School started yesterday, and with it came a whole new crop of students in my environmental sustainability class. Although I wish the summer was longer, and getting back into the routine is hard (falling…asleep…now), I love the first few days of the semester, when I first start to see kids reaction to the idea of sustainability.

Teens, by nature, don’t have a ton of impulse control. Parents of teens are thinking to themselves, "Well, duh." But seriously, many lack the frontal lobe development to fully consider how their actions impact others. It’s why many make stupid choices.

However, this doesn’t prevent them from grasping the notion that how most Americans live might not be the best way to live. I started our first full day by having the class go through the Earth Day Foundation’s online eco-footprint calculator. This simple test asks participants questions involving such subjects as the size of their home, their eating habits, and their transportation habits. Though far from comprehensive, it’s quick enough that I can get a whole class through, working in small groups, in enough time to tabulate the class average, and the results, though probably not 100% precise, give students a rough idea of the magnitude of how they live.

Not only does the quiz give students a score of approximately how many acres of resources they use, but it roughly calculates "how many planets" it would take to sustain humanity if everyone lived like them. After each student finished the quiz, they came up to the SmartBoard, where I had an Excel file with everyone’s name, and entered their scores, then calculated a class average. On average, if everyone lived like my class, we would need 3.5 planets to sustain us. When I explained what this number meant, the class guiltily looked at each other, particularly those who had high numbers.

"Why is that number a big deal?" I asked.

"There aren’t 3.5 planets," a student volunteered. "Well, there are, but we can only use one. So…" he sheepishly trailed off. The class laughed.

I asked the kids what questions from the quiz surprised them. Remember, most of them are coming in with little prior knowledge of sustainability other than "recycling=good; global warming=bad." The number one concept they didn’t expect was questions about their diet. Why does it matter how much meat I eat? Why does it matter where my food comes from? I explained the them that a lot of resources go into food production, like water and fossil fuels.

"Wait, so it basically takes gas to make our food?" one student asked cautiously. I smiled slyly because I love watching the synapses fire!

"If it’s Twinkies, there might be actual petroleum in your food itself," I countered.

"So what are we gonna do?" another student asked panickedly.

"Well, that’s what this class is about. Getting the number down to one," I said Like a television show, the bell rang.

If you are a brown-bagger (or stylish, reusable bagger), you know that sometimes packing your lunch can be a pain. It’s hard enough for me to make it out the door each morning fully dressed, let alone with a decent meal for later on. It’s easy to fall into a culinary rut that leaves you bored with the same old sandwich. How can you pack an eco-friendly, tasty lunch that is healthy and affordable? It’s easier than you would think. Here are some tips for lunches that will keep both kids and adults happy.

1. Avoid individually-packaged foods. You pay more for the convenience, create more packaging, and, unless you’re eating little packets of carrots or apple slices, are probably eating something processed. Invest in a variety of reusable containers in different sizes so you can buy in bulk, which eliminates packaging waste and saves you money. Do I have to tell you to avoid these?
2. I can’t stress this enough: farmers markets. Raw fruits and veggies, particularly locally-grown, in-season produce, is usually a zero-waste choice that’s completely healthy. Carrots and celery are old standbys, but what about sugar-snap peas, radishes, edamame, cucumber rounds, jicama, cherry potatoes, or bell pepper rings? Peaches, plums, kiwis, cherries, and berries are a sweet treat, and frozen grapes are an awesome twist. Add a dip, such as peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, salsa, hummus, or low-fat dressing, to keep things interesting. Kids love dipping things. Why, I do not know.
3. Put it on a pita. Or a tortilla. Or naan. Tortillas keep longer than regular bread, and can break up the monotony of a normal PB&J or ham and cheese. Wait, what about mini-bagels? Or flatbread? There’s a whole world of bread-like possibilities.
4. What about chips? There are low-fat, whole grain tortilla chips and pita chips, or you can make your own. Hummus, salsa, baba ghanoush, bean dip, or tapenade all work with chips in a lunch.
5. I love salads, but I hate how the dressing gets the lettuce soggy by lunch time. Check out this bad boy, that keeps the dressing separate from the salad in one container. Speaking of salad, translate your favorite salad into a wrap. Try chicken caesar, caprese, or spinach and walnuts.
6. For adults with access to a microwave, soup is a sometimes-forgotten lunchtime food that can provide an almost-endless variety of flavors. Trader Joe’s has a particularly wide selection, and I have yet to be disappointed by any of their concoctions (Roasted Red Pepper is my favorite). Add some crusty bread leftover from last night’s dinner and a piece of fruit, and you have a pretty tempting spread. Your local deli probably sells pints or quarts of soup to take home if you’ve got a local favorite.

Bottom line: lunch doesn’t have to be monotonous, unhealthy, or trash-producing. With little thought before your grocery shopping, you can have delicious, nutritious meals that leave a lighter footprint.

