Local climate education program receives national Clean Air Excellence Award

May 13, 2009 -- Today in Washington, DC, the Cool School Challenge climate education program is receiving a Clean Air Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“Each year, our Clean Air Excellence Award winners offer amazing new examples of how we keep our air safe and clean,” said Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “This year's winners have built on that tradition of innovation to show what is possible in protecting human health and the environment. I'm proud to congratulate all of you on your accomplishments, and I look forward to working with you in the years ahead to create a cleaner, healthier, more efficient America.”

The Cool School Challenge is a web-based, online climate education program developed by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and Puget Sound Energy in collaboration with a high school environmental science teacher. The program challenges schools to shrink their carbon footprints through improved energy efficiency, reduced consumption, increased recycling, and changes in transportation choices.

“The Cool School Challenge is grounded in the principle that big change starts with small steps,” said Kimberley Cline, Cool School Challenge program manager at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. “This program began with one teacher in one school, and has now reached several hundred teachers in schools from Bellevue to Bellingham, Seattle to Spokane, and even Denver to Dubai. To date participating schools anticipate collectively, they could reduce their climate pollution by roughly 650,000 pounds.”

“More meaningful than the numbers, however, are the actions students and teachers are taking in their schools,” continued Cline. “Using the free tools housed on the coolschoolchallenge.org website ‑ and their own imaginations ‑ they are starting up or improving recycling programs, forming light monitor teams, organizing automobile amnesty days and launching anti-idling campaigns. Through efforts like these, they are truly creating a climate of change.”

To introduce teachers to the program, Puget Sound Energy collaborates with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and the Northwest Clean Air Agency to offer free teacher training workshops within Puget Sound Energy’s service territory. The Washington State Department of Ecology is also helping bring the program to schools across the state.

"Puget Sound Energy is proud to be part of this collaboration, working together with the Clean Air Agencies and other partners toward the common goal of inspiring young people about the future," said Dave Reid, Program Manager at Puget Sound Energy, Energy Efficiency Services. "It's exciting and rewarding to watch a program school grow like this, connecting young people to solutions to one of the greater environmental challenges of our times. "

From over 120 applications received, the Cool School Challenge was chosen for its impact, innovation and replicability. Each year the Clean Air Excellence Awards program recognizes and honors outstanding and innovative efforts to achieve cleaner air.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency also received the Clean Air Excellence Award in 2001 for its Diesel Solutions program, which focuses on reducing harmful diesel exhaust through engine retrofits, cleaner fuels, and reduced vehicle idling and new technology; as well as in 2000 for its Voluntary Low-Reid Vapor Pressure Program, in which several petroleum companies voluntarily produced gasoline for the summer season to reduce ozone-causing compounds.

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Additional information:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's news release

 

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is an air quality management agency serving King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Created as a result of the 1967 Washington Clean Air Act, the agency protects public health and improves air quality by adopting and enforcing air quality regulations, educating individuals and businesses about clean-air choices and sponsoring voluntary initiatives to improve air quality.