The Green Schools Alliance (GSA) is an effort by primary and secondary schools worldwide to address climate change and conservation challenges by creating a peer-to-peer network of member schools committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating the implementation of sustainable solutions.
Contents
GSA member schools share and implement sustainability best practices and promote connections between schools, communities, and the environments that sustain them. GSA does this by creating peer-to-peer forums, exchanging resources, offering original programs and curriculum, and connecting youth to nature. The sustainability coordinators that participate in the network are composed of faculty, staff, students, administrators, and other school decision makers.
History
The GSA was formed in October 2007 as a result of Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC and related challenge to all NYC facilities to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2050, with support from the NYC Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI), Consolidated Edison, National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and National Business Officers Association (NBOA).
The Allen-Stevenson School in NYC hosted the first GSA planning session that convened schools to address climate change and "what schools can do about it", and review the GSA Commitment. With additional guidance from the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), Second Nature and AASHE, the GSA primary and secondary school climate dommitment was further refined. In November 2007, with a signatory group of 40 schools, the GSA was launched to the public at the US Green Building Council annual GreenBuild Conference when President Bill Clinton highlighted the GSA in his keynote speech. It is currently listed as one of the organizations committed to the Climate Education and Literacy Initiative launched by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
The Green Schools Alliance today
The GSA, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, now connects more than 7,800 public, private, independent and charter schools worldwide and engages more than 5 million students in 41 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and 54 countries. Schools are joining individually and as entire school districts to share sustainability best practices and reduce their environmental footprint. In January 2016, 21 school districts formed the Green Schools Alliance District Collaborativewhich will harness the collective power of schools to support greener, more efficient solutions. These districts will build and share best practices, leverage their combined purchasing power to increase access to sustainable alternatives, promote market transformation, and influence policy decisions. Charter members of the District Collaborative affect the lives of 3.6 million children in 5,726 schools with more than 550 million square feet of building area.
Membership to the GSA is free and is based on the Sustainability Commitment where schools pledge to take action by following any (or all) of three tracks: I) Reduce Our Ecological & Climate Impact, II) Educate & Engage Our Community, and III) Connect to Nature & Place.
Programs
GSA programs integrate education and action and aggregate and quantify progress. Using the building and campus as a teaching tool, students work alongside faculty and staff on projects from recycling, weatherizing, conducting energy audits, changing lights and replacing old boilers to improving science and technology education, restoring wetlands and planting green roofs. Best practices ripple outward from schools to families, to the workplace. GSA programs include: