If you have been wondering what a “green school” or a “sustainable school” REALLY is, you are not alone. And if you think you do know, it’s likely that the next person you discuss the topic with will have a different understanding. While these terms are used often, there is not a common understanding as to what they mean.  We’ll explore some of these uses and introduce you to a comprehensive vision of school sustainability that has been developed in Oregon.

“School” usually is referring to an individual public or independent school. Sometimes a generic use of “schools” is intended to include at least the school district or perhaps the school system in general. A “green or sustainable school” typically at a minimum is striving to reduce resource use at the school. In some cases they are doing considerably more to reduce their impacts. For an individual public school that is striving for sustainability, the district policies, practices and goals have an important role since some key services are provided by the district, and also to ensure long-term continuity of sustainability efforts. Therefore ideally the central district departments are involved at a core level with any effort, however they often are not. In the case of a self-contained independent school, the school itself provides the central services, so it is functionally similar to a small school district. The term “green or sustainable school” is also frequently used to refer only to the physical building, and clarity is increased by using “school building”.

We don’t view “green” and “sustainable” as interchangeable terms, though they often are by others. Typically “green” does not consider the whole system, does not include the triple bottom line (social and economic issues as well as environmental) and does not include identification of an endpoint goal (full sustainability). If negative impacts are only reduced, as is often the goal of “green initiatives”, then the ultimate goal of sustainability will never be achieved, though the rate of degradation is slowed. Green initiatives are a great way to get started though. See Figure 1.

Fig. 1:  GREEN  vs. SUSTAINABLE

Using the example of Recycling vs. Resource Management

“Sustainability” strives for an end result such that the physical, social and economic systems that provide for us are not degrading, even slowly. It becomes a culture change whereby people ask a different set of questions in their decision making processes. The four System Conditions of the Natural Step are helpful in defining this visionary endpoint.

Why the difference matters: Only an approach that considers the interdependent pieces of environment, economy, and society, that considers all parts of a system, and that is striving for an endpoint with zero negative impacts, can result in the ultimate goal of health and resources for all, for generations to come, even as our global population increases.

Sustainability Topics for the K-12 System
To work toward sustainability an organization needs to identify its sustainability impacts and rethink its activities such that negative impacts can be eventually eliminated. We have developed a topic matrix which identifies the key types of activities within a school or school district that result in sustainability impacts. See Figure 2. It is being used by some districts as a sustainability framework to guide their district-wide sustainability effort. Big sustainability issues such as Climate Change and Children’s Environmental Health involve multiple topic areas, but are not in themselves all-encompassing. Eventually principles of sustainability become integrated into all school and district activities.

Fig. 2   K-12 School Sustainability Topics

From the table in Figure 2 it is clear that the school facility (the site, building itself and its operation, the indoor environment and the surrounding grounds) is an important element of a sustainable school/district. The facility connects to most of the other topic areas, as discussed below.

Education for Sustainability (EfS) is much more than a class or two in the concept of sustainability. In fact many of those types of discussions focus on UN-sustainability. EfS utilizes all subject areas and grade levels to provide students with the knowledge, skills, values and perspectives to actually create a sustainable future. EfS is also provided through the model provided by the facility and its operation. If the school is not striving for sustainability in its operations then students may learn the concepts of sustainability, but will also be learning that it is not sufficiently valued by our society to actually put into practice.

Students can interact with the facility to learn about sustainability in a variety of ways:

    - They observe the operations being practiced.

    - The building can be equipped with feedback stations that allow students to observe energy use and other aspects of building operation in real time.

    - Students can take on some aspect of school operations as a project, and take actions / make recommendations to increase sustainability. In some schools and districts the teachers and curriculum are actually the drivers, working to make the facility and school operation more sustainable.

A school building designed and built for sustainability can support sustainability efforts within many of the other topic areas. For example:

    - The site size requirement can dictate which site(s) is available. The resultant site location impacts the ability to walk and bike to school, community participation and air quality.

    - The building design, construction and commissioning impact its energy needs which can save money, perhaps allowing for more teachers and better academic performance.

    - School kitchen design impacts ability to process fresh vegetables and to prepare food from scratch.

    - Use of native vegetation and low flow plumbing fixtures impacts water use.

    - The facility can support academic achievement, not only through the actual classroom design and use of daylighting, but also through the choice of finish materials, HVAC design and operation and myriad of other ways that impact indoor air and environmental quality. Indoor air quality impacts student and teacher asthma, affecting absenteeism and through it, academic success. In 2007 the rate of asthma in children was over 9% so this is a huge issue.

A school building construction project may be the entry point for a school/district to begin its sustainability journey. The building team can encourage a process that involves all the stakeholders, including those related to all the areas listed above. Also, including community members can add multiple dimensions of expertise. The Gladstone School District in Oregon began this way, and the more they learned was possible, the more they thought out of the box and explored additional opportunities. They were able to reuse an empty supermarket building and turn it into a center that houses their kindergarten as well as 8 social service organizations that serve young children and families, an exciting success story, and their sustainability journey is continuing in many directions.

Ideally, a school/district will eventually develop the systems to manage their sustainability impacts. A management system (policy, baseline, identification of actual and potential sustainability impacts which helps to establish and prioritize projects, identification of roles and responsibilities, training, communication plans, documentation system and regular review of progress) will ensure that the sustainability journey continues, even as staff and students move on. It will help ensure that the next construction project begins with a sustainable vision and that the staff and school community understand and support the goals to create a sustainable school facility.

Sustainable Schools
The Sustainable Schools Program is a project of the Zero Waste Alliance. It works to facilitate integration of economically, socially and environmentally sustainable concepts and practices into all educational and operational activities of our K-12 school system in order to prepare our children to create and succeed in a sustainable future. It has been working with the K-12 system since 2006, primarily through the Sustainable Oregon Schools Initiative.

About the Author
Lori Porter Stole, Sustainable Schools Manager, Zero waste Alliance
Lori has been working with sustainability and related issues since 1995. Her school sustainability journey began with Oregon's third largest district, where she's a parent. Prior to her involvement with schools she worked for several years with product stewardship solutions to the electronic waste problem. Lori has a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and worked for over a decade in the semiconductor and plastics industries, in the US and in Germany. She's also a freelance violinist. After working, climbing, kayaking and biking in various places around the world she landed in Oregon where she currently resides. www.sustainableschools.org