America’s First ‘Green Flag’ Flies Over Sustainable Savannah School

Editor's Note:  Kudos to the Savannah Country Day School for this great accomplishment.  Click here if you want information on how to make your school and Ed-School.

Savannah Country Day School in Georgia was named the nation’s first Green Flag Eco-School in a ceremony yesterday (April 28), signifying exceptional achievement in ‘greening’ school grounds, operations and curricula. The school achieved this honor through a combination of excellence by “green” management of its facilities and grounds, providing opportunities for outdoor education and by integrating environmental learning throughout its curricula.

The Eco-Schools USA program, which is hosted by National Wildlife Federation, counts nearly 500 schools and some 205,000 students among its participants, but none has achieved the program’s highest honor, the Green Flag, until now.

“The Green Flag is special – and only awarded to those schools who have demonstrated a commitment to environmental sustainability and increasing environmental literacy for its students, faculty, and wider school community,” said Laura Hickey, Senior Director of Eco-Schools USA, on hand for the official flag-raising.

Also in attendance for the event were the City of Savannah’s Mayor Pro Tem, Edna Jackson, and Environmental Affairs Officer Laura Walker. Jackson congratulated the school and thanked cheering students and staff for helping to make Savannah a “Green City.”

To win the first Green Flag, Savannah Country Day School, which completed a Silver LEED-certified lower school building in 2008, tackled a variety of sustainability projects, including lunchroom recycling and composting programs, a well-tended vegetable garden, environmental current events coursework and school-supported ‘outdoor classroom time.’ This was in keeping with Eco-Schools USA’s uniquely holistic approach—‘greening’ the school building, the school grounds and the student curriculum and experience.

Hickey’s official certification tour of the school included a visit to the previously-certified NWF Schoolyard Habitat and a demonstration of cistern use and garden upkeep by a student Eco-Action Team, but 'green living isn't limited to a select group---or grade---of students at Savannah Country Day.

In kindergarten, students tend to a natural herb garden, moving on to a fruit orchard in first grade. Second-graders study monarch butterfly eggs, and third-graders take care of a full organic vegetable garden. The entire school supports composting of pre-consumer waste and participates in a "green hour" program allowing children to be outside every week for instruction time (in addition to recess).


Among the more unique elements of sustainable life at Savannah Country Day School is lunchtime, which goes well beyond the usual tater-tots and milk cartons: produce from the school garden is regularly prepared and served to students in the dining hall, with dishes containing it identified with a "From Here" label. The school chef often creates a display of garden vegetables to entice youngsters to try them, and local food vendors are celebrated with "Meet the Farmer" signage. All kitchen scraps and food waste are added to the school's compost pile. The school's dining program is managed by SAGE Dining Services.

Many schools have implemented the Eco-Schools USA program, some earning Bronze- and Silver-level awards for their progress (Georgia alone boasts 14 Eco-Schools). The heretofore unclaimed Green Flag requires a rigorous combination of environmental audits, curriculum reinvention and internal and external monitoring.

The program is designed to help schools in a variety of ways, including saving money, reducing waste and improving student academic performance and environmental awareness (more benefits listed here). Once a school has registered and implemented the Seven Steps of the program, it can apply for an Eco-Schools award. A school is considered to be a permanent Eco-School once it has gained its fourth Green Flag.

The Eco-Schools program is an international network of 38,000 K-12 schools in 51 countries, started in 1994 by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) with support by the European Commission. It was named by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as a model initiative for Education for Sustainable Development in 2003. NWF was named the stateside host in 2008, thus formally launching Eco-Schools USA.

The award came just days after the U.S. Department of Education announced the creation of the Green Ribbon Schools program, which will similarly recognize schools that have taken great strides in greening their curricula, buildings, school grounds and overall building operations. That program, which is to be modeled on the nearly 30-year-old Blue Ribbon Schools program that recognizes schools whose student bodies have displayed high academic achievement or improvement, will help establish guidelines for overall sustainability in American schools. NWF and other organizations had pushed for the implementation of that program for the past year.

