Four Washington schools receive Green Ribbon Awards

When you make several nominations in a national competition you hope maybe one of your nominees will be a winner.  You don’t expect all of your nominees will receive awards. But it happened: the four Washington schools that were nominated as Green Ribbon Schools turned out to be winners. Yep, all four!

The US Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools Program celebrates schools that have made significant achievements to:

•    Increase environmental and sustainability literacy
•    Reduce the school's environmental footprint
•    Create a healthy community for students and staff

Schools are evaluated based on their progress towards these concepts and a wide variety of green benchmarks including zero greenhouse gas emissions, food that is locally sourced and sustainable, and curriculum that ensures all students are environmentally literate and civic minded.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the 78 winning schools yesterday, including three Washington state public schools and one private school:

Camelot Elementary School (Federal Way School District)
Tahoma Junior High School (Tahoma)
Secondary Academy for Success (Northshore)
The Overlake School (a private school in Redmond)

For more information on the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools Program, please go here.

To read this post in Spanish, click here.