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GSC Successes & Activities 2010-11
The Green Schools Challenge (GSC) received the participation of one hundred and five schools in Miami-Dade County for the 20010/11 school year, more than double the number of schools than the previous year. This was the fifth consecutive year of the GSC with an increasing participation of teachers at the Professional Development Workshop where 180 teachers were trained at TERRA Senior High in late September. GSC participants came together again to share program success stories at the Mid-Year meeting in January 2010. The year closed with an End-of-Year Awards Ceremony celebrating the collective efforts of participating schools.
Here is what our 105 GSC schools achieved:
- Saved over 1.4 million dollars in energy costs
- Conserved over 2.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity
- Reduced or offset 5.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide
1st Place: Homestead Middle School, led by Maureen O'Brien, lowered electricity use by 568,000 kWh, reduced carbon emissions by 30% and saved $23,838 in energy costs. Homestead Middle’s Green Team developed a Garden Club as part of their Service Learning Program, and they maintained a natural, drought resistant garden. Students planted a “Connect to Protect Garden” which is part of a program to save Rock Pineland Plants, one of our most endangered ecosystems. They monitored and cared for these plants as well as maintained the drought-resistant garden made up mostly of Florida native Plants. They used reclaimed water from rain barrels to water the garden. Well done Homestead Middle!
2nd Place: Paul W. Bell Middle School, led by Lourdes Guaty, lowered energy usage by 228,000 kWh, reduced their school's carbon emissions by 17% and saved a total of $32,313. Lourdes Guaty and her Green Team have been instrumental in creating awareness about energy conservation throughout Paul Bell Middle. They turn off lights and computer monitors daily and have a strong recycling program. They also wrote a letter to Hershey Corporation about the need to place information about recycling on the inside of wrappers after finding out that an estimated 80 million Hershey Kisses wrappers are made with aluminum foil daily.
3rd Place: St. Stephen's Episcopal Day School, led by Paul Weaver and Delia Zepeda, saved 24,0000 kWh, reduced their school's carbon emissions by 9% and saved a total of $6,872. St. Stephen’s Episcopal’ Green Team along with members of their community came together to create a greener school by teaching students how to sustainably use energy, supplies and food. They have created a green and healthy space to work, eat and play. St. Stephen’s was awarded Gold LEED certification through the LEED for Schools Program. It is the second school in the county to have obtained this certification.
2009-2010
The Green Schools Challenge (GSC) received the participation of forty-eight schools in Miami-Dade County for the 2009/10 school year. This was the fourth consecutive year of the GSC with a very successful teacher training held for 75 teachers at Ransom Everglades Upper School in late September. GSC participants then came together again to share success stories at the Mid-Year meeting in January 2010. The year closed with an End-of-Year Awards Ceremony celebrating the collective efforts of participating schools.
Here is what our 48 GSC schools achieved:
- Saved over US $435,000 in energy costs
- Conserved over 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity
- Reduced over 3.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide
1St Place: Rockway Middle School, led by Milly Rengifo, did exceptionally well this year, saving 310,200 kWh, reducing carbon emissions by 21% and saving US $14,473 in energy costs. These results were made possible by "students leading students" and the AP participating and leading the teachers. At Rockway, all students were involved in recycling activities. The student-led Recycling Club was successful in raising awareness of the importance of recycling. The Recycling Club organized different contests where homerooms decorated a recycling box and school teams competed to recycle the most. The Club also organized a beach clean-up project as well as an Earth Day festival in co-operation with the Rockway Science Department. Rockway Middle ensures these initiatives are communicated to students, teachers and the community by publishing success stories on their internal web site. On behalf of Dream in Green, we commend the exemplary work done at Rockway Middle and the commitment of the students and faculty.
2nd Place: David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center, led by Harold Zimmerman and Laurie Futterman, lowered energy usage by 196,000 kWh, reduced their school's carbon emissions by 15% and saved a total of US $29,526. David Lawrence Jr. had 100% participation by its students and teachers through a wide variety of activities. They implemented initiatives such as water bottle usage, student-to-student environmental infomercials, the planting of trees and gardens, Bike to School Fridays and Teaching Sustainability through Storytelling. They also enhanced their curriculum to include environmental lessons and community outreach.
3rd Place: MAST Academy, led by Dr. Wafa Khalil, for saved 371,617 kWh, reduced the school's carbon emissions by 20% and saved US $45,057. MAST has been active on various fronts, including the restoration of their school yard habitat through the planting of over 100 donated indigenous trees, working to get a solar water heater installed for their school pool and retrofitting the school lighting to more efficient fixtures.