“American schools already led the way on innovation,” said Kevin Coyle, Vice President for Education and Training at NWF. “Now, in addition to revamping their buildings and grounds, they are increasingly setting a high standard for sustainability education and becoming truly green.”

By Max Greenberg
National Wildlife Federation

Source:  National Wildlife Federation

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The Princeton Review Gives 703 Colleges Green Ratings in New 2011 Editions of its Annual College Guides and Website Profiles of Schools

/PRNewswire/ -- The Princeton Review - known for its education services helping students choose and get in to colleges - today reported its third annual Green Ratings of colleges: a measure of how environmentally friendly the institutions are on a scale of 60 to 99. The Company tallied the rating for 703 institutions based on its institutional surveys of colleges in 2009-10 concerning their environmentally related practices, policies and academic offerings.

The Green Rating scores appear in the profiles of the 703 schools that The Princeton Review today posted on www.PrincetonReview.com. They are also in the profiles of those schools in the new 2011 editions of three Princeton Review guidebooks: "The Best 373 Colleges" ($22.99) and "Complete Book of Colleges" ($26.99) - both on sale August 3, and "The Best Northeastern Colleges" ($16.99) - on sale August 10, all published by Random House.

The Princeton Review's "2011 Green Rating Honor Roll"

The Princeton Review also today named 18 colleges to its "2011 Green Rating Honor Roll" - a list of colleges that received the highest possible score (99) in its Green Rating tallies this year. Published in "The Best 373 Colleges" guidebook, the list includes:

(in alphabetical order)
Arizona State University (Tempe)
College of the Atlantic (Bar Harbor ME)
The Evergreen State College (Olympia WA)
Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta)
Harvard College (Cambridge MA)
Northeastern University (Boston MA)
Northland College (Ashland WI)
State University of New York - Binghamton University
Unity College (Unity ME)
University of California - Berkeley
University of California - Santa Barbara
University of California - Santa Cruz
University of Georgia (Athens)
University of Maine (Orono)
University of Maryland - College Park
Warren Wilson College (Asheville NC)
West Virginia University (Morgantown)
Yale University (New Haven CT)



Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review Senior VP / Publisher, "We commend the administrators, faculty and students at the schools on our Green Rating Honor Roll for their exemplary commitments to the environment. Also, we thank the 703 institutions that supplied us with data we requested to tally their Green Rating scores this year. We are pleased to play a role in helping students identify, apply to, and get into these schools."

Franek noted the rising interest among students in attending green colleges. Among 12,000 college applicants and parents of applicants The Princeton Review surveyed this year for its annual "College Hopes & Worries Survey," 64% of respondents said they would value having information about a college's commitment to the environment. Within that cohort, 23% said such information would "very much" impact their decision to apply to or attend a school.

Criteria for Princeton Review's Green Rating cover three areas: 1/ whether the school's students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable, 2/ how well the school is preparing its students for employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges, and 3/ the school's overall commitment to environmental issues.

The institutional survey for the rating included questions on energy use, recycling, food, buildings, and transportation as well as academic offerings and action plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Princeton Review developed its Green Rating with ecoAmerica (www.ecoamerica.org), a non-profit environmental organization, in 2007-08.

The Princeton Review dedicated a resource area on its site www.princetonreview.com/green for students interested in attending a green college. There, users can also download "The Princeton Review's Guide to 286 Green Colleges" - the first free, comprehensive guidebook to the nation's most environmentally responsible colleges. The 197-page guide is a project The Princeton Review developed in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org). Published April 20, it has profiles of schools that received scores in the 80th or higher percentile in the Company's 2009 tallies for its Green Ratings. The guide can be downloaded at www.princetonreview.com/greenguide or at www.usgbc.org/campus.

