School Environmental Health

Healthy school environments are tremendously important to children’s health and academic success. Problems such as exposure to chemicals, toxic building materials and mold negatively affect children’s ability to consistently attend school and learn. (This is especially true for the millions of children affected by asthma.) HSC works to improve environmental health in schools through a variety of initiatives, including green cleaning, high-performing schools and indoor air quality.

HSC provides training, tools and leadership development opportunities on environmental health issues for school nurses, parents, teachers, principals, public officials, design professionals and others. As a result, our efforts to effect change are supported by active and engaged grassroots leaders at the school and community levels.

Green Cleaning

HSC developed and distributes The Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools, the first multi-media guide to demystify green cleaning for a school audience. Since the guide’s release in Oct. 2006, we’ve distributed more than 70,000 copies to parents, teachers, facility managers and other school stakeholders around the country, received media attention in more than 50 articles, and had more than 10,000 visitors to the supporting website, www.greencleanschools.org.

HSC was instrumental in advocating for policy making Illinois the second state in the nation to protect children’s health by requiring green cleaning in schools, and convened the first Green Clean Schools National Summit in Nov. 2008.

Check out The Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools »

Healthy, High-Performing Schools

HSC conducts trainings for school administrators and design professionals on the “why” and “how to” of healthy, high-performing school construction and renovation, and was instrumental in creating policy requiring that new state-funded Illinois schools be constructed to meet energy-efficient standards. HSC continues to distribute the Illinois Resource Guide to Healthy, High-Performing School Construction, an official state document.

Check out the Illinois Resource Guide to Healthy, High-Performing School Construction »

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

As childhood asthma rates climb to more than 12 percent (often higher in low-income minority communities), indoor air quality is becoming an even greater concern as we strive to protect children’s health. HSC offers workshops and resources to improve IAQ at schools, and collaborates with parent leaders in Chicago’s Austin community to provide school IAQ training for parents in the context of environmental justice.

Climate Change

HSC is committed to addressing issues that affect global warming and climate change. Because schools are central to neighborhood life throughout this country and are major consumers of energy, they provide an ideal forum to address these issues

The 95,000+ public schools in the United States annually use 454.3 trillion BTUs of energy at the cost of $6 billion. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, schools can reduce their energy usage by 25 percent simply by implementing energy efficiency measures. This would result in savings of $1.25 billion per year for schools and a reduction of approximately 23 million tons of carbon emissions.

Schools that are built and maintained using healthy and environmentally responsible guidelines (often called “green schools”) use 40 percent less energy than traditionally constructed schools, resulting in even more remarkable savings and reduction of carbon emissions.

Schools are governed by local school boards and play a prominent role in the life of the community. School construction and renovation generates extensive community dialogue. When schools adopt energy efficiency or renewable energy programs, they do more than save energy: they also stimulate community-wide discussion about these issues.

School Siting and Walkability

A school’s site has a tremendous impact on its environmental health: the site affects the air quality around a school and the potential for exposure to dangerous environmental contaminants, and also determines whether children will be able to walk or bike to school. HSC addresses school siting and walkability by partnering with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Office of the Lt. Governor of Illinois and other organizations to develop model policies that encourage environmentally responsible school siting decisions that recognize the important role that siting can play in student health.