SERVICE ONE CREDIT UNION NAMED OUTSTANDING BUSINESS FOR EXCELLENCE IN EE

This year, KAEE’s Excellence in Environmental Education Award for Outstanding Businesses was given to the Campbell Lane branch of Service One Credit Union (SOCU), located in Bowling Green, Kentucky. There, sustainability is built into the entire infrastructure. Their building features sustainable materials, all the way from a total green roof system to eco-friendly paint, floors, and even furniture.

SOCU’s sustainability journey as a business began in the 1990’s, when former CEO and president Valerie Brown (who retired in 2012) first started creating her vision.

Brown believes one of the most important things a CEO can do is read continuously while keeping up with ongoing trends, ideally to see how your business will fit into the future. This strong focus on the future enabled Brown to think ahead, completing her sustainable vision for SOCU more than ten years ago, when sustainable business thinking was not yet mainstream.

One of only 100 buildings in the United States during this time to represent a sustainable business model, SOCU’s feature that has always stood out most is their famous grass roof. The grass on the roof of the building is part of the business’s green roof system, which reduces stormwater runoff and provides a heat-island effect to the area, while also assisting in building insulation and air quality.

The business also has a bio-retention basin and green pavers in their parking area, both which assist in reducing and flushing stormwater runoff while supplying clean water to a nearby aquifer. Additionally, SOCU increases their insulation through the use of Nanogel-insulated windows, insulated concrete walls, and earth berms. Because the building also features geothermal heating and air conditioning systems, SOCU keeps their environmental footprint low (along with their billing statements).

Brown’s sustainability vision for SOCU did not stop here, though. Another feature of the building’s infrastructure includes the use of reclaimed wood timbers from the former Poole Milling Company in Webster County, Kentucky. Since these local wood timbers are so aged and strong, they provide a sustainable structure for the building while also eliminating the need for a sprinkler system. Some other sustainable features include recycled drywall, non-VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) paint, recycled floor coverings, and furniture purchased from only green companies. Additionally, the building’s design allows for optimal natural light entry with the correct placement of windows, as well as a stairwell lit by a skylight. Because they also utilize highly energy efficient lights, SOCU once again cuts down their environmental footprint and bill statement with these innovations.

From the floor to the roof, SOCU represents a sustainable vision well ahead of its time.

SEEA AWARDED $100,000 GRANT TO EXPAND DON’T WASTE IT! CURRICULUM

Don't Waste It! is a new educator guide to waste management. The guide includes 11 lessons covering five themes: municipal solid waste, recycling, plastics, composting, and landfills. Designed for both formal and non-formal educators with lessons for pre-K to 12th graders, the curriculum in Don't Waste It! can easily be adapted for adult audiences. Each lesson includes a group activity, independent practice, extensions, and additional activities.

Developed by North Carolina’s Chatham County Solid Waste and Recycling, Don’t Waste It! is going to be expanding through the southeast with the help of a $100,000 environmental education grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Over the next two years, SEEA (of which KAEE is a part) will be creating new state-specific versions of the guide for Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. After this, we will launch in-person and virtual training opportunities for educators in these states to learn the curriculum.

"The Don’t Waste It! project will to help current and future educators across the southeast understand the systems for solid waste, recycling, and composting in their state," saysDon’t Waste It! Project Coordinator Lauren Pyle. "We're excited to provide educators across our region with resources and lessons to share this knowledge with students, in order to inspire their local communities to get involved with composting, recycling, and other waste reduction activities."

While KAEE is the fiscal agent for this project, it is being led by Lauren Pyle of the Environmental Educators of North Carolina and Shannon Culpepper of Chatham County Solid Waste and Recycling.

The Roots of EE: The Tbilisi Declaration and the Belgrade Charter

Have you ever wondered how environmental education made its way into our classrooms?

Understanding the history behind such an important aspect of our education system is essential for any educator in the environmental world. Perhaps the two most important historical contexts to focus on are the Tbilisi Declaration and the Belgrade Charter. While the Belgrade Charter was created first in 1972, the Tbilisi Declaration was adopted in 1977 as the official guidelines concerning environmental education worldwide. Both historical pieces represent the beginning of EE as we now know it.

The Belgrade Charter was a global framework proposed at the 1972 United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden. The goal statement under the charter evolved to be the most widely accepted among professionals in the field. The statement heavily encourages environmental education to be a lifelong journey focused on responding to a changing world. It suggests environmental education should provide “the provision of skills and attributes needed to play a productive role towards improving life and protecting the environment with due regard given to ethical values.” Because the charter also places heavy emphasis on solving current problems as well as future ones, it remains the first declaration that couples ethical values with proper education to protect the environment.

The United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) were the next to state the purpose of EE. In October 1977, the world’s first intergovernmental conference took place in Tbilisi, Georgia. Together, the two organizations developed the roles, objectives, characteristics, goals, and guiding principles of environmental education that are included in the Tbilisi Declaration. Like the Belgrade Charter, the Tbilisi Declaration also considers the environment in its totality, as well as its interdependence on the physical world.

Most importantly, the objectives listed under the declaration—awareness, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and participation—cover the necessities to produce generations of environmental stewards. These objectives, coupled with the declaration’s focus on creating sustainably built environments, laid the foundation for effective environmental education that is still utilized today.

As environmental educators, we can look to these roots of EE and do our best to uphold their messages in our own classrooms.

More information on the Belgrade Charter and the Tbilisi Declaration can be found at gdrc.org/uem/ee/belgrade.html and gdrc.org/uem/ee/tbilisi.html.