What do you think? What are your favorite packable lunches? Leave your comment below.

So we know that bottled water is bad for our planet. We also know that cities are refusing to purchase bottled water for employees. Now, a school is joining that fight. Nerinx Hall, an all-women Catholic high school for girls here in the St Louis area, is taking bottled water out of its vending machines and giving the student body reusable bottles to stay hydrated. I applauded this decision, but apparently some people think the Constitution is going down with the Aquafina. In fact, I heard a friend’s parent (who has a daughter at the school) exclaiming what an outrage the ban was. Since Nerinx Hall is not so far from the school where I teach, I wondered if my school could do the same. Many states and schools have banned full-sugared sodas in schools, and water sales have increased as it replaces soda in vending machines. It’s become widely available, so how do you encourage both students and staff to give up the bottled water habit?

My first thought was, "Why is this such a big deal in the first place?" It wasn’t long ago that most people scoffed at paying a premium for what they can get for pennies at home. Remember that old joke that "Evian" was just "naive" spelled backwards? It’s been less than ten years since bottled water rose from a luxury product to a ubiquitous beverage of choice, yet mention banning bottled water, and "from my cold dead hands" cries ring out everywhere. When did we grow so attached to bottled water?

First off: provide an alternative. Nerinx Hall provided water bottles to its students, but it’s a private school, and I’m sure tuition could be adjusted to allow for Nalgene for every students. Public schools may have that option. See if your school store will sell reusable bottles with your school logo printed on it. If you don’t have a school store, maybe a student group could sell them for a fundraiser. I found them for just a few bucks here. Still better might be a school-wide incentive program for those willing to pledge to curb the bottled water habit–with the reusable bottles as the incentive.

Second: educate. Many people don’t realize that there’s a price to pay for that convenience: plastic bottles are made with petroleum. The light bulb goes off once people realize that the same stuff that causes climate change produces the bottles they throw away with little thought. Here’s a few articles that highlight just how harmful that seemingly-innocent bottle can be.

Third: check out the contracts you school has with vending machines. Do you have to have water in them? If not, get rid of it.

Four: point out the price factor. Most schools are pinching pennies. So why, at almost every meeting or professional development session, are we offered cold bottles of water (and, even worse, the tiny 8 oz, encouraging people to take more than one!). Why are we paying for this? We’ve got gorgeous refrigerated drinking fountains–get your school administration to purchase a few filtered-water pitchers for the teachers’ lounge instead.

Five: get students involved. I’ve blogged before about the impact of visiting a landfill or doing a waste audit of your school. Once they see the magnitude of the problem, they’ll be motivated to act. Who better than other kids to get students to say no to bottled water? Can your student council do an awareness campaign? Students and staff alike are more easily persuaded by student activism than teachers getting preachy.

I start school again tomorrow, and the kids don’t come back for another week, but I’ve already met with my Student Council: they want to continue to lead the way in creating a more environmentally sustainable learning environment. I can’t wait to see what they’ve come up with to tackle this problem!

For many families, it’s the time of year when back to school is growing closer and closer. When shopping for school supplies, it’s important to keep greener options in mind. From paper to pencils, from lunch bags to book bags, there are products out there that leave a lighter footprint on the earth.

The first things to remember is to reuse items you already own that are still good. If last year’s backpack is in good shape, choose to reuse instead of buying a new one. Same goes for lunch bags, binders, pencil bags, and rulers. If you must buy something new, choose vinyl-free items to eliminate the dioxins involved when using PVC. Companies like Rawganique and Ecolution are producing hemp bags, recycled rubber, and recycled plastic bags. Gecko Traders has fair-trade pencil bags made from recyled rice and feed bags from Asia. And I did a post about waste-free lunches back in February, where I highly recommended LaptopLunches cute bento boxes. ReusableBags has a plethora of awesome reusable lunch bags.

When buying paper goods, always look for recycled notebooks with a high post-consumer waste percentage. For school-aged kids, there is recycled construction paper, and Mead makes recycled-content spiral notebooks, as does Ampad Office Max and Office Depot sell recycled printer paper, and New Leaf Paper company sells a wide variety of recycled printer and notebook paper. For grown-up notebook junkies (like myself) Boulder, Colorado stationary company Vickerey has several gorgeous notebooks made of recycled or tree-free paper. 3-M makes a variety of recycled Post-Its and Rebinder makes recycled binders.

Did you know most crayons are made from petroleum? Fortunately, Prang makes 85% soybean oil crayons. There are also recycled-rubber refillable Wheely’s Pens, recycled plastic pens, pencils made from recycled denim, Paper Mate has recycled pencils, and ForestChoice makes pencils certified by the FSC.

For more green school supplies, check out The Green Office.

