For the past seven year now the SRD (Society for Responsible Design) have held their Change design exhibition showing the latest graduate student thinking around environmentally and socially responsible design solutions. And this year its on again. Right now.

So, if you want to know where the fresh green thinking is imagining our world should be headed in the spheres of Architecture, Interiors, Industrial Design, Landscape, Fashion and Visual Communications check it out, in the few day left until 15 August 2010…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

In January, we told you about Pepsi’s Refresh Everything initiative, giving away $20 million in grants to individuals, businesses and non-profits that are working for change in six categories: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education. The grants are awarded by popular vote: ev… Read the full story on TreeHugger

First, there is Green Up Our Schools, which is a grant program that provides money and resources for elementary school waste reduction and recycling plans. While they are just getting started in a few school districts, they are looking to expand to many more and want interested parents/educators/administrators to tell them about their home districts. The grant program focuses on education about recycling and solid waste reduction, and expects participating groups to form environmental student groups, meet with them weekly or semi-weekly, set up recycling services, and run two waste reduction projects per year. A list of activities for your student group, information for the recycling service providers, and step-by-step instructions for how to run each project are provided within the program. If you cannot get into the program as it is now, or are interested in learning about helping to green your child’s school or school district, they have a Resources page for teachers and kids. Included there is information about recycling, composting, art projects, waste-free lunches, and using our natural resources wisely.

The second site you may want to check out is Project Learning Tree, which has a GreenSchools! program that provides a blueprint for educators, students, environmental and health advocates, school board members, parents and interested community members to teach, learn, and engage together in creating a more green and healthy learning environment at their school. It combines environmental education, service learning, and leadership opportunities for students to help turn their school into a model GreenSchool.

No matter how we do it, we must start educating our kids about our environment and how our lifestyles can affect it. The earlier we start with them, the more they can learn and adapt to healthier ways of living lightly on our planet. If you have children or you are an educator, I really recommend incorporating an environmental program into your teaching, as the lessons the kids learn not only benefit themselves but the entire world as well.

Photo from by iboy_daniel

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

You may also enjoy:

1. An Elementary Education In Green – Denver Green School.
2. Lessons For Children And Families Going Green.
3. If You Need To Buy, Buy Green For Back To School Time.
4. Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 135.
5. Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 131.

It seems not a day goes by when you hear about school budgets being radically cut, or even closed, and as a result the educational future of our next generation in uncertainty, lacking in depth & breadth. Theater, music, even the always preserved sports are being left to the side, in favor of focusing on how to train good test takers, to better secure funding…. Read the full story on TreeHugger

Education for Sustainability is a dynamic system of core content, competencies and habits of mind coupled with a pedagogical system that is learner centered and inquiry based (just two of the instructional attributes that characterize it). The best way to engage with teaching and learning for sustainability is through the development of learning communities that develop over time. We say this because, though we know a lot, we do not know enough – and, we don’t know what we don’t know. Therefore, we must create new knowledge and new ways of thinking, we must be able to analyze synthesize and transfer knowledge from various fields, we must be able to work with others and learn from their perspectives and we must be able to think and act “outside the box” to create new understandings and new behaviors that complement the enduring common sense with which many of us are still familiar.

The inclusion of the word “green” in the official name of the school means that DGS wants to focus on, and educate, both the student AND the community at large in living sustainably upon the earth. They are also partnering with local eco-experts like Earth Force and using their building and neighborhood as laboratories for the study and implementation of carbon footprint reduction and sustainable living. I have always said I wouldn’t ever want to go back to school again, but the concept of this school makes me wish I was a kid again!

Denver Green School takes ownership and responsibility for improving our natural, built and social environment. We engage learners to address real-world problems and achieve sustainable solutions for our school and our community.

While I hope that more schools are created like this around the country (I am sure there are some already), I love the fact that there is one starting up here in Denver. Implementing sustainability education in elementary school is of the utmost importance if we want to have a chance at cleaning up our planet. Good luck to DGS – and if/when I ever have kids, I will certainly sign them up!

You may also enjoy:

1. What Is Schooling For?
2. House Passes $6.4 Billion Modernization Plan To Green Public Schools.
3. Lessons For Children And Families Going Green.
4. If You Need To Buy, Buy Green For Back To School Time.
5. Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 130.

