Schools

Knowledge is empowering, and getting kids involved in the classroom is the first step to helping them understand climate change.

Cost Saving Actions

The How to Save Money page includes a series of actions that schools can take to begin reducing GHG emissions, conserve natural resources, and save money.

Financial Resources for Schools

Keep up to date on the latest financial resources available for schools.

Climate Calculators

Find out what your school's carbon footprint is using one of the tools available on the Climate Calculators for Schools page.

California schools offering environmental education provide stimulating learning environments to foster students’ creativity to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Join many school district officials, teachers, and students to stop global warming and save money by taking cost-saving actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Check out the resources in this toolkit to learn more about how to make a difference!

Did you know?

Nearly 30% of California cities have signed on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (CPA) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 7% below 1990 levels by 2020?

12,000 people went to Washington, D.C. for PowerShift 2009 last February to advocate for cleaner energy.

Replacing one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb can save $30 or more in electricity costs over the bulb's lifespan.

Small retailers spend on average $800 each month on electricity and small offices spend $1,000 each month. Much of this spending is unnecessary.

California's small and medium-sized businesses consume about 18% of all commercial energy in the state .

By implementing cost-effective energy efficiency projects, annual utility bills can be reduced up to 20%. The simple reasons are that efficiency upgrades reduce annual maintenance costs, increase cost savings, conserve resources and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Building green would save an average school $100,000 each year in energy costs alone – enough to hire two additional full-time teachers, purchase 5,000 new textbooks, or buy 500 new computers. Source

Carbon Dioxide, or CO2, is the most abundant greenhouse gas released by human activities, mostly through the burning of fossil fuels. It is the main contributor to climate change.

Reducing your driving speed to 55 mph from 70 mph could increase your fuel efficiency by 23%. Also, one gallon of gasoline emits 19.6 pounds of harmful CO2 into the atmosphere.