Indiana's DOE Goes Green

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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 4/9/2008 2:00:00 PM

Learn Green, Live Green is designed to help educators, students, parents, and community members discover practical, cost-effective ways to model environmentally responsible behavior both inside and outside of the classroom. The program, which unveiled the state’s first hybrid-electric school bus in January, also fits with Indiana’s academic standards, local school curricula, and student learning goals at each grade level. Participation is voluntary.

“We can all be more conscious of the impact we have on the world around us and how our everyday choices can make a real difference,” Reed says. “This is a great opportunity for our students and communities to learn to live more responsibly together.”

Each month in 2008, the Indiana Department of Education will spotlight a different aspect of the issue through an interactive Web site, while offering a variety of related resources for schools and communities.

The Department of Education’s green Web site will keep administrators, educators, students, parents, and the community up to date on the program’s focus each month and provide resources including helpful tips, facts and figures, school projects, reading materials, highlights from Indiana schools and even an online forum to share ideas with others across the state.

Although participation in Learn Green, Live Green activities is completely voluntary, Reed encourages all schools to incorporate green initiatives in everyday classroom instruction. “Education is the first step toward ensuring the future of our students as well as our planet,” she says.

The Mt. Vernon High School in Fortville has the right idea. The school, currently undergoing an expansion and renovation, is also trying to reduce its carbon footprint, says Mike Horton, assistant superintendent of Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation. “The building will be heated and cooled using geothermal energy through geothermal heat pumps,” Horton says. “The cost-effectiveness over time is great and it’s a pretty short payback period.” With geothermal energy, heat pumps use the Earth’s natural constant temperatures to heat and cool buildings by transferring heat from the ground into buildings or the reverse in the summer months.

According to Randy Stair, copresident of Stair Associates, a mechanical/electrical engineering company in Indianapolis who is currently converting Mount Vernon High School’s system, says the school isn’t the only one moving to geothermal energy systems. According to Stair, his company has converted, or helped build, geothermal energy systems for at least 18 schools across Indiana.