Live Green At School:

content provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Bring science to life
Explore the EPA’s Environmental Kids Club at http://www.epa.gov/kids/
High school students check your school's climate impact
High school students can investigate the link between everyday actions at their high school, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Using EPA's Climate Change Emission Calculator Kit (Climate CHECK) students can learn about climate change, estimate their school’s greenhouse gas emissions and conceptualize ways to mitigate their school’s climate impact. Students gain detailed understandings of climate-change drivers, impacts, and science; produce an emission inventory and action plan; and can even submit the results of their emission inventory to their school district. You can also use Portfolio Manager to compare the energy use of your school with other schools nationwide, and earn the ENERGY STAR for your school if it qualifies as a top performer.
Get Involved at your College or University
College students can play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions at their colleges or universities by reducing their emissions from energy they use in dorm rooms. Students can also work with school administrators to: increase energy efficiency on campus, reduce their school's greenhouse gas emissions by using green power, create a campus climate action plan, or develop an inventory of their school's greenhouse gas emissions.
EPA has developed a unique software tool to help school districts evaluate and manage their school facilities for key environmental, safety and health issues. The new Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEAT) is designed to be customized and used by district-level staff to conduct completely voluntary self-assessments of their school (and other) facilities and to track and manage information on environmental conditions school by school.

Teach students about climate change and ecosystems
Use the Climate Change, Wildlife and Wildlands: A Toolkit for Teachers and Interpreters to learn about the science of climate change and its potential effects on our nation’s wildlife and their habitats.
Engage middle school students in estimating emissions
Enhance critical thinking skills by introducing the Global Warming Wheel Card Classroom Activity Kit (PDF, 1 pp., 86 KB, About PDF) to middle school students. A hand-held wheel card and other resources help students estimate household greenhouse gas emissions in order to encourage students to think about ways to reduce their personal, family, school and community contributions to climate change. If you are an informal educator, simply use the Global Warming Wheel Card as a part of your field activities.
Learn from other educators
Investigate what other schools and organizations are doing to educate their audiences on climate change by clicking on Educators’ Links, a searchable database offering links to resources such as lesson plans, videos, books and toolkits.
Visit EPA’s Teachers Resources at http://www.epa.gov/teachers/

Save money and the environment
The least efficient schools use three times more energy than the best energy performers. By partnering with the highly successful ENERGY STAR for K-12 program and using Portfolio Manager to track and rate the energy performance of your portfolio of school buildings, school districts can serve as environmental leaders in their community, become energy efficient, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money!
Estimate your emissions and take the challenge
School Administrators can also work to reduce their school's greenhouse gas emissions by developing an inventory of their school's emissions or by taking the 2006 College and University Green Power Challenge.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Recycle school or classroom paper, newspapers, beverage containers, electronic equipment and batteries. Reducing, reusing and recycling at school and in the classroom helps conserve energy, reduce pollution and greenhouse gases from resource extraction, manufacturing and disposal. You can reduce, reuse and recycle at school or in the classroom by using two-sided printing and copying; buying supplies made with recycled content; and recycling used printer cartridges. For your old electronics, investigate leasing programs to ensure reuse and recycling or donate used equipment to schools or other organizations.

Return to Connecting Green

RESOURCES:

Calculate Your
Carbon Footprint
CLICK HERE

Learn about your watershed. Start by using the Watershed Information Network (WIN) to find your watershed address and learn about its environmental health. Other useful sites include Surf Your Watershed, Envirofacts and Enviromapper. Also be sure to check out EPA's Wetlands web page to learn about the importance of wetlands.

Home Lighting
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Check out the benefits of switching to compact fluorescent bulbs:
- Save up to $50 or more in energy costs over the life of one bulb
- Last up to 10 times longer
- Use up to 75 percent less energy
- Offer the same warm, bright light as standard bulbs
- Help to preserve our natural resources
LEARN MORE

Find out about our precious coastal and marine resources by reading the Coastal Watershed Fact Sheets. Learn about our pressure on ocean resources and find out 25 things you can do to help save coral reefs.