For MASSPTA

Healthy Sustainable Schools: Guide & Assessment Tool
http://www.healthyschools .state.mn.us/
Funded, in part, by an EPA P2 grant to Minnesota Office of
Environmental Assistance (now part of MPCA)

With a goal of helping Minnesota K-12 schools reduce operating costs,
reduce environmental impacts and promote a healthy indoor/outdoor
environment for students, the MPCA has produced a free on-line and
printed resource that provides a:
  Guide (65 p.) to the many physical/operational aspects of a school
  that can be changed.
  Assessment Tool (60 p.) - a checklist - for walking through school
  buildings and documenting what needs to be done to make improvements.

Aimed at motivated parents and school officials committed to making
improvements, the Guide helps advocates for change sell their
recommendations by summarizing the many benefits of a healthier school,
which include:
  Enhanced student health and performance
  Higher performing school buildings with reduced operating &
  maintenance costs
  Reduced environmental impacts
  Increased student attendance
  Increased staff satisfaction

The Guide covers the following topics under the headings of Buildings &
Operations, Reduce / Reuse / Recycle, Health & Wellness, and Toxicity
Reduction:
  Green building; energy and water conservation
  Smart growth; building location / community adjacencies /size
  Environmentally preferable purchasing; green cleaning
  3R options; paper and food waste reduction; composting
  Indoor air quality; integrated pest management
  School bus emissions; mercury, lead, chemicals management
  Nutrition

The Assessment Tool for Change includes these chapters:
  Free Topic Experts and Resources
  Getting Started
  Establishing a Team
  Building Awareness and Support (includes model policy statements)
  School Assessment Forms
  Final Tips

View and download the Guide and Assessment Tool at the web site above,
where you will also find 6 school case studies. Three of these 5- to
8-page studies are from pilot projects that used and refined the Guide
and Tool. For those school leaders working on an improvement project,
contact the MPCA's Linda Countryman ( linda.countryman@state.mn.us;
651/215-0269) for a free printed copy of this resource and for
additional assistance.