Students and teachers at South Shore Public Charter School in Massachusetts proudly display the award they received in Scholastic’s “America’s Greenest School” competition at the Green Schools Summit; the school has also been recognized with a National Green Difference Award by the Green Schools organization.

A Message from the Green Schools National Network Executive Director
Dr. Jennifer Seydel

Dragnet’s Joe Friday was famous for asking for “just the facts, ma’am,” and Sgt. Friday was certainly on to something!

friday

As green school advocates, we need to do our own detective work. How? By gathering and evaluating the facts about the benefits of green, healthy and sustainable schools. The more research focused on green schools practices and their connection to improved academic achievement, cost savings, and student health and wellness, the better. This data will surely bolster our arguments that green is the way to go in our nation’s schools.

This week, we welcome some of this research, and it comes from some familiar folks. Paul Chapman of Inverness Associates, and a member of the GSNN Advisory Board, has released a report on his survey, entitled “Environmental Education and Sustainability in U.S. Public Schools.” And believe me, it’s worth a read!

Paul’s findings make clear the benefits of environmental education in public schools and the challenges facing green schools, as well as recommendations for schools to develop green, sustainable schools.

Three other colleagues – Bill Sterrett, Scott Imig and Deborah Moore (who is also on our board) – share their article, “U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools: Leadership Insights and Implications” which has been published in the online E-journal for Organizational Learning and Leadership. In keeping with this focus on research, I’m pleased to announce that we’re putting together our own think tank here at GSNN. A hearty band of 10 or so colleagues have joined us in preliminary discussion and we hope to continue to explore this research arm of GSNN at our 5th annual Green Schools National Conference in Virginia Beach in March.

Look for news on how you might join this research team – we’ll be announcing a time and location for our conference confab, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, have a joyous Holiday Season!

Jenny

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