“It’s just a matter for time before America makes a real commitment to solving global warming. But delay is costly, so we all need to redouble our efforts in order to make that time as short as possible.”

Frances Beinecke

President, Natural Resources Defense Council; GSA Advisory Board

"Linking with GSA has added valuable leverage to the UNIS Green effort. We've gained momentum thanks to the resources and expertise within GSA. And the power of making the pledge now holds us to this worthwhile commitment."

Marc Magnus Sharpe

Dean of Students, United Nations International School; GSA Coordinator

"In order for independent schools to thrive in the 21st Century, NAIS believes that they must be sustainable along five dimensions: financial, demographic, programmatic, environmental, and global.

NAIS is pleased to work with the Green Schools Alliance (GSA) to help schools become greener. We encourage all independent schools to support the goals of the GSA and to make a commitment to greater environmental sustainability, such as the GSA pledge."

Patrick F. Bassett

President,National Association of Independent Schools

Website:

www.greenschoolsalliance.org

GSA is an alliance of pre-K to 12 public, private and independent schools uniting to take action on climate change and the environment.

Working together to ensure a safe and healthy environment for tomorrow’s generation

The Green Schools Alliance (GSA) is a program of GEO: Global Environmental Options, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was founded in 1994 as a result of the Greening of the White House Initiative, the first major gathering of the green building community around one project. GSA is working in a similar fashion to coordinate our nation’s over 120,000 Pre-K to grade 12 public, private and independent schools to address climate change and the environment.

GSA’s Mission

The mission of the GSA is to galvanize pre-K to grade 12 schools’ individual concerns about climate change and the environment into collective action to protect our shared future.

Schools guiding schools

The GSA is comprised of students, parents, school heads and administrators, business officials, facility managers, trustees and school boards, teachers, and staff, working together to ensure a safe and healthy environment for tomorrow’s generation through the implementation of sustainable, energy-smart solutions today.

GSA is achieving its mission by leveraging early-adopter schools’ experience, expertise and will, to build a grassroots network. This infrastructure of schools guiding schools simultaneously supports them to meet their individual climate and sustainability goals, while maximizing the environmental benefits to the greatest number.

GSA Programs: Inspire, Measure, & Reduce

Designed to inspire change and environmental stewardship through the integration of education and action, GSA programs create incentives and an implementation framework that is leading to quantifiable energy and carbon reduction. GSA programs are designed in collaboration with utilities, public/private partnerships, and other agencies and organizations, to build a critical mass whose momentum and collective impact can optimize success and expedite change. All schools—public, private and independent—are invited to participate. GSA programs include:

The Green Schools Climate Commitment: The nation’s only pre-K to grade 12 Climate Pledge is a roadmap and incentive to schools to measure and reduce their energy and carbon footprints. It simultaneously sets goals and creates meaningful results.

The Green Cup Challenge: This student-driven interschool energy challenge measures and reduces campus electricity and greenhouse gas emissions, encourages the participation of the entire campus, and builds community awareness about climate change.

Energy-Smart and Sustainability Education Technical Workshops: GSA provides customized workshops that can help all schools understand how high performance buildings, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, and utilizing schools as a teaching too can help mitigate climate change. GSA workshops bring together leading energy and sustainability experts with national, state and local, public and private partners to introduce sustainable, Energy-Smart solutions that meet school needs.

GSA On-line Resource Center and Green Schools Community: GSA on-line is a gateway for administrators, educators, staff, students and parents to meet their Climate Commitment Pledge as well as personal sustainability goals across diverse topic areas. An interactive on-line green schools community, it celebrates the accomplishments of the growing list of GSA schools and connects school communities with the support they need to reduce carbon and implement sustainable solutions.

Challenge: The Global Climate Crisis

Global Climate Change is resulting in significant impacts on weather patterns, food supplies, species survival, sea level rise, spread of disease, etc. The 2007 report from the U.N. Foundation and Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society, entitled Confronting Climate Change: Avoiding the Unmanageable and Managing the Unavoidable, concludes that we need to stop growth in (as well as begin to reduce) greenhouse gas emissions by between 2015 and 2020 in order to forestall unmanageable climate change. Scientists worldwide agree that our climate and environmental challenges are real and imminent.

Opportunity: Sustainable, Energy Smart Schools

There are more than 120,000 public, private and independent pre-K to grade 12 schools in the United States that directly touch the lives of more than 80 million people. When friends, relatives and their local communities are factored into the equation, the number is enormous. The aggregate impact of school communities alone is sufficient to play a measurable role in helping to stop global warming and build a safe, sustainable future. If inspired to think globally and act locally, students and their broader school communities, can be empowered to become stewards for the environment who can play a measurable role toward impacting climate change and our future on this planet.

For more information about the GSA and GSA programs please contact: Green Schools Alliance at: info@greenschoolsalliance.org