Highlights from the 2014 Honorees

Indiana

Carmel High School, Carmel, Ind.

Through everyday practices, policies, and education, Carmel High School (CHS) shines as a green school. Contributions made by administrators, teachers, and students foster a robust learning community devoted to health, sustainability, and environmental and science education.

CHS has reduced its energy costs by installing energy saving bulbs, electronic ballasts, and LED lighting, and through energy education with Cinergistic (formerly Energy Education, Inc.). Over the past 20 years, CHS has reduced its total energy usage by 72 percent, greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 50 percent, and water consumption by nearly 55 percent. Trash compactors are used to reduce waste removal trips and landfill volume. These and similar efforts helped CHS receive ENERGY STAR certification in 2010 with a score of 90 and the Carmel Chamber Green Award in 2010.

Students use outdoor facilities for study and exercise, such as the arts garden, cross country course, rain garden, and wetlands. Student health is addressed through the use of green cleaning products, an Integrated Pest Management program, a ban on smoking, and the use of low-emitting paints, carpets, and other supplies to protect indoor and outdoor air quality. Air filters are replaced routinely, and facilities are inspected for moisture and mold. CHS uses a fuel-efficient bus fleet, and has policies against no bus idling and for offloading 25 feet from the school. The CHS wellness committee is focusing on health and nutrition by developing public service announcements that will run during school announcements, highlighting physical activity and healthy eating. A salad bar is available to students for lunch.

CHS offers its students environmental education through earth science and physical geology courses, Advanced Placement environmental science, and Advanced Placement human geography. A civil engineering and architecture class, a Project Lead the Way course, teaches green building principles. Students in the Sustainability and Environmental Club grow and evaluate food in the district-sponsored community garden, and assist in educating their peers about recycling and environmentalism. Some students also serve on the Carmel Green Teen board, which awards up to $6,500 in microgrants to student groups who create projects to reduce pollution, conserve natural resources, and/or save energy. CHS students have won grants to provide compact fluorescent light bulbs to 105 local homes, install occupancy sensors in CHS restrooms, provide rain-barrel and composting workshops to the community, plant trees and butterfly bushes, install water-saving showerheads in the school and community locker rooms, and purchase a pergola to display recycled art in the CHS arts garden.

St. Thomas Aquinas School, Indianapolis, Ind.

St. Thomas Aquinas School (STA), a small, urban, Catholic school, strives to translate faith into action. Serving approximately 214 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, STA’s commitment to energy, water, and waste reduction, student health and fitness, and environmental education is apparent. From celebrating Earth Week, to forming an Earth Council, to partnering with local environmental groups and universities, STA is making strides in the green schools movement.

STA has made steady progress in its efforts to reduce waste and resource consumption. The school has installed low-flow toilets, new windows to reduce cooling and heating energy costs, and healthy, sustainable flooring. In addition, the school has a recycling partnership with Abitibi, and sends collected lunch recyclables to Terracycle. These efforts divert approximately 30 percent of the school’s solid waste from landfills. Money earned from recycling is used to purchase birdseed for school grounds. STA’s participation in the Keep America Beautiful Recycle Bowl also has earned the school a top-12 ranking for two consecutive years. There has been an approximately 19-percent reduction in school greenhouse gas emissions due to the school’s encouragement of biking and walking through a Safe Routes to School program. Some 47 percent of students routinely walk or bike to school, and another 5 percent occasionally walk or bike to school. Bicycle safety training is provided annually.

In 2003, STA created a National Wildlife Federation-certified Schoolyard Habitat to encourage outdoor exploration, study, and learning. The habitat houses Indiana-native plants that provide food, water, and shelter for birds, butterflies, and other small animals. Classes use the habitat for art, science, writing, and religion lessons, and use the garden to plant seeds and monitor growth. Vegetables from the garden are donated to the local food pantry or are eaten by students. One section of the garden, the Butterfly Nursery, has the appropriate milkweed and other larval host plants to be named a Monarch Waystation.

STA also takes into account the health and nutrition of its students and staff. Students remain active through physical education classes and recess. After school activities, such as karate, flamenco dancing, and sports, offer additional learning and physical activity time. Staff members are encouraged to remain fit by wearing pedometers to track daily steps. Families stay up to speed through monthly nutrition newsletters. To reduce asthma triggers, the school has banned smoking on school grounds, is inspected routinely for moisture and mold, and is cleaned when students are not present.

Sustainability concepts are an integral part of the STA curriculum. Students learn content knowledge about the natural world and its interactions. Natural materials, like shells, leaves, and seeds, are used as manipulatives in elementary school math classes. Social studies classes help students look at environmental concerns from local and global perspectives. Religion classes help frame environmental and sustainability issues as a way to care for our neighbors and for creation. Students respond to nature in art and language arts classes. In addition to using the Schoolyard Habitat for outdoor learning, STA partners with community resources, such as parks and universities, to visit prairie, river, and wetlands habitats. Junior-high students develop leadership skills and learn about the responsibilities of citizenship in an outdoor setting at a three-day camp. Mobile technology vans also are used by a local university program, Discovering the Science of the Environment, in which students map and collect data on trees and birds at the school. Professional development in environmental education is provided to teachers through programs including Project WET and Project WILD.

STA is committed as a school to caring for the world and its inhabitants.