Tweet

Green School Census

Guest post by: Richard Matthews

Article Overview: Although green schools are on the rise, depending on how you define green, it is hard to know exactly how many green schools are there in the world. Consultant and sustainable education specialist Richard Matthews proposes a simple answer to this complex question.

Green School Census

Although green schools are proliferating, determining the exact number depends on how you define green. An orthodox interpretation would suggest that a truly green school involves both green building certication and a sustainable curriculum. Green building is a strong and growing trend, according to green building industry leader Jerry Yudelson, green building has continued to grow worldwide, even through the recession. With corporate America greening its real estate portfolio, it is estimated that 10 percent of all commercial construction starts are now green. The estimated value of green building construction has grown to $60 billion in 2010.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustainable building design and construction and LEED certification. LEED rating systems are developed through an open, consensus-based process led by LEED committees. Since 2000, the USGBC membership has more than quadrupled to 19,957 member organizations and over 5 billion square feet of commercial building space.

While USGBC offers industry leading certification, it may not be the best way to assess the number of green schools. There are a number of schools that do not have LEED certification, but due to their sustainable curriculums, merit being counted as green.

Green curriculums are teaching the skills that will empower people to engage the environmental challenges we face. Sustainable programs are proliferating rapidly, according to a book by Bob Willard, The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom Buy-In, as of 2005 there were already numerous MBA programs that had integrated sustainability training. As of 2010 green MBAs can be found all across America.

An inclusive approach to assessing the number of green schools involves counting those schools that have made a public commitment to incorporating sustainability into their educational programs and operations. Around the world, there are more than 400 schools that have made a such a pledge.

In a 1990 document known as the Talloires Declaration, school administrators signed-on to a ten-point action plan for incorporating sustainability and environmental literacy in teaching, research, operations and outreach.

There are currently 419 signatories of the Talloires Declaration, 164 of these schools are located in the United States, with large concentrations in Canada, England, Brazil, and Australia.

Related Articles
  Beware greenwashing your business
  The Value of a College Education
  It’s All About the Label
  Dr. Donella Meadows (1941-2001)
  Trains going green
  Green Memes and Schools
  Consumers Abandon Green to Save Money
  Should You Switch to Selling Green?
  Going Green = saving money
  Green Biz Idea #32 - Certify Your Business as Green
  How to Sell Green & Increase Sales
  Home Show Recruiting Game
  The Pros and Cons of Hiring Green Salespeople
  Green Jobs: It's about growing your existing employees too
  A few Green truths
  Mice and Men
  The Green Consumer is out shopping and they're reading your company's Environmental Label
  Green Business Ideas
  How Do I Start A Going Green Business?
  Go Green with a Legitimate Home Based Business

Article Tags: count, definition, Education, energy efficient building, Green, learning, number, Study, sustainable, sustainable school, teaching, totals



Related Forum Posts
Re: 10 ideas to make you money in 2010 - I think Education would be hard to break into. Baby Boomers, Life Support and Trading Down, however, seem like good markets. As for Green technology goes, I don't think the business has to be entirely based on Green ideologies, but rather a business that embrace Green philosophies and use that as a marketing tool.
Re: Can someone explain Search engine optimization to me? - Search Engine Optimization (SEO) could be compared to a big popularity contest: A High School Computer Geek and a High School Football Captain who are trying to promote a party. The computer geek tells everyone in school & even hands out 100's of flyers about his party Friday night...what happens? his friends end up showing up and a few new people...even the new people leave right away because it is not what they are looking for. The High School Football Captain ends up just telling a few good buddies, and within hours the entire school not only knows about it, but everyone wants to come, and everyone does come & stay. One defenition of "optimize is "To make as perfect or effective as possibe." How effective are your article marketing campaigns? Could you be distributing content (that is what search engines index) more effectively? In a perfect world, who would you want promoting your website, web pages, and web content? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is determining this perfect & effective way to do this. Jeff
Re: Are you a Blue, Red, or Green? - Hum... a lot of reds responding... Business owners must be a very aggressive community. Now, I was surprised when I took the course personally to find out I was a Green, secondary Blue. Of course, not believing this, the first thing I did was turn to those around me to get their opinions on my colours (typical Green!). The only thing I can really say about STRUCTOGRAM is that it was fun to explore the depths of my social and physiological make-up... I did this a over a year ago now and still use it in my daily interactions (always be on your toes with Reds).
Re: Moderators on vacation - Hi Everyone, Well I am not taking a vacation, but I wanted to let you know I will be visiting this forum less than I used too in the near future. School year started yesterday, and I don't know how my new schedule will affect my days, right now there is a big chaos, I guess they will solve it in the next 2 weeks.
New Kid in Town - Hi everyone, I am Mike Martel, a former Special Forces Green Beret who moved in the corporate world a few years back. I found that my training and experiences were very applicable in helping people get results. I wrote a book - "Get ER Done: The Green Beret Guide to Productivity." With my coaching, I work with people to achieve massive results for themselves and their businesses.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

20 MORE Must-Have Search Engine Marketing Tools

How do I finance a franchise?

Ten Steps to Go from Idea to E-book for Sale

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.