Second Annual Greentools for Healthy Schools Conference Announced

For immediate release
Please contact: Ariel Dekovic, 415-970-6604, ariel@chps.net

April 15, 2008 (San Francisco) - The Collaborative for High Performance Schools, Inc. (CHPS) will hold the second annual Greentools for Healthy Schools Conference, Training and Expo on September 11-12, 2008 in Sacramento, CA.

The conference will bring together experts in green, healthy schools for two days of workshops, featured speakers, awards and exhibitions. Geared toward school districts, design and construction professionals, and facilities managers, Greentools aims to provide the best tools to design, build and maintain today’s best schools: high performance schools that are responsive to pressing environmental concerns while providing a healthier learning atmosphere for students.

Greentools is getting noticed by state officials. "High performance schools will help us greatly in our march toward reducing the state's greenhouse gas emissions twenty-five percent by 2020," said California Air Resources Board (ARB) Chairperson Mary Nichols. "We're looking forward to promoting healthy learning environments for millions of California students, teachers and others through this great program." Representatives from ARB are serving on this year’s Greentools Advisory Committee.

This year’s two-day event will focus on the three most pressing issues challenging the school community and our goal of ensuring high performance schools for all: climate change, high performance school policy and existing schools.

“The ‘big picture’ of high performance schools remains incomplete without addressing how to incorporate high performance measures in to existing schools, how schools impact climate change, and school building policy from the district to the federal level,” notes Charles Eley, CHPS Executive Director. “CHPS provides very real tools for districts and their design teams so that they can build today’s best schools for our nation’s students.”

A comprehensive CHPS school tour will feature the H. Allen Hight Learning Center, one of the newest schools to be built to CHPS high performance school Criteria. Greentools will also offer free, professionally-moderated design charrettes for school districts. These half-day charrettes will help the school design teams to integrate CHPS principles early on in a project.

This year’s Green Apple Awards will be presented at Greentools 2008. Distributed annually, the Green Apple Awards recognize notable leaders of high performance school building. The Green Apple Awards are presented to outstanding school districts, design teams, individuals, organizations and industry leaders for their contributions to the green school movement. This year, awards will be given out in the three categories that Greentools 2008 focuses on: climate change, effecting policy and existing schools. Applications are due by July 1, 2008.

The 2007 Greentools conference in San Francisco attracted over 350 school district officials, design and construction professionals, product manufacturers, and state agency and utility professionals. Attendees learned from experts in high performance design and heard from state leaders on the future of high performance school facilities.

Information about Greentools 2008 can be found at www.chps.net/greentools.

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) is the nation’s first green building rating program developed especially for school learning environments. Forty CHPS-Designed schools have already opened their doors, and over three hundred more are on the way. Thirty school districts are using the CHPS Criteria, eight states have an adaptation of the CHPS Criteria available for use, and four of these states provide special funding for CHPS schools. Find out more information about CHPS at www.chps.net.