Schools As Community-Educators: The Power of Teaching Sustainability Education

Monday, December 8th 2008

Kristen von Hoffmann at the United States Green Building Council Educator's Summit, November 2008.

I recently had the opportunity to attend the international United States Green Building Council (USGBC) Educator’s Summit in Boston on November 21st. I was particularly moved by the keynote address given by Dr. Debra Rowe, President of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, which convenes mainstream leaders and catalyzes sustainability initiatives. It was a rare occasion to hear someone speaking about sustainability in such an intelligent way. Dr. Rowe had clearly examined sustainability from every possible angle, and knew what she needed to say to get the important points across. “You are in a unique and important position to create a sustainable future. We couldn’t imagine doing it without you,” she repeated.

Kristen von Hoffmann and Dr. Debra Rowe, President of the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development, USGBC Educator's Summit, November 2008.

I left the summit with a sense of clarity on several issues, and I left inspired.

As schools, we have a responsibility to make sustainability education a top priority, because we educate both our students and our communities. You have to visualize the network of influence a single school empowers.

In my mind, a school is like a star, emitting powerful light that spreads across great distances both through time and space, convening its own orbit and solar system. I have only to think of the school I attended in nursery through 5th grade, the Montclair Cooperative School, and I am indebted to the countless ways my teachers allowed me to grow into the person I am today.

Schools touch children within, and in doing so, the families of those children; parents who go out into the world every day with values and ideals that are hugely inspired by what their children have to say.

I feel fortunate to be running a company and teaching part-time. In many ways, I can’t imagine not teaching, because I draw on the energy and light from my students daily: it is their enthusiasm for the curriculum I teach that inspires me in my business. I get to experience first-hand the power of teaching sustainability education, watching my students’ excitement and growth from week to week, and imagining what kinds of positive change they will command in the future.

I wake up and think: my students are our future law-makers, parents, consumers, ambassadors, and educators. We have such an important role as teachers in nurturing students’ sense of self and their ability to relate to each other and the environment.

The success of our future is embedded in our ability to recognize our interconnectedness as a global community. We are no longer separate floating entities. We are all responsible to each other, and our success in sustaining the earth will require sustainability initiatives at every level—domestic, town, state, federal, and global. This is a movement and a transformation that requires us to educate our children with the facts of the world; but of equal importance, to teach them strong interpersonal skills.

Happy Holidays.

-Kristen von Hoffmann

The photos below provide snapshots from 2007-2008 of sustainable curriculum and environmental systems that Greenfox has designed and implemented at schools over the past year.

I. LEARNING ABOUT TREES

Students below learn about the science and environmental benefits of trees, including anatomy, carbon impact, and tree species. The children collect their own tree seeds from various sources, then watch them grow over the course of several weeks. Greenfox designed a sustainable growing program with zero net waste: the seed trays are old pizza boxes, water used is from a rainwater collector, and the “watering-cans” are actually used plastic bottles where students have poked holes in the cap.

Students draw from a rainwater collection barrel. They will use this water to nourish their growing seedlings.

Students examine tree seeds they will soon plant.

Old pizza boxes are re-used as seed trays.

A glass jam jar is re-used to water seeds.

A sustainable "watering-can" or used plastic soda bottle with holes poked in the cap. It can be recycled after full use.

II. DESIGNING LEED-CERTIFIED BUILDINGS

Students below design United States Green Building Council LEED-Certified Building Models. They first learn about the requirements of LEED building development, then integrate math manipulatives, drawing, and creative design to work in teams to build hands-on structures for a simulated classroom competition.

Later in the year, they advance to a harder challenge of designing a LEED-certified sustainable school. They must all work together and decide among themselves how they will break into groups to tackle the design of various parts of the school building and campus. The sustainable school is complete with LEED points, as well as Greenfox5system requirements. The models below were showcased by Greenfox Schools at last year’s “Down:2:Earth Sustainability Expo” in Boston, MA.

