School Libraries Join Green Movement

Media specialist Sandra Latzer is a key member of her school's green initiative. School librarian Karen Kibler trains students on how to lecture about the environment. And at the Churchill School in Manhattan, librarian Rachel Berkey has created a virtually paperless library.

Going green is now mainstream, and more schools are joining the club—both to save on electricity bills and to teach students how to be environmentally aware, says Merrilee Harrigan of the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit group in Washington, DC.

And many media specialists are taking the lead. Kibler, the librarian at Iroquois High School in Elma, NY, has spent the last decade teaching teens how to tell younger students about everything from recycling to remembering to turn the lights off. Up to 30 members of her Energy Saving Club visit local elementary schools each month to lecture about caring for the environment—and the feedback has been positive. Her green movement has spread to the rest of the school, with teachers and even the janitorial staff helping to significantly cut waste and bring down electricity bills.

Berkey's school, which has a 1,500-square-foot greenhouse, jumped on the green bandwagon last January with its Churchill Green Team. Created by science teacher Sean Murray to "empower students to make environmentally conscious decisions," the initiative includes a waste-free lunch, which encourages kids to bring reusable containers and utensils, and to dispose of their organic waste in the greenhouse's compost heap.

Berkey does her share by trying to eliminate all paper communication. Now, her monthly three-page newsletter and annotated bibliographies—which used to be distributed to some 200 people—are all done electronically. She also has recycling bins all over the library and makes sure that both sides of every sheet of paper are used before being discarded.

Latzer's Dwight-Englewood School in New Jersey has 18 solar panels on its roof to save energy, light classrooms, and help students get interested in environmental issues. The project is expected to save $440 annually in energy costs.

The school also held a "brain-storming dinner" with faculty, parents, and members of the community to devise new ideas for creating a greener school curriculum and environment. The plan includes enhancing solar energy and environmental projects for students in fifth through twelfth grade—and Latzer expects to play a key role.

Although no one tracks the number of schools that have green policies, there are 33 schools nationwide that are certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a nationally accepted green building rating system. That's a hike from 2002, when there were only two LEED-certified schools. Nearly 300 schools are on a waiting list for certification from the council.