Washington Green Schools

Washington Green Schools is a nonprofit dedicated to certification of schools that meet specific criteria for resource conservation and waste reduction in the state of Washington. The program is organized into five levels and five environmental categories: energy, healthy school buildings, transportation, waste and recycling, and water. Schools choose which category they want to target and follow a certification rubric to guide them toward certification for that category over the course of approximately one school year.

The program is open to public and private schools and involves students of all ages working on "Green Teams". Teams typically consist of students and at least one faculty member and often other members of the community. Parents are allowed to participate on teams, but they are not preferred since parents are not likely to continue in the program once their children are out of school. Schools may have more than one team working toward certification in multiple categories, though faculty support is not always so readily available. Upon certification, schools are awarded a flag for their efforts. After certification, schools may advance to the next level, or renew at their current level. To certify at the next level, a school chooses a new category, completes the corresponding assessment, implements a Lasting Change and verifies its impact, and takes action in the four other categories. That is where additional teams are useful.

It was interesting to note that as early as 6th grade some students begin to take active roles on teams and suggest ideas or projects rather than simply being told what to do. The key to the program is involving kids at an early age and rewarding them for their achievements. As they grow, they will remember their excitement at being rewarded and apply the lessons learned from the program to their lives even outside of school. Children are the future of sustainability, and teaching them at such a young age will move sustainability out of the "fad" category, as most people see it today, and simply make it the way things are done. It will be almost instinctual rather than a conscious effort.