Earth Day is coming up next week and so you might be wondering how you can participate (preferably without having to leave the comfort of your own home, right?) Here’s one option that won’t require any heavy lifting, but can still have a big impact: Microsoft’s search engine Bing is hosting a photo contest to help raise awareness of environmental conservation and Read the full story on TreeHugger

Earth Day is coming up next week and so you might be wondering how you can participate (preferably without having to leave the comfort of your own home, right?) Here’s one option that won’t require any heavy lifting, but can still have a big impact: Microsoft’s search engine Bing is hosting a photo contest to help raise awareness of environmental conservation and Read the full story on TreeHugger

• access to corridor and wildlife information, maps and stories via the Corridor Commons initiative
• sponsored conservation trips in wildlife corridors across North America
• citizen naturalists generated wildlife corridor field observations, reports and stories
• training and grassroots networking opportunities

Wildlife corridors are pathways that allow regular travel, seasonal migration or population dispersal of different species. Without healthy corridors, species are unable to migrate, move, find food, reproduce or effectively adapt to a warming planet, habitat fragmentation or human development.

This new program inspires us to take trips into wildlife corridors to hike and climb and paddle and camp, so we can be a witness to the wonders of nature and the importance of connected habitat. You can sign up today to join the community of citizen naturalists, to share stories, images, and video from your trips, and to learn how to take action to protect critical corridors. I am going to add my name today so when I go hiking here in Colorado I can report back what I see – wanna join me?

Witness for Wildlife

You may also enjoy:

1. A Letter From A Senior Citizen To Younger People…
2. Finding Community-Based Greening Projects.
3. “Energy Citizen” Ads Are From The American Petroleum Institute.
4. How To Keep Wildlife Out Of The Compost.
5. Tell The EPA To Not Let A Massive Mining Project Ruin The Everglades.

Are you living in your own green bubble of sorts, where it is easy to think that everyone else “gets it” and is doing their best to help keep the planet clean? I know I find myself there quite often because so much of my life revolves around my green blogging friends, books I read, this blog I write daily, and my general axiom that most people act sustainably because it’s the “right thing to do”. However, that’s not the case a lot of the time out there in the real world. I have good friends who haven’t made the switch to a safer laundry detergent, family members who still use bleach to clean, and neighbors who commute by themselves in government-sized vehicles. Driving to California a few weeks ago, I was reminded that most people in LA still sit in gridlock by themselves in their cars. People love their McMansions, their garages full of power boats and 4-wheelers, and eating fast food for lunch every day. Getting out of the bubble reminds me that not everyone, not even the majority, think like we do about being green and trying to live a sustainable lifestyle. So how do we continue working to clean up the planet and our behavior while also getting outside of our self-imposed (not purposefully, I am guessing) green bubble we live in?

My friends on Twitter are mostly fellow greens. My friends on Facebook are as well. Most of my friends in real life also try to consider the environment when purchasing products or making lifestyle decisions. Is it any wonder that I truly believe that most people are the same when I surround myself with like-minded spirits? Are we, by talking about all this greenness amongst ourselves, just preaching to the choir? How can we get this message out to those people who aren’t necessarily inundated with it every day anyway without being disagreeable about it? We so often live in our own created bubble that we miss seeing how everyone else lives.

I guess it’s the same as we forget how others live until we are confronted with the crushing poverty in Haiti when an earthquake destroys the country. We don’t live in that bubble of poverty – so it’s easy to focus on ourselves and our own concerns and miss what those outside our world are dealing with. Unfortunately, the health of the planet affects everyone, poor and wealthy alike, so it’s important that we all try to do our part and work for the benefit of all. And thus why it’s very important to get out of the green bubble we all stay in the majority of the time…to get out there…to listen to different opinions. Try to understand why some choices are made. Try to suggest some safer alternatives. Don’t berate. Use discretion.

You never know what you may learn, whose life you may change, or whose life may change yours.

Photo from Shutterstock

Check it out! I just started putting together a store for The Good Human, filled with all sorts of natural products, reusable bottles, etc. – It’s not done yet, but it’s getting there!

You may also enjoy:

1. Why You Should Want To Live A Green Life.
2. Trust Me, We’re Not As Green As You Think We Are.
3. How To Find A Green Dry Cleaner Near You.
4. Don’t Stop Celebrating The Earth.
5. Please Forgive Me, For I Am An Eco-Sinner.