Resources: Core Practice 3
Sustainable Facilities Design and ManagementToolbox Resources
3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Toolkit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updated its 3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Toolkit to improve lead reduction implementation practices, to clarify intent, and to make the toolkit more user-friendly. This toolkit includes modules, customizable templates, and tools to help implement a lead testing program, as well as supplemental fact sheets for water utilities, child care facilities, tribal schools, and day cares.
Energy efficiency upgrades can help school districts advance their educational mission by reducing energy and other operating costs. Protecting and enhancing indoor air quality (IAQ) also supports the core mission of schools by promoting staff and student health, productivity, and attendance. There is now broad recognition that it is possible to achieve both goals as part of an energy improvement project. This report, published by the Environmental Law Institute in January 2016, describes state policy strategies that facilitate early consideration of IAQ best practices in school energy retrofits to help schools avoid unintended, negative consequences and reap the twin benefits of energy savings and a healthier, more productive school environment.
American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Project 2061 Green Schools Energy Curriculum
What opportunities do school buildings themselves provide for helping students develop a scientific foundation for making choices about energy resources and their use? The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Project 2061 developed an outline for a Green Schools Energy Curriculum that utilizes real-time data on energy generation and consumption from green school buildings to teach middle school students the science of energy. The course is aligned to performance expectations from Next Generation Science Standards. It also draws from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Literacy: Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts for Energy Education to identify learning goals.
The Buck Stops Here: Sustainable Procurement Playbook for Cities
The Buck Starts Here: Sustainable Procurement Playbook for Cities, developed by the Responsible Purchasing Network, is aimed at sustainability directors and city teams interested in launching or strengthening their sustainable purchasing efforts. The Playbook addresses sustainable procurement in general and takes an in-depth look at three product categories: fleets, electronics, and green building supplies. Much of the material covered in the Playbook can be adapted for use by K-12 schools and school districts.
Throughout the Playbook, you will find:
- Examples of best practices.
- Model language for sustainable procurement policies.
- Guidance for designing and implementing a high-functioning and practical sustainable procurement program that addresses issues such as staff roles and responsibilities, communication methods, and training.
- A customizable Sustainable Procurement Prioritization Tool to help cities focus their sustainable procurement efforts on product and service categories that can yield significant environmental, health, and economic benefits.
- Recommended procurement guidance for several high-impact product and service categories (including bid specifications, vendor survey questions, and bid evaluation procedures).
- Environmental benefit calculators as well as other tools and strategies for tracking and reporting sustainable procurement actions and benefits such as energy and water conservation, greenhouse gas reductions, waste prevention, and cost savings.
Cafeteria Culture works creatively and collaboratively with government, other environmental organizations, and entire school communities, including students, to achieve zero waste schools. Their Sort2Save toolkit provides a step-by-step guide for school cafeterias to go zero waste, and their Arts + Action Zero Waste School Program provides cafeteria and school solid waste reduction, recycling, composting, and sorting education for preK-12 students.
CalRecycle Environmentally Preferable Purchasing for Schools
CalRecycle has assembled a webpage on environmentally preferable purchasing for K-12 schools, covering benefits of environmentally preferable purchasing, getting started, and implementation resources. While the site is geared toward California schools, most information and resources are applicable for all K-12 schools and school districts.
CalRecycle: Waste Reduction Strategies for Each Department within a School District
This CalRecycle website provides tips, ideas, suggestions, and resources for school districts looking to reduce waste. The information presented can be applied in school districts throughout the United States.
This CalRecycle website provides tips, ideas, suggestions, and resources for school districts looking to implement zero-waste lunch programs. The information presented can be applied in school districts throughout the United States.
Collaborative for High Performance Schools
The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) believes kids learn better in schools with good lighting, clean air, and comfortable classrooms. CHPS provides resources – in many cases, free resources – to schools, school districts, and professionals about all aspects of high performance school design, construction, and operation. CHPS develops tools that help make schools energy, water, and material efficient; well-lit; thermally comfortable; acoustically sound; safe; healthy; and easy to operate. These resources include a well-respected six-volume best practices manual, training and conferences, a high performance building rating and recognition program, and other tools for creating healthy, green schools.
Education @ USGBC – Pathway to Net-Zero
This “learning pathway” on the U.S. Green Building Council’s education platform offers a collection of online courses and resources related to net-zero buildings. School specific online courses include Why Schools are Embracing Net-Zero Energy; Sustainable School Design – From Passive to Transformative Education; and A Living Laboratory: Strategies Employed to Achieve LEED Platinum and Net-Zero Certification.
Energy Hog Challenge Teacher’s Guide
Energy Hog is an energy efficiency campaign developed by the Ad Council and run by the Alliance to Save Energy. This teacher’s guide includes a series of classroom activities that guide students through lessons about different sources of energy, how we use energy at home, and actions they can take to save energy.
EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit shows schools how to carry out a practical plan to improve indoor air quality at little- or no-cost using straightforward activities and in-house staff. The kit provides best practices, industry guidelines, sample policies, and a sample IAQ management plan.
