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Green School Resources

RESOURCES

Department of Environmental Services, Opala Learning Center

Provides educational tools for school recycling projects and programs. Holds a Discover Recycling Event for teachers (next event is Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012) with a Tour de Trash of Oahu’s waste processors and H-Power followed by afternoon presentations. The event is free to Oahu educators.

Hawaii Environmental Education Alliance

Provides a searchable list of environmental resources, organizations and schools in Hawaii. Downloadable documents of the Hawaii Environmental Literacy Plan and an Environmental education standards alignment are available.

Kokua Hawaii Foundation

Kokua Hawaii Foundation supports schools’ environmental efforts through ‘AINA In Schools Program, 3R’s School Recycling, Environmental Education Mini Grants, Environmental Field Trips, Kokua Earth Action Projects and Plastic Free Schools. For nutrition and garden docent training contact Kelly Perry ([email: Kelly]).

The Green House

The Green House has workshops for keiki and adults including gardening and composting basics, solar power and making rain barrels. Keiki classes include building butterfly gardens, papermaking and working with worms.

US Green Building Council (USGBC) Hawaii Chapter Green Schools

The goals of the green schools committee are to build alliances that promote green schools, educate elected officials and educate the general public. Committee meetings are held every second Tuesday of the month.

The Kohala Center

A not-for-profit organization dedicated to environmental research, education and conservation. Located on the Big Island, the Kohala Center offers programs focused on energy self-reliance, food self-reliance and ecosystem health. They also support 63 school gardens on the island.

Waikiki Worm Company

Hawaii’s resource for garden and composting worms, vermicast and vermicast tea. Their new store is located at 742 Queen St. Waikiki Worms offers worm workshops for the community as well as schools. Funding for the workshops can be obtained from Opala or Kokua Hawaii Foundation.

Blue Planet Foundation

Kanu Hawaii

National organizations:

The Center for Green Schools

Supported by the US Green Building Council, the Center for Green Schools offers a Green Classroom Professional Certificate for educators, parents and students.

The Center for Ecoliteracy

The website offers a wealth of information to assist teachers as they implement sustainable curriculum, including books, discussion guides, lessons and professional development seminars.

Green Ribbon Schools

Not to be confused with the US DOE program of the same name, this organization offers a 6-step plan to becoming a green ribbon school, by posting activities that correspond to four cornerstones: Eco Campus, Nature Adventure, Health and Fitness and Natural Classroom. Schools can register, record their activities, and be inspired what other schools are doing.

Funding Sources:

Kokua Hawaii Foundation

Environmental Education mini grants of $200/ classroom or $1,000/ school are offered to help teachers advance their environmental education goals. Consider using KHF funds to start a small garden, raise composting worms or set up a classroom workshop. Kokua Hawaii Foundation also offers assistance for environmental field trips.

Opala Recycling Teaching Partners

Offers up to $500 to support schools that intend to establish and implement a sustainable recycling project on campus. Partners include The Green House, Kokua Hawaii Foundation and Waikiki Worms.

Public Schools of Hawaii Foundation

Grants for up to $3,000 are offered through the foundation’s Good Idea Grant Program designed to enhance innovation in the classroom and challenge teachers to think creatively and boldly.

Lowe’s Toolbox for Education

Grants are offered to support any facility improvement or landscaping project. Building an outdoor classroom or garden would be appropriate. Grants are for between $2,000 and $5,000.



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This week

Derelict Downtown

For as long as we can remember, Chinatown has been notorious for drugs, homelessness and filthy streets. Some claim nothing has changed–and that it never will.

Sweet Ride

Bicyclists have long been overlooked by four-wheel riders on Honolulu’s congested streets. In the gleaming, armored pecking order of the road, cyclists are too often dismissed as lane hogs, hand-signaling nuisances and unfortunates who can’t afford cars.

Hoopili miss

The fate of some 1,525 acres of land at Hoopili in ‘Ewa may have been decided last Wednesday in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The decision might have gone differently, but the appellant attorneys’ strategy seemed to collapse as Judge Rhonda Nishimura picked it apart based on technical errors.

Housing First $

Last Thursday, May 9, the Caldwell administration revealed its action plan for solving Honolulu’s homeless problem. But at the City Council’s budget meeting the same day, Budget chair Ann Kobayashi wanted to know where the money for “Housing First” (see Cover Story, pg.

Do it Wright

The Mayor Wright Housing project has been slated for major redevelopment by the Hawaii State Housing Authority (HSHA); requests for qualifications will be going out to developers in three to six months. Nonprofit group Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) wants to make sure the project’s tenants have a say in the redevelopment process, which could include major renovations or a total rebuild.

Street Disconnect

The Honolulu City Council held a special Committee on Transportation meeting on Tuesday, May 7, to go over its Complete Streets initiative with input from the department directors of Design and Construction (DDC), Planning and Permitting (DPP) and Transportation Services (DTS). At prior meetings, including the Moiliili workshop, community members pressed the idea of combining Complete Streets with Caldwell’s repaving projects, which Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and some councilmembers have said makes sense.

Stopping Growth

Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.

Get it together

In your Diary of May 8 (“End of the 27th)” you reported on SB 1214, passed by the Legislature. In their nimble way, the Legislature tacked the wheel boot prohibition on a bill that was intended to abolish the Commission on Transportation.

Look both ways

On Friday, May 3, at 3:45 p.m., I was driving town bound through the Wilson tunnel on the Likelike. I was parallel to another car, and there were several other cars following closely behind me.

Thank you!

Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).

Truth be told

When the biofuel guys say that costs are “confidential” (“Big-foot Biofuel,” May 8), I reply that since I am the one who is going to end up paying the cost, I have a right to know. Frankly, when everybody tries to hide the costs, I smell rat …

Nature’s beauty

The Foster Botanical Garden never ceases to inspire for an urban setting it is like a step back in time (“See the Flora,” May 8). If Koko Crater Botanical Garden contains the world’s largest plumeria collection as suggested, it may be thanks in part to the Prussian born Dr.