I decided to attend the California Green Schools Summit in Pasadena, CA in early December.  It wasn't the best of timing - smack dab in the middle of reading week and less than a week from finals - but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Before coming to Duke, I had taught at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School in Washington DC for two years. I knew I wanted to explore how my interest in education could overlap with sustainability.

Some background about the conference. Every year California public schools spend over a billion dollars just on energy bills. School officials saw a need to cut their costs and could achieve this through the construction of more efficient buildings.  In 2006, the passage of Proposition 1D gave schools access to $100 million for high performance building projects that promoted natural resource conservation.  The standards of high performance schools were dictated by the Collaborative of High Performing Schools (CHPS).  In 2007, the CA Green Schools summit was born out of the need to inform school districts on how to dip into the fund and became the biggest conference in the United States dedicated to implementing sustainability in K-12 education.

Genuine excitement permeated the mood at the California summit.  So many districts had already implemented positive changes in their schools and many newcomers were on board to do the same.   I talked to one school district that had changed their buses over to biodiesel, another district had established "green teams," composed of students committed to recycling and reducing waste, and there were many success stories of small modernization projects that saved schools tens of thousands of dollars per year.  Overall, it was a win-win-win situation.  School districts were saving money, which could be then used to fund further educational programs;  students and teachers were being housed in healthier environments, leading to increased attendance and performance; and private green businesses gained clients, providing them with incentives to expand their business and continue to develop safe and sustainable products.

Business cards

This was the second conference I attended during my first semester at the Nicholas school.  The first was an awards ceremony put on by Sustainable North Carolina in Raleigh, NC.  Conferences are really one of the best investments of time and money. While breakout sessions are informative and sometimes insightful, I have learned the most networking between sessions. At the conference in California, I met people from across all sectors: environmental consultants, engineers, teachers, school administrators, education-related non-profits, architects, and representatives of green industry.  By being open to interacting with anyone, I made some valuable contacts that I can follow up on in the upcoming months.  They could be my future employer, an advisor for my master's project, or simply a person of whom I can bounce ideas off.    

Afterthought:

I wanted to address my concerns about conferences.  Here in California, the conference was state-based so the majority of attendees did not have to travel outside the state.  Some just drove down the highway from Los Angeles.  However, many conferences attract people from all over the nation and world.  All those flights and tons of carbon dioxide are spent at the expense of two days of networking.  I admit that there is no substitute for uniting over 2000 professionals in the field in one place, and I always prefer face-to-face interactions.  Yet, I think there are some technological changes that can cut our footprint, especially for green-based events.  One, why can't we use videoconferencing to host an national/international conference.   Everyone could sign in in their respective countries without having to pick up and go. Not to mention, it would save lots of time and money for the respective companies.  Since conference formats are not likely to change very soon, why don't more conference organizers incorporate more sustainable practices.  I am not simply talking about recycling.  Recently, for a UN conference, attendees were allowed to dress down so that the conference could down the air conditioning.  Also, they were provided with bikes to ride to and from the conference.  These are small changes, but I think they are onto a whole new way of thinking about how to maintain these interactions while minimizing our environmental impacts.  Another idea is to combine many individual conferences on the local scale rather than a regional conferences where people have to engage in flying.