Featured Event
Register for the Green Califronia Schools Summit and enter discount code EMLEN (allcaps) to receive a 20 percent discount.
About one-quarter of America’s population spends a good part of each day inside a school building. The Green California Schools Summit and Expo, taking place December 8-10, 2010, at the Pasadena Convention Center, Pasadena, Calif., will examine what can be done to ensure these structures are healthy, efficient and sustainable.
Education represents 27 percent of all construction in the U.S. Despite a lagging economy, hundreds of millions of dollars in green school construction and modernization projects are underway in California alone. 
With the theme, “Green Schools – More Important than Ever,” the Summit will bring together leaders from all sectors of the green schools movement. They will lead and participate in a full range of educational workshops and sessions, networking opportunities and special events. They will share strategies, best practices and results from their green schools programs.
Every aspect of high performance schools – from financing and building them, to modernizing them for energy efficiency to building effective environmental curricula – will be discussed. Special pre-summit workshops on December 8 will offer training on the new CALGreen building codes, which become mandatory in January 2011; the U.S. Green Building Council’s new Center for Green Schools; new developments from the Collaborative for High Performance Schools, along with financing and curriculum workshops.
On December 9 and December 10, concurrent sessions will address the quickly advancing technologies and methods in building, modernizing and running successful green schools. Sessions will focus on new trends in financing renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, green curricula, relocatable buildings – even school gardens.
The Summit will also feature an expo where over a hundred companies will be on hand with innovative products and services that can help schools and districts attain their green goals and significant short and long term savings. A Buyer-Vendor Lounge will match district purchasing agents with vendors for information sharing.
General sessions will include a keynote by Norma Williamson, Teacher of the Year at the La Mirada Unified School District and a 2009 Leadership Award winner for her leadership in district-wide sustainability, and Eric Corey Freed, renowned architect, principal of organicARCHITECT and author of four books on green building.
High performance schools save millions of dollars for school districts – money that can be used to hire teachers and buy much needed equipment. Even more important, they are ushering in a new generation of environmentally aware young people. More than ever, school districts, county offices of education, principals, teachers, parents and the companies and organizations that provide products and services to schools are dedicating themselves to a sustainable future for students and their communities.
The Green California Schools Summit is designed by an advisory board chaired by Bonnie Reiss, Secretary of Education for the State of California. Members include many of the state’s green school leaders.
The Green California Schools Summit & Expo will show you how to green your school or district. For more information on the, visit www.green-technology.org/gcschools, or call Michael Hendry at (626) 577-5700.
The Green California Schools Summit is produced by Green Technology.