Green in the classroom

Last week I read two articles dealing with education and the environment.

San Jose Unified School District, Chevron & BoA are joining forces to create the largest kindergarten through twelfth grade energy efficiency program in the country. Chevron Energy Solutions will build and maintain a solar grid on district schools' premises and Bank of America's Energy Services Financing Solutions will own the equipment and subsidize associated costs.

Through this cooperative effort, the school district (comprised of 31,000 students in 27 elementary schools, 6 middle schools and 6 high schools) estimates it will save $25 million in energy costs over the lifetime of the program, experience a 25% reduction in energy demand throughout the district, and reduce their carbon dioxide emissions output by 37,500 tons. The district will get additional financial help in the form of incentives from California's State Solar Initiative and federal tax credits.

At the university level, Stanford has announced plans to build a green dormitory on their campus. Not only is it green - it's green for the students and by the students. Blueprints include a student-designed low-flow showerhead, to be installed campuswide, and is estimated it'll save 9 million gallons of water annually. Other student innovations to be implemented includes a system of skylights and cutouts to naturally illuminate hallways and a carbon-sequestering roof lawn. Those Stanford kids. They're so SMART!

Just for fun, here are some folks I didn't know attended Stanford:
Vint Cerf - inventor of the internet - the REAL inventor of the internet
Jack Palance - Hollywood actor, badass
Danny Pintauro - 80's has been
Fred Savage - see Danny Pintauro
Adam West - the mayor on the family guy - also a Stanford drop out
Robert Mondavi - refreshing Napa Valley beverage maker
Jerry Yang, Omid Kordestani, Larry Page, Sergey Brin - all internet guys. all wealthy.

... and a bunch of athletes, astronauts, Nobel Prize winners and Supreme Court justices.