schools can have a tremendous environmental impact by simply recycling.

Environmental education is critical, and skills in environmental stewardship can and should be taught in our public schools. People and organizations have been talking about this for more than 30 years. So why can you walk onto almost any campus in America and find recyclables in the trash cans in every classroom, in the principal’s office, and in the teachers’ lounge?

The answer is simple: Environmental education models of the past didn’t work. They were typically created as part of the curriculum to be imposed upon schools, and the best that could be hoped for was that a few passionate teachers would voluntarily carve out instructional time to implement the curriculum.

But that approach has failed to inspire universal participation by all teachers in all classrooms. Hence, our children are not getting a consistent message about the importance of conservation and stewardship.

The Go Green Initiative (GGI) represents the next generation of environmental education.

Teachers, principals, school board members, custodians, parents, and students participated in the creation of GGI, along with consultation from the nation’s leading mainstream environmentalists.

The result is a one-of-a-kind program that is:

• fully comprehensive, addressing all aspects of a school’s environmental impact;

• simple, with no cumbersome certification, additional training requirements, or an additional curriculum;

• flexible, and adaptable for any grade level in any locale;

• respectful of local control, because schools use GGI to establish their own goals to fit their regional needs and concerns; and

• free, with all the materials and support provided by GGI.

There are 250 GGI schools in 13 states, engaging nearly 200,000 students and 10,000 teachers in the daily practice of environmental stewardship.

GGI has been endorsed by many organizations, including NSBA, the National Recycling Coalition, and numerous state PTA organizations.

GGI promotes team building. When a school adopts this initiative, every stakeholder in the campus community becomes involved, and they work together to create a “culture of conservation” on campus.

School board members play a critical role in ensuring that conservation is part of the fabric of the public school experience for our students.

Policies that address environmentally preferable purchasing, “green” building practices, districtwide recycling, incentives for schools that maximize waste diversion, and partnerships with the municipal government that support the district’s efforts to teach children to be effective environmental stewards are actions that cannot emanate from a school site alone.

It takes leadership at the school board level to ensure that adequate systems are in place to support teachers, custodians, and students who are environmentally responsible. School boards across the nation have taken formal action to adopt GGI, so that schools within their district feel comfortable joining the national network of Go Green schools.