Indoor air quality (IAQ) plays a critical role in the health, attendance, and academic performance of students and staff. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Savings Plus Health: Indoor Air Quality Guidelines for School Building Upgrades (the Guide) is designed to help K-12 stakeholders navigate the construction and energy retrofit process using an integrated approach and with IAQ, occupant health, and safety protections in mind. The Guide includes 23 IAQ priority issues and related assessment protocols, recommended and expanded actions, and resources and tools for project planning and communication. It is accompanied by the customizable, time-saving, and actionable Energy Saving Plus Health Checklist Generator that enables stakeholders to create IAQ checklists for specific upgrade or construction projects to protect and enhance IAQ. Schools districts can use the Guide to manage, design, and implement school facilities construction plans that maximize energy efficiency and minimize financial losses and negative health effects on students and staff.
EPA’s Purchasing Environmentally Preferable Products for Healthy Schools
This U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website focuses primarily on environmentally preferable purchasing for chemicals, including information on EPA’s Safer Choice label. State, national, and federal resources shared include a household products database, green cleaning pollution prevention calculator, green chemical alternatives purchasing wizard, and product review database.
EPA’s School IAQ Assessment Mobile App
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s School IAQ Assessment Mobile App is your “one-stop shop” for implementing IAQ management guidance from the IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit. With actionable steps and checklists, the app assists schools and school districts in assessing facilities to protect the health of children and school staff.
EPA’s Sensible Guide for Healthier School Renovations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed this booklet to provide school administrators, facility managers, staff, and the school community with an overview of how to avoid key environmental health hazards and ways to minimize children’s exposures as they prepare for and undergo renovations.
Investing in school buildings is an investment in our collective future. In this report, Schools for Health illuminates how the school building influences students’ health, thinking, and performance. The report incorporates findings from over 250 research studies and considers over 70 health outcomes related to school buildings.
Green Education Foundation Green Building Program
The Green Education Foundation Green Building Program educates K-12 students on green building attributes and benefits and provides them with strategies to take steps toward improving environmental inefficiencies within their own school building. Through lessons, audits, and activities students will cover topics including water and energy efficiency and environmental quality as they relate to building construction, operation, and maintenance.
Green Schools Initiative Buying Guide
The Green Schools Initiative developed this Green Schools Buying Guide to help schools make purchasing decisions that will protect children’s health and the environment. The guide pulls together information from a variety of sources to serve as a starting point for helping people navigate information about environmentally preferable products, brands, and sources. In addition, this website includes links to resources and information on programs to help you buy green, how to buy cooperatively or in bulk, how to write a green bid or contract, and sample green purchasing policies.
The Green Schools Investment Guide for Healthy, Efficient, and Inspiring Learning Spaces
This U.S. Green Building Council report, available for free through the Center for Green Schools, is designed to help school stakeholders advocate for renovations, retrofits, and upgrades that improve student and staff well-being, enhance learning environments, conserve resources, and foster sustainable communities. In an action-oriented and accessible format, the guide helps to demystify the often-complicated processes of identifying building improvement opportunities and finance and implementation strategies. Using the tips, tools, and charts provided, any school stakeholder – from parents to teachers to school board members and more – can link opportunity with strategy to maximize the benefits of green school improvements and advance their school and community priorities.
Guide to Conducting Student Food Waste Audits: A Resource for Schools
This guide was developed to educate students about the amount of food they waste in their school cafeterias by conducting a waste audit. The guide steps users through planning and conducting a waste audit and provides strategies for reducing food waste and encouraging students to eat more nutritious food.
Healthy Purchasing for Healthy Schools
This guidance memo, assembled by Healthy Schools Network, covers environmentally preferable purchasing in six categories: cleaning supplies, office equipment, interior wall and ceiling paints, office supplies, art supplies, and furniture.
Healthy Schools Campaign’s Green Clean Schools
The Healthy Schools Campaign’s (HSC) Green Clean Schools web portal is the place for all things green cleaning. It brings together practical information and easy-to-use resources from HSC’s multi-faceted strategy to support green, sustainable school cleaning programs nationwide. This web portal builds on HSC’s Quick + Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools, first released in 2006. In addition to the Five Simple Steps to Green Cleaning popularized by the guide, this web portal highlights a strategic approach to policy change and the power of recognizing successful green cleaning programs. Resources include videos, green cleaning guides, a green clean product directory, and information on policy, recognition, and third party certification.
Healthy Schools Network’s Green Cleaning Resources
Healthy Schools Network has assembled a toolkit on green cleaning for healthy schools. The toolkit includes posters, webinars, tip sheets, and check lists to help your school start and maintain a green cleaning program, as well as learn more about how green cleaning can help reduce air pollutants, chemical exposures, and asthma and promote better attendance and student achievement.
ISSA Clean Standard: K-12 Schools
ISSA Clean Standard: K-12 Schools establishes a framework to help schools objectively assess the effectiveness of the cleaning process at their facilities, thereby contributing to the quality of the indoor environment for the benefit of students and staff. Based on the philosophy of “Clean, Measure, Monitor” and an emphasis on high-performance cleaning, the Clean Standard: K-12 focuses on:
- The desired levels of cleanliness that can reasonably be achieved;
- Recommended monitoring and inspection procedures to measure the effectiveness of cleaning; and
- How to use measurement and inspection results to assess and improve cleaning processes and products, ultimately resulting in a clean, healthy, and safe learning environment.