Joining multiple established sustainability-focused MBA programs across the US, Colorado State University unveiled its new Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise program this spring. The program, which begins in August and includes 23 students from around the world in its first class, will combine a traditional MBA with core coursework in social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Students will particularly examine the global problems of poverty, environmental degradation, and community health.

The program’s mission, according to it’s website, is to take business to a level "where business innovations lift up the human condition and rebuild our planet’s capital." All students will spend a summer doing fieldwork that involves implementing sustainable business projects created during their time in the program. "At the core though, this program is about studying, creating and leading innovative new organizations that see these great challenges as great opportunities," said Paul Hudnut, director of the program.

Colorado State has a long tradition of addressing needs in developing countries: the Peace Corps has roots there, and engineering and business students more recently collaborated to create new sustainable technology such as a cleaner-burning biomass stove that generates energy stored in a battery for later use, to be implemented in the Philippines, India, and Vietnam. CSU is also the birthplace of EnviroFit’s two-stroke engine retrofit kit, designed to reduce emissions of tricycle taxis in the Philippines.

Looking for an educational and sustainable vacation for your family this summer? Maybe pick up a foreign language while you’re at it? Moorhead, Minnesota’s, Concordia College-sponsored Concordia Language Villages have offered children and families language immersion programs since 1961, and, in 2006, opened Waldsee BioHaus Environmental Learning Center, a camp that combines principles of environmental education, sustainability, and sustainable building with German culture and language.

Waldsee BioHaus is modeled on Germany’s Passivhaus standard, which is similar to, but more extensive than, the LEED standard used here in the US. The BioHaus incorporates cutting-edge green tech, including a green roof, solar panels, vacuum insulation passive solar design, and is the most airtight building in the United States. The building also has transparent siding, allowing visitors to see the building materials. In addition, BioHaus won the Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award for air quality and climate protection, based on their 24-hour air/heat exchange system and 85% efficient heat recovery unit.

Concordia has taken pains to ensure that Waldsee BioHaus is not just German language in a green building. Along with instruction in German language and culture, BioHaus also features an extensive sustainability curriculum focusing on sustainable living practices in Germany and including green roof gardening, energy conservation, fresh-water ecology, and sustainable forestry practices.

For more information on Waldsee BioHaus’s programs, visit their extensive blog or Concordia Language Village’s website.

Ask most educators about No Child Left Behind, the current administration’s education initiative, and a constant complaint would be the de-emphasis on those subjects deemed non-essential: art, music, physical education, etc. Environmental education, outside of the traditional science class, fits into the category of subjects that aren’t assessed by standardized tests and, therefore, not prioritized in many U.S. schools. Fortunately, potential legislation might change that. No Child Left Behind expires this year, and Congress must reauthorize it, allowing room for changes.

On July 12th, Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) introduced the No Child Left Inside Act of 2007. The measure, HR 3606, provides incentives for state educational agencies to create a state environmental literacy plan that will integrate environmental education across disciplines in K-12 curriculum while building an infrastructure for environmental education. It will also provide funding to help states, districts, and non-governmental organizations to implement this plan. The bill is supported by the No Child Left Inside Coalition, which includes the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, the National Audubon Society, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Where would the money come from? The bill would include environmental education as a authorized areas for use of The Fund for the Improvement of Education, where many states and districts obtain special funding. The bill also calls for grants that could be used to train teachers as specialists in environmental education.

To ask your representative to co-sponsor the bill, click here.

Ontario's Liberal Party unveiled its plan for statewide environmental sustainability education, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne announced yesterday. "We must help students build on the knowledge and leadership they have already shown on climate change issues," said Wynne. "Our government is committed to reaching every student with an environmental education that inspires them to take positive action."

The Canadian province's plan infuses environmental education in all grade levels across disciplines, as well as creates an optional Grade 11 course focuses exclusively on environmental education. Ontario previously had mandatory environmental education, but that initiative was eliminated in 1998. The new initiative will cost $4 million.

The plan was partially in response to a report issued by the Ontario Ministry of Educations's Curriculum Council and their Working Group on Environmental Education that recommended the standardization of environmental lessons and inclusion of parents in that education. The report, titled Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future, is available online.

The plan is just part of a string of environmentally-friend initiatives the Ontario government has supported, including the EcoSchools program, two green-themed websites targeting high school and elementary students, and a Clean-Air and Climate Change artwork and essay contest.