More about the Green Schools Challenge.
Already a GSC school? Click here for GSC resources.
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2008/09
The Green Schools Challenge is continuing to expand with forty-three schools in Miami-Dade County participating for the 2008/09 school year. Year three was launched with a very successful teacher training for over seventy teachers at Ransom Everglades in late September. GSC participants then came together again for mid-year meetings in January & Feb. 2009. Below are a few of the activities schools are implementing this year. The year closed with an End of the Year Awards Ceremony celebrating the collective efforts of the 43 participating GSC schools which saved (from September 2008 to March 2009) over $414,000 in energy costs, which translates to approximately 9,800,000 kWh of electricity. The schools also recycled over 375,000 pounds of paper, plastic, and aluminum, mitigating over 14,000,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
David Lawrence Jr. K-8 won first place this year by reducing their electricity by almost 42% and saving $76,625 in energy costs. Congratulations to David Lawrence K-8!
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Top 10 Schools
Redland Middle saved 760,040 kWh and recycled 13,392 lbs of recyclable materials, reducing the school's carbon emissions by 37% and saving $45,677.
Redondo Elementary saved 242,222 kWh of electricity by implementing a program to automatically turn-off computers every afternoon and forming a green team, reducing the school's carbon emissions by 25% and saving $18,130.
Bent Tree Elementary saved 164,160 kWh of electricity and recycled 13,560 lbs, reducing the school's carbon emissions by 23% and saving $8,798.
Mater Academy reduced the school's carbon emissions by 21.6% by saving 546,048 kWh of electricity. Mater Academy made their yearbook green, started a recycling program, and held a school-wide awareness campaign on energy. Students also conducted personal energy surveys.
Jose Marti Middle in their 2nd year of the GSC, saved 380,633 kWh of electricity and recycled 8,518 lbs, reducing the school's carbon emissions by 20% and saving $16,697.
Miami Palmetto Senior High School is a 3rd year GSC school. This year, Palmetto won the America Recycles Day award from the State of Florida for collecting the most recycling pledges in the state. Palmetto also continued their energy saving programs, saving 526,888 kWh to reduce the school's carbon emissions by 18% and save $22,940.
Pine Lake Elementary formed a 5th grade eco-team to monitor their recycling program, which recycled 11,186 lbs. Pine Lake provided regular green tips to students and staff and saved 170,160 kWh of electricity, reducing the school's carbon emissions by 17% and saving $6,599.
Shenadoah Middle School formed a green team to conduct energy patrols and energy audits, planted trees, and started a paper-recycling program, saving 260,326 kWh of electricity and reducing the school's carbon emissions by 15%, saving $10,959.
George Washington Carver Middle, a 2nd year GSC school, saved 111,792 kWh of electricity and recycled 4,950 lbs, reducing the school's carbon emissions by 14%. Ms. Vazquez also won the National Environmental Education Foundation Bartlett Award! Carver now requires all 6th & 7th graders to conduct home energy audits and with funds from the Fairchild Challenge they purchased and installed 50 CFLs. All subject areas are integrating environmental activities and a professional development in green curriculum will be implemented next year.
Kendale Elementary, a 2nd year school, included monthly "Green Tips" on school calendars sent to parents and recycled 12,456 lbs of recycled materials. School teams monitored lights, electrical equipment, and computers, and planted trees, saving the school 115,668 kWh of electricity, reducing the school's carbon emissions by 13% and saving $1,714.
Click here for each school's personal Greenometer. If you were not able to attend the end of the year awards ceremony, we will be dropping off your school's greenometer this week and next.
First Year and Second Year
Dream in Green earned approval from the Miami-Dade Public School Board in 2006 to pilot the Green Schools Challenge during the 2006-2007 school year and three high schools, MAST Academy, Palmetto Senior High, and Ransom Everglades joined. In 2007/08, Dream in Green partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools and the Alliance to Save Energy to expand the Green Schools Challenge to 15 K-12 schools and with the Fairchild Challenge in an invitation to 130 middle and senior high schools to conduct energy research. Schools participating in the GSC:
- Saved over $150,000 while conserving 653,667 kWh of electricity
- Recycled over 87,000 pounds of paper. Of the 15 schools only 3 had recycling programs prior to this year. Now all do and those that did previously significantly expanded their recycling.
- Planted over 540 native trees
- Reduced, sequestered and offset nearly 1,200,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
