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Where Every Issue is a Green Issue| Providing Wisdom in Building a Sustainable Future | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Green Products Needed for Green Schools From Transportation to Energy Efficiency to Operations Over the last year, California's leadership in reducing greenhouse gas emissions gained international attention - and proved to be a catalyst for new policy initiatives at the federal level. The state's leadership in the green schools movement is no less dramatic. Proposition 1D, a $10.4 billion dollar statewide school bond measure passed in November 2006, is another first. The bond allocates $100 million of incentive grants for green, or high performance, K-12 schools - the first time that a state has earmarked bond funds for school design. Be sure to view an in-depth article on this landmark development by Green Technology magazine. The California Schools Workgroup of Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Action Team recommended the use of CHPS by California school districts. After Proposition 1D passed, the State Allocation Board looked toward CHPS Criteria—now synonymous with the state’s High Performance Schools standards (HPS)—as the basis for allocating the incentive grants. To be eligible for Prop 1D funding, a school must meet a minimum point threshold and prerequisites across six high performance categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental categories, materials efficiency and school district policy to promote high performance design and operation. (For criteria and a school district self-rating system see www.CHPS.net).The regulations that establish the criteria to be eligible for the incentive funds are currently being reviewed by the Office of Administrative Law. Experts agree that this is only the first step toward a much larger commitment to providing healthy schools for California's students. And, as usual, you can be certain that the rest of the nation will be watching what develops. As another indicator of this, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have already adapted the standards developed in California for high performance schools for their own use. The Green California Schools Summit will be the first event to make it possible for decision makers to discover the full range of products and services needed to green California schools - from transportation to energy efficiency to operations. California is the only state with enough "market clout" to change purchasing practices throughout the country. |
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