Students build the first level of the central school building.

Building construction. Students use math manipulatives and blocks to measure and build.

A student uses hundreds-blocks to build.

Becoming adept with tools such as a hammer and screwdriver, this 5th grader takes apart a used clementine-box which he will incorporate into the school building model.

Re-using tissue paper scraps to build the school's rooftop garden.

Using geometric shapes as solar panel arrays.

Building another kind of solar device.

Students make a list of building and system requirements for LEED and Greenfox5

Rooftop garden, part of the "Greenfox5: Greenspace" requirement.

Drawing an architectural sketch for the school's athletic fields.

A peek inside the second floor: students have met the "Greenfox5: Waste Disposal" requirements by setting up recycling, composting, biodegradable products, and organic food.

A model of the school's sustainable gymnasium.

Sustainable athletic fields.

III. A SUSTAINABLE CLASSROOM

Students are committed to maintaining a sustainable classroom throughout the year. The children adhere to various chores and infrastructures to do so; they follow the Greenfox5as a way to organize their efforts.

Students study the importance of natural light, as it requires less reliance on electricity.

Safely unplugging electrical devices and computers at the end of each day is a daily requirement for this classroom. This prevents "phantom" energy from being used during hours when school is not in session.

This classroom also has timed light-sensors, which switch off classroom light when people are not in the room. Nevertheless, students are conscious of turning off the lights when leaving.

This classroom uses non-toxic, eco-friendly cleaners without harmful fumes.

This classroom recycles paper and cans/bottles daily.

Greenfox provides curriculum and teaching that incorporates learning about mathematics and solar panels.

Greenfox5

Greenfox Schools believes that every school has five main functional points that can be optimized to benefit the environment and the health of students and educators nationwide.

The Greenfox5 includes:

I. Energy

II. Waste Disposal

III. Food

IV. Products

V. Greenspace

The Greenfox5 is a strategic approach to greening any building by initiating whole-change sustainability, and was developed by Kristen von Hoffmann at Yale University.

Biography

Kristen von Hoffmann founded Greenfox Schools in March 2008. Now, as a team of eight people, Greenfox partners with environmental service and supply companies to provide schools with cutting edge programs, products, and technology facilitating the green process at a school from start to finish. Program implementation is supplemented with sustainability education that Kristen has developed, including curriculum and the Greenfox Kids Magazine.

Kristen bases her company on the Greenfox5: a strategy that defines the five main functional points of optimization for any building as Energy, Waste Disposal, Food, Products, and Greenspace. Kristen first developed this strategy as an undergraduate at Yale University, where she played an integral role in the start-up of the Yale Sustainable Food Project (YSFP), a university undertaking and national model for sustainability education that includes a college farm, a sustainable dining hall program, university composting, expanded food and agriculture curriculum, community education, and partnership with the renowned Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Kristen received a Sudler Creative Arts Scholarship from the University in 2004 to document a semester on the YSFP’s organic farm through photography, interviews, and policy analysis.

Kristen graduated from Yale in 2006 with a B.A. in English and also studied conservation biology, international relations, and agricultural policy. In 2003, she received a Community Life Grant from the University’s Kidd Foundation to pursue an independent thesis researching Hope VI housing projects in New Haven under Vincent Scully. Kristen was also a Yale-in-London scholar and team winner of the simulated “Redevelopment of East Harlem Competition” in Alexander Garvin’s course “Study of the City,” in 2004.

Currently, Kristen is President of Greenfox Schools in Cambridge, MA, and teaches elementary school part-time. Kristen is on the K-12 Sector Team for the U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. She is also a Board Director for the Boston non-profit ExCL, Extras for Creative Learning. The oldest of three daughters, she was raised in Montclair, New Jersey, where she attended the Montclair Cooperative School and Montclair Public Schools.

Kristen von Hoffmann at the United States Green Building Council Educator's Summit, November 2008.