Green Living: Buildings & Careers

Green Schools Challenge Activities:

STE(A)M Activity: Pocket Parks for People & the Planet (Design & Build Competition: register a team here)

CREATE YOUR OWN - Submit Lesson Plan here   or utilize a previous lesson created by DIG from our Lesson Library.

Points for participation will be based on a rubric. Download here.

Green Living (Building & Careers) Activity Submission Form Click Here

What's the problem?

According to the EPA, buildings and infrastructure in the U.S. account for some major and very significant national environmental figures, with buildings across the nation being responsible for 40% of total energy use in the United States, including 75% of all electricity use and 35% of the nation's carbon emissions. With such a large portion of our consumption coming from infrastructure, it is crucial to enhance our buildings and infrastructure to be more sustainable within the sectors of releasing less carbon dioxide, consuming less energy, and using lesser amounts of our already small amount of freshwater. Moreover, buildings, roads, and other non-natural structures radiate and absorb more heat than natural areas due to their lack of natural surfaces, leading to a low albedo effect.This increases temperatures within cities as they absorb most of the sun's heat instead of reflecting it, exacerbating the already extreme effects of climate change on weather. 

Why should we care?

Green living integrates highly sustainable practices into our daily lives, fostering eco-friendly and cost effective community development while helping to protect the environment around us and combat climate change. Central to this idea also lies the concept of “green careers” within businesses. These careers prioritize environmental benefits and help us enhance our understanding of our actions and their impacts on the environment. They include roles within a certain industry or business that focuses on making the production processes of said business more sustainable to the environment. Careers like this are expected to grow rapidly over the next decade, outpacing the growth of other sectors. This growth of environmentally focused careers will be a massive step in combating climate change and will help to ensure the protection of our environment for future generations. 

What can we do?

There are many things that you individually can do, as well as things that entire companies and industries can do in order to achieve green living. For example, one thing that you could do is to promote students and teachers to champion green living within schools by working toward becoming a “Green School”. These schools effectively prepare students to lead in a rapidly changing world by integrating sustainable practices into their operation and building designs, thus modeling and promoting eco-friendly behavior throughout the school. Outside schools, you can practice green living simply by implementing eco-friendly tactics in your everyday life in order to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. These can include simple things, such as turning off lights and water when not needed, to more complex actions such as planting many native plants around your home or community, or converting the roof of your home into a green roof to lessen the heat island effect within urban areas. However, the most important part of this is education.