| By bringing the Green Schools Program to Brick Township
Schools this fall, Global Learning, Inc. is launching a national energy
education and conservation program in the State of New Jersey. The
launch site was Lake Riviera Middle School in Brick on October 7th and
8th, as 38 teachers, custodians and administrators engaged in |
How many watts does this computer really use?
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| professional development and planning
activities for their seven participating schools. Since 1996 the
Alliance to Save Energy (link)
has successfully implemented its Green Schools Program in over 200
schools in 75 districts across the country. Green Schools have saved an
average of 5 – 15% on their energy costs.
School teams of teachers, custodians and administrators work with
students k-12 to implement the program. Dollar savings are returned to
individual schools for additional educational and outreach activities.
This provides a |
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Recording light meter readings... |
local funding source for sustaining these activities
over time.
This comprehensive approach saves schools money on energy costs and
strengthens academic learning by showing the relevance of science and
math and by teaching about energy and links between energy efficiency,
the environment, and finances.
One major obstacle that energy efficiency programs in schools must
overcome is the fact that school districts and school personnel
generally do not keep track of building level energy use. Consequently,
staff and students in individual schools do not know what energy they
use, and thus |
| they don’t care about their
energy use or its environmental impacts. The Green Schools Program
tracks building level use, establishes a pre-existing base line, and
gets administrators to agree to return a portion or all of the financial
savings attributed to the program’s activities back to the individual
school. Once the building occupants know, they can start to care. This
reimbursement provides a local source of financial support for the Green
Schools Program in subsequent years.
“By demonstrating the value of the Green Schools Program for existing
school buildings in New Jersey, we will be establishing the foundations
for implementing this comprehensive energy conservation program across
the State,” said Jeff Brown, Executive Director of Global Learning.
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| The Green Schools Program is being
supported by the Office of Clean Energy (link)
in the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. New Jersey Natural Gas has
also provided a $2,500 grant to purchase four Green Schools Tool Kits of
professional energy instruments for Brick Township Schools for use by
their students. The seven participating schools in Brick Township
include Brick |
Infrared thermometer meets Mr. Coffee...
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| Memorial High School, Brick
Township High School, Lake Riviera Middle School, Veterans Memorial
Elementary and Middle Schools, Herbertsville Elementary School and Brick
Primary Learning Center. Global Learning of Brielle is a nonprofit
organization that has been working with schools, libraries and other
educational institutions on the educational impacts of global
interdependence since 1974.
Brick Township Green Schools Newsletter 2 > |
