Fun Facts About Green Schools!

by Clara MacLeod

Are you wondering WHY you should take action to green your school? Or what are the BENEFITS of a green school? We think these Fun Facts will inspire you to jumpstart a Green Team at your school.  We've organized these around our "Four Pillars of a Green School."

Do you know?

•   There are approximately 133,000 K-12 schools in the United States. (1)

• 1 in 5 Americans spends their day in a K-12 school. (2)

• There are approximately 60 million students, faculty and staff in schools. (3)

Pillar #1: Strive to be Toxics Free
Green schools provide healthier indoor environments where students learn better.

• Students, faculty and staff spend 85-90% of their day indoors, where the indoor air quality can be up to 100 times worse than outdoors. (3)

• About 50% of classrooms have poor indoor air quality. (2)

• Asthma is the leading cause in school absenteeism due to chronic conditions, accounting for about 13 million total missed days of school per year. (4) These asthma-related absences result in over $30 million in lost revenue each year for California schools. (5)

• The estimated cost of treating asthma in those under 18 is $3.2 billion per year. (6)

• Asthma can be triggered by cleaning chemicals. (7)

• There are an estimated 40 to 60 chemical injuries per year for every 1,000 custodians, most are chemical burns to the eyes and skin as well damage to the respiratory system. (8)
  

• According to 17 separate studies conducted by Carnegie Mellon building performance program, they all found positive health impacts from improved indoor air-quality, ranging from 13.5% up to 87% improvement. (3)

Pillar #2: Use Resources Sustainably
Green Schools can save money, reduce energy, climate, and environmental impacts, and improve communities' sustainability.

• Each school lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year. That means, just one average-size middle school creates over 40,000 pounds of lunch waste a year. According to the U.S. EPA, packing a waste-free lunch saves an average student $250. (9)

• High performance design solutions could yield savings of up to $50 per year per student with aggressive designs. (10)

• In 2001, less than 15 percent of students between the ages of five and 15 walked to or from school, and 1 percent biked. In 1969, 48 percent of students walked or biked to school. (11)

• Alameda County schools alone dispose of more than 11,700 tons of paper waste every year. (12)

• Conserving 25% of energy would save $1.5 billion per year. (13)

• If 133,000 schools switch to recycled paper, they could save about 6 million trees per year. (14)

• A typical green school saves $100,000 per year on operating costs, enough to hire at least one new teacher, buy 200 new computers, or purchase 5,000 textbooks. (15)

• On average, green schools use 33% less energy and 32% less water than conventionally constructed schools, significantly reducing utility costs. (15)

• America's schools spend more than $7.5 billion annually on energy—more than they spend on textbooks and computers combined. (16)

• School districts can save 20-40% on annual utility costs for new schools and 20-30% for renovated schools by applying high performance design concepts. (17)

Pillar #3: Create a Green, Healthy Space
Healthier school food, green schoolyards, and outdoor education can improve student health, nutrition and fitness and avoid medical costs.

• Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese, triple the rate since 1980. (18)

• The medical care costs of obesity in the United States are staggering. In 2008 dollars, these costs totaled about $147 billion. (19)

• Less than 1 percent of adolescents get their recommended servings of healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables. (20)

• 5,500,000,000 lunches are served annually in the U.S. National School Lunch Program (21). Many children consume as much as half their daily calories at school. (22)

• 19.5 million schoolchildren receive free or reduced-priced lunches in the U.S. each day (21).

• Approximately 600 million dollars are lost from food waste each year in the National School Lunch Program. (21)

• 2 percent of the cotton subsidies spent in California could pay for doubling the quantity of fruits and vegetables in California schools.  (22)

• Better nutrition has been linked with higher achievment on standardized tests, as well as school attendance and cooperation. (23)

Pillar #4: Teach, Learn, Engage
Students in green, healthier environments learn better

• Several studies indicate that hands-on environmental education projects and civic engagement can improve test scores. For example, according to a study analyzing NELS data, students who participated in service-learning scored 6.7 percent higher in reading achievement and 5.9 percent higher in science achievement than those who did not participate in service-learning. (24)

• In a study of 40 schools engaged in environmental education, 92% of the cases studied saw better mastery of math skills. (25)

• A study of Chicago and Washington, D.C., schools found that better school facilities can add 3 to 4 percentage points to a school’s standardized test scores, even after controlling for demographic factors. (3)

• One recent study of school districts in California found that students exposed to daylight progressed 20% faster on math tests and 26% faster on school hallway reading tests than those with little daylight. (26)

• Students fed a steady curriculum of gardening, cooking and nutrition have significantly better eating habits than children who don't get the same instruction. (23) (27)

Sources:

(1) http://www.centerforgreenschools.org/leed-for-existing-schools.aspx (U.S. Green Building Council)
(2) http://cfpub.epa.gov/schools/top_sub.cfm?t_id=41&s_id=4 (U.S. Green Building Council)
(3) Kats, Gregory. "Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits". October 2006. A Capital E Report. Pdf. February 2012.
(4) http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/asthma/asthma.htm (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and http://epa.gov/iaq/schools/managingasthma.html (U.S. EPA)
(5) http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/el/le/yr12ltr0209.asp (California Department of Education)
(6) http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/asthma/  (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
(7) "Cleaning Products and Work-Related Asthma". October 2010. California Work-Related Asthma Prevention Program. California Department of Public Health. Pdf. Accessed February 2012.
(8) http://www.centerforgreenschools.org/better-for-learning.aspx (U.S. Green Building Council)
(9) http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/ReduceWaste/Schools/food/ZeroWaste.htm
(10) http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schooldesign/highperformance.html (U.S. EPA)
(11) "Travel and Environmental Implications of School Siting". October 2003. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. February 2011.
(12) http://www.greenschools.net/display.php-uid=2&modin=50 (California Integrated Waste Management Board)
(13) "Get Smart About Energy". February 2002. U.S. Department of Energy. Pdf. February 2012.
(14) http://calculator.environmentalpaper.org/home (Paper Calculator)
(15) http://www.centerforgreenschools.org/cost-savings.aspx (U.S. Green Building Council)
(16) http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=business.EPA_BUM_CH10_Schools (Energy Star)
(17) http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schooldesign/highperformance.html (U.S. EPA)
(18) http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/data.html (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
(19) http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/causes/economics.html (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
(20) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2654704/?tool=pubmed  (Medscape Journal)
(21) Center for Ecoliteracy. "Rethinking School Lunch". 2010. Pdf. Accessed February 2012. <http://www.ecoliteracy.org/downloads/rethinking-school-lunch-guide>
(22) http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2011/06/improving-school-food-do-it-now-or-pay-the-price-later/  (Environmental Working Group)
(23) Center for Ecoliteracy. "Smart by Nature". September 2009. Watershed Media and University of California Press. February 2012.
(24) http://www.servicelearning.org/instant_info/fact_sheets/k-12_facts/impacts (Davila & Mora, 2007)
(25) Hoody, Linda L., M.A., and Lieberman, Gerald A., Ph.D. "Closing the Achievement Gap." 1998. Pdf. Accessed February 2012.
(26) http://www.ncef.org/rl/green_schools_learning_impacts.cfm (see Daylighting in Schools: An Investigation into the Relationship between Daylighting and Human Performance.)
(27) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/23/MNBI1FHT33.DTL#ixzz10qLSs5g8 (S.F. Gate)