Graphic courtesy of Wakarusa Music FestivalI spoke on Tuesday about the Wakarusa Music Festival's Sustainability Symposium that took place on Saturday of the festival. Moderated by Treehugger's Simran Sethi, the symposium featured Big Coal author Jeff Goodell, Land Institute president Dr. Wes Jackson, Wakarusa Director Bret Mosiman, Kansas wind-farmer and cattle rancher Pete Ferrell, and Director of Sustanability for New Belgium Brewing Nic Theisen, the symposium focused on energy and sustainability and evolved into a fascinating discussion about public policy, individual actions, and the sustainability movement

The morning started with Ferrell discussing wind power, specifially Kansas's potential for wind power. Ferrell is the primary landowner of the Elk River Wind Farm, and is also the general manager of Ferrell Ranch, where he uses sustainable methods of raising cattle. He became interested in wind farming when visiting Hawaii's biggest cattle ranch. Ferrell noted that in Hawaii, ranching had to be sustainable–there isn't room for externalities on an island, "If we all had an island mentality, we'd change how we do things." While his speech focused on wind and energy, he welcomed questions about the seeming contrast between an environmentalist and a cattle rancher. When one audience member tried to bait him into admitting he would use an herbicide if necessary, Ferrell rattled off several different sustainable alternatives he could use instead. Ferrell spoke passionately and urged the audience to commit to both living sustainably and becoming politically active.

Seeing Dr. Wes Jackson speak at length was the non-music highlight of my trip to Wakarusa. Jackson is incredibly well-regarded–he was one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, was a MacArthur Fellow, past winner of the Right Livelihood Award, and Pew Conservation Scholar, among other laudable titles. He spoke about the urgency of environmentalism and sustainability and eschewed those in the green world who preached what he called "Wal-Mart Environmentalism", the idea that if we all change to CFL's, that's all we need to do to save humanity. The theme of his words reiterated my frustration with The Lazy Environmentalist. Jackson is incredibly knowledgeable and spouted facts and figures that put our impending crisis into perspective. Consider this: today's 22-year-old college graduate has lived through the use of 50% of the world's total fossil fuels. He believes that a reduction of 60-80% of the world's carbon emissions by the year 2100 is necessary to continue to sustain humanity. Despite Jackson's seemingly bleak message, he was actually full of hope–he thinks agriculture is one vital piece of the puzzle that we can fix (which is what the Land Institute is all about), and was so visibly passionate about his work that I immediately wanted to sell my car and go off the grid.

New Belgium's Nic Theisen echoed Jackson's ideas about real commitment to sustainability. He should know–he doesn't fly and has been car-free since 2000. With no Amtrak service from Fort Collins, CO (where New Belgium is located) and Lawrence, Theisen took the train to Lincoln, NE, then rode his three-speed bike from Lincoln to Lawrence. Theisen spoke about New Belgium's efforts to become more sustainable–their entire operation is carbon-offset using wind tags, they use significantly less water than their counterparts, their buildings are LEED-certified, and they reduce, reuse, and recycle at every opportunity, among other sustainable practices (like their certified-organic Mothership Wit beer….delicious!) After speaking about what New Belgium is attempting to do, he continued to note that it's still not enough. Their beer production is still, theoretically, unsustainable. He cited instances where, despite their company's commitment to sustainability, he knew New Belgium employees saw him as an outlier, a freak of environmentalism. He defended New Belgium's pursuit of a growth model of business, and noted that they are seeking to transform the industry by providing a successful model of sustainable practices at an increasingly larger scale. I was refreshed by his honesty and the level of transparency he had when speaking about New Belgium's practices.

After these three spoke, Sephi moderated conversation about sustainability and energy peppered with questions from the audience. Afterwards, all speakers were incredibly approachable and the entire event had the close ambience of a classroom. The Sustainability Symposium was truly a pocket of activism amongst all the beer-drinking, hoop-dancing, frisbee-throwing, and tail-shaking that took place at Wakarusa that weekend, and it was absolutely refreshing to hear people speak so passionately about their commitment to sustainability.

Image source: Washington University

Washington University in St Louis has made a $55 million dollar investment in sustainability, focusing on the development of the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES). the university annouced Monday.

I-CARES will foster "institutional, regional and international research on the development and production of biofuels from plant and microbial systems and the exploration of sustainable alternative energy and environmental systems and practices." The center will also focus cleaner processes for utilizing Missouri's abundant coal resources, as well as improved combustion processes and emission reduction.

I-CARES will create five new endowed professorships to attract top-tier research leaders in energy, environment, and sustainability. Research will also include international partner universities, all of which recently issued a "call to action" on energy and sustainability.

The program will also support a sustainability officer and the means to apply green technology to improve energy efficiency in the university's operations. Roger N. Beachy, president of the Danforth Center, which will collaborate with I-CARES, noted,

The I-CARES initiative is an outstanding commitment by Washington University to seek solutions for a critical factor that faces the world this century, namely creating abundant and environmentally sustainable energy sources. It also adds an important component to the regional initiative to establish St. Louis as a leader in the development of renewable energy.

Washington University is a member of Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, which works to promote sustainability in all sectors of higher education.