By Sept Gernez, Washington State Chapter Program Manager
Youth climate activists around the country and around the world are speaking out- our house is on fire and we need clean energy now. Students deserve to learn in schools powered by clean energy not fossil fuels that are destroying their futures.
Schools are where we build the future. Yet, our school buildings and transportation are powered by fossil fuels, which pollute the air students breathe and contribute to climate change . Converting our schools to 100% clean energy will not only help address the climate crisis, it will also improve student health, student performance, and access to clean energy education.
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Clean energy can reduce school days missed due to asthma, which causes more than 13 million school absences per year and disproportionately impacts low-income youth and children of color.
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Reducing student absences, and improving air quality in our schools will help students perform better in school, and will help schools meet their student achievement goals.
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On-campus clean energy projects provide exciting real world, project-based learning opportunities for classes in science, technology, engineering, and math.
This year, inspired by student climate activists, the Seattle School Board joined Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, and many others in committing to use 100% clean energy. This means all school building heating, cooling and cooking systems will be powered by electricity produced from renewable resources. In some cases, schools also committed to electrify their student transportation fleet. Now, we are working with interested school board members, parents, teachers, students, and climate advocates to bring clean energy to school districts all across Washington State.
If you are interested in bringing clean energy to your school district, please fill out our volunteer application and mark ‘Clean Schools’ in the drop down menu. Please be sure to include how you are related to your school community; if you are student, parent, teacher, staff member etc. You will then be connected to Sept, our program manager.