NH Governor's Office of Energy & Community Services - Student Energy Education Programs: NH Green Schools Program

Bill Gabler of the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative demonstrates to Governor Jeanne Shaheen tools from the Green Schools Program's energy audit kit at Hopkinton High School's Earth Day 2000 event in April.

The New Hampshire Green Schools program brings together students, teachers, school maintenance staff, administrators, and community partners to work toward a common goal of saving energy and lowering school energy costs. In the program students learn that reducing energy use also improves the environment by lessening the demand for fossil fuels like coal and oil used for heating, cooling, and generating electricity.

The Green Schools program was originated in 1998 by the Alliance to Save Energy, a Washington, D.C.-based national non-profit organization that promotes energy conservation. The Governor's Office of Energy and Community Services (ECS) received a grant in 1999 from the Alliance to initiate the New Hampshire Green Schools Program.

New Hampshire Green Schools programs are currently underway or in the planning stages in Franklin; Nashua; Interlakes High School, Meredith; Newfound Regional High School, Bristol, and the Mascoma School District (Canaan, Enfield). Staff from several other schools and school districts have attended Green School workshops or have expressed interest in the program. Public Service of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative are also providing funding and technical assistance. Other utilities are interested in the program.

Electric Car

Student-built energy efficient and solar powered vehicles on display at the November 1999 Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's energy educators conference sponsored by the Governor's Ofice of Energy and Community Services and held at the New Hampshire Technical Institute, Concord NH.

The Green Schools Program is a comprehensive education initiative that encourages physical and behavioral changes in schools. The New Hampshire Department of Education is supporting the program and has been very helpful in recommending ways Green Schools can be used to meet current state educational standards.With curriculum material developed by the Alliance to Save Energy, students learn math, science and other skills while studying their school's energy system. With faculty and staff they monitor how energy is used, recommend and implement changes, and track resulting energy and cost savings. They also identify and explore energy's links to the environment, their community, and the economy while learning skills that will be useful in the job market. .

Green Schools is an extension of the Savings Through Energy Management Program (STEM) sponsored by ECS and state utilities in which a class of high school students learns how to conduct an energy audit, then audits their school and makes energy saving recommendations to the school's administration. More than 35 state high schools have participated in STEM in the past ten years. A similar program focusing on school lighting is available to elementary schools.

ECS's Green Schools program and other energy education programs offer schools substantive educational value and real dollar savings while giving corporate partners an opportunity to be involved in the state's educational mission.

For more information contact:
Joseph Broyles, Energy Program Manager
Governor's Office of Energy & Community Services
57 Regional Drive
Concord, NH 03301
603 271-8341 (phone)
603 271-2615 (fax)

STUDENT ENERGY EDUCATION PROGRAMS