About The Princeton Review College Ratings and College Rankings

The Princeton Review college ratings are scores on a scale of 60 to 99 in up to eight categories that appear on college profiles on its site and college guidebooks. The ratings are based primarily on institutional data. Categories include Academics, Admissions Selectivity, Financial Aid, Fire Safety and Green. The Princeton Review explains the criteria for each rating at www.princetonreview.com/college/college-ratings.aspx

The Princeton Review college rankings are lists of schools in 62 categories (in rank order: 1 to 20) based entirely on the Company's surveys of 122,000 students attending the schools in its book, "The Best 373 Colleges." The survey asks students to rate their own schools on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences at them. The Princeton Review explains the basis for each ranking list at www,princetonreview.com/college/college-rankings.aspx

On August 18, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm EDT, The Princeton Review will host a free, online event - "Finding Your Best Fit College" - with advice for college applicants from author, Robert Franek. (Information: www.princetonreview.com/bestfitcolleges).

The Princeton Review, headquartered in Framingham, MA with editorial offices in New York City and test preparation locations across the country and abroad, is not affiliated with Princeton University and it is not a magazine.

About The Princeton Review

The Princeton Review (NASDAQ:REVU) has been a pioneer and leader in helping students achieve their higher education goals for more than 28 years through college and graduate school test preparation and tutoring. With more than 165 print and digital publications and a free website, (www.PrincetonReview.com), the Company provides students and their parents with the resources to research, apply to, prepare for, and learn how to pay for higher education. The Princeton Review also partners with schools and guidance counselors throughout the U.S. to assist in college readiness, test preparation and career planning services, helping more students pursue postsecondary education. The Company also owns and operates Penn Foster Education Group, a global leader in online education. Penn Foster provides career-focused degree and vocational programs in the fields of allied health, business, technology, education, and select trades through the Penn Foster High School and Penn Foster Career School (www.pennfoster.edu), which are headquartered in Scranton, PA.

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National Middle School Green Competition Urges Kids to Change Their Communities In 2009

/PRNewswire/ -- Now in the final months for entries, the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is encouraging middle school students across the United States to kick off 2009 by "going green" and implementing environmental change in their local communities. The website for this entirely web-based challenge, http://www.wecanchange.com/, is host to lots of kid-friendly activities such as virtual interactive labs, an eco-footprint game, an environmental IQ quiz, online journals, video clips-plus many more resources for both students and adult advisers.

Teams of two to three students in sixth through eighth grade, under the mentorship of a teacher or adult supervisor, will identify an environmental issue in their community, research the issue using scientific investigation, and create a replicable green solution using web-based curriculum tools powered by Discovery Education.

Teachers and adult supervisors are invited to participate in any of Discovery Education's January online webinars, which will provide additional information about the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. Webinars will be offered Tuesday, January 13, at 4:30 PM (ET); Wednesday, January 14, at 5:30 and 6:45 PM (ET); and Thursday, January 15, at 5:30 PM (ET). To register, go to https://discoveryed.webex.com/ and click on "Events Center" at the top, then click on "List of Events" at the left and scroll down to "Other Events." Lastly, click on a "Register" link for your preferred webinar.

Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge submissions from middle school students will be accepted through March 15, 2009. A total of 51 teams representing each state and the District of Columbia will be selected as state finalists and an additional 50 teams will be eligible for honorable mention awards. Three of the state finalist teams will be selected as national finalists, and one of those will be named the inaugural grand prize-winner. State finalist and national finalist teams will be announced in Spring 2009.

All student teams entering the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will receive prizes for their participation. Top-performing teams, as judged by a panel of environmental experts and science educators, will earn cash, teacher education materials and unique "Discovery Experience" trips. The grand prize-winning team will receive a comprehensive prize package, which includes an appearance on Planet Green, Discovery's 24-hour eco-lifestyle network and a once-in-a-lifetime Discovery Adventure Trip, accompanied by a Discovery TV personality.

The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) have partnered on the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge to educate, empower and engage students, teachers and communities to become "Agents of Change" in improving their communities nationwide. The initiative expands to elementary schools in 2009 and to high schools in 2010.

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