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In early December Jon Stong and I attended this green schools conference in Anaheim.   Although getting there was a bit of an adventure involving a last minute flight cancellation and some temporarily lost luggage, the conference itself was quite good.  On day 1 I presented a case study of American Canyon High School at the Collaborative for High Performance Schools’ (CHPS) pre-conference workshop, titled Getting a Green School on the Ground.  ACHS is the first school to go through the new CHPS Verified program and features a number of innovative sustainable design strategies.  (You can download my presentation slides here.)  The presentation went well and I met a number of very interesting attendees, including one gentleman that is working on a green schools program for the area in China recovering from last year’s earthquake.

Day two was filled with seminars and learning.  One of the best seminars that I attended was about Green School Yards.  The presenters represented designers, community leaders and administrators that had worked together to create innovative, green school yards in San Francisco.  They had really come up with some great ways to leverage a little bit of construction funds with District support and community involvement to create some fabulous play and learning spaces.  I also attended a presentation of DSA’s new Grid Neutral Schools Guidebook which I helped create.   This is a great program aimed at reducing overhead costs, greenhouse gas emissions and our electricity use. (read more here)  The presentation slides even featured a few renderings of American Canyon High!

Day three featured more informative seminars and some time on the exhibit hall. There were many, many green products on the expo floor. One interesting product I ran into was a company that makes refillable non-toxic whiteboard markers. Check them out here http://auspenmarkers.com/. The last session of the day was one of the best. It focused on the use of natural ventilation in schools. I have been thinking a lot lately about how natural ventilation is a missed opportunity for a lot of schools. This seminar did a great job of explaining the principles and strategies for designing with natural ventilation.

My presentation from the conference can be downloaded here. Many of the other presentations from the conference can be downloaded here.