Schools using chemicals in their curriculum need to ensure that students, staff, and teachers are safe. This toolkit offers numerous resources on how to conduct an inventory of stored chemicals as well as safely store and dispose of hazardous chemicals; a list of chemicals that should never be purchased; and how to develop a long-term chemical safety plan. Additional state resources, videos, state-by-state legal considerations, and helpful forms (e.g., inventory including hazardous chemicals) are also included.
New Buildings Institute Zero Net Energy Resource Hub
The New Buildings Institute’s Zero Net Energy Resource Hub is a one-stop-shop for everything zero net energy. Here, you will find sample codes and policy; current research; case studies; and a variety of guides and toolkits, including a Zero Energy Project Guide, Zero Energy Schools Stakeholder Engagement and Messaging Guide, and Zero Energy Schools Charrette Toolkit.
Northeast Recycling Council School Waste Reduction Resources
Resources cover composting, paper use reduction, rural school recycling, cafeteria waste reduction, reuse tips, and school waste assessments and audits.
The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus
From MIT Press (note: much of the information in this book can be translated and applied in K-12 schools): Colleges and universities offer our best hope for raising awareness about the climate crisis and the other environmental threats. But most college and university administrations need guidance on the path to sustainability. In The Nine Elements of a Sustainable Campus, Mitchell Thomashow, a former college president, provides just that. Drawing on his experiences at Unity College in Maine, he identifies nine elements for a sustainability agenda: energy, food, and materials (aspects of infrastructure); governance, investment, and wellness (aspects of community); and curriculum, interpretation, and aesthetics (aspects of learning). He then describes how Unity put these elements into practice. Connecting his experiences to broader concerns, Thomashow links the campus to the planet, reminding us that local efforts, taken together, can have a global impact.
Powering Down: Behavior-Based Energy Conservation in K-12 Schools
This U.S. Green Building Council report, available for free through the Center for Green Schools, follows the experiences of five public schools that have reduced electricity use by an astonishing 20 to 37 percent through behavior-based strategies alone. The report looks to these schools as models for others and examines common strategies for every school to reduce its energy usage.
Recycle Across America (RAA) is dedicated to expediting environmental progress by creating the world’s first and only society-wide standardized labeling system for recycling bins to make it easier for people to begin to recycle right, wherever they might be. RAA works with corporate partners to make it possible to donate free standardized labels to K-12 schools. Schools and school districts can request free standardized labels through RAA’s website. They can also download a free toolkit for creating a successful recycling program.
Seeing Green through Waste Prevention: A Guide for School Districts
Assembled by the California Integrated Waste Management Board, this guide illustrates waste prevention practices that school districts have found effective in reducing waste and, with few exceptions, in cutting costs. Topics cover getting started, developing a waste prevention strategy, how to conduct a facility walk-through, waste prevention ideas, evaluation, and measuring success.
Stop Waste is a public agency in Alameda County, California that helps government, businesses, schools, and residents reduce waste. For schools, the site offers resources and information on preventing waste and recycling including case studies, activities and projects, lesson plans, and videos. Although lessons and projects were developed to meet California-based standards, they can easily be adapted for use in other states.
TeachEngineering Lesson: 3RC (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Compost)
In this lesson, contributed by the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at the College of Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, students expand their understanding of solid waste management to include the idea of 3RC: reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost. They look at the effects of packaging decisions (reducing) and learn about engineering advancements in packaging materials and solid waste management. Through an associated activity, they observe biodegradation in a model landfill (composting). This engineering curriculum is intended for grades 3 – 5 and meets Next Generation Science Standards.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Healthy Schools and Water Quality Resources
Compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Children’s Health Protection, this website includes a variety of resources from EPA and federal partners, national organizations, and state and local entities around the topic of water quality in K-12 schools.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise Program
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise program encourages organizations and businesses to achieve sustainability in their practices and reduce select industrial wastes. Program partners, including K-12 schools, demonstrate how they reduce waste, practice environmental stewardship, and incorporate sustainable materials management into their waste-handling processes. Learn more about requirements for new participants, levels of participation, and benefits (including annual awards and recognition).
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense Program
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program provides facility managers, building owners, and other stakeholders (including K-12 schools) with a variety of resources and initiatives to help them save water, energy, and operating costs. Resources include tools, case studies, webinars, and WaterSense at Work, a compilation of water-efficiency best management practices to help commercial and institutional facilities understand and manage their water use, help facilities establish an effective water management program, and identify projects and practices that can reduce facility water use.
Other Resources
Attributes for Health and Learning
EPA Green Clean
EUSD Green Initatives
Green Cleaning Procedures and Products
Green Building Principles
IAQ Case Study
IAQ Framework Success
Indoor Environmental Health
School Water Audit
School Energy Audit
Walkthrough Water Audit
Water Audit Teachers Guide
What’s in your Waste Curriculum
Zero Waste for Schools Green Schools National Network