Green Schools Program 2006-08.
Intergy is implementing the Green Schools program in Southern California Edison's territory for the 2006-08 funding cycle. Green Schools is a comprehensive program designed for K-12 school districts that encourages energy-conserving habits, enhances experiential learning and saves schools money on energy costs. Through integrative hands-on learning, Green Schools teams influence building users, starting with students. The students then help bring the energy efficiency and conservation message to their homes and communities.
 
Green Schools is brought to California by the Alliance to Save Energy www.ase.org, a Washington D.C. organization that has been working since 1977 to raise the awareness of energy efficiency in the nation’s schools. The program is supported by the public utilities, and Southern California Edison has funded Green Schools in their territory since 2000. Intergy, working with the State Environment and Education Roundtable (SEER), is implementing the program. Green Schools’ unique approach integrates school instruction and curriculum, with energy savings action and facility energy savings. The program teaches energy efficiency from behavioral changes, operational changes, and product retrofit. Teams of teachers, custodians, administrators, and students work together to develop and implement a program tailored to their school. A local project leader visits the school to assist and encourage school teams with planning and implementation. The program develops a baseline for energy use and tracks monthly energy use; provides professional development to teachers; trains students to conduct audits of their schools, homes and small businesses; and convenes school teams three times during the year.
The Green Schools program is designed to provide schools with two years of support, after which they officially “graduate” from the program and are encouraged to continue activities as a member of the Association of Green Schools. For the 2005-06 school year, the program worked with 37 first year schools, 15 second year schools, and three graduated schools. In the 2006-2008 school years, funding from SCE will allow the program to expand to 25 new schools per year and support approximately 15-25 second year schools and 5 graduated schools per year.
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