The Green Schools Initiative was created to combat the dismal environmental activities of North American Schools. Here is just some of the Bad News:

• More than one-third of schools use cleaners with known carcinogens, asthmagens, and neurotoxins. Many schools still use pesticides with neurological and reproductive toxins. These toxic materials are a real and present danger to both children and adults alike.

• Schools throw out tons of paper, contributing to the loss of millions of acres of forest per year. The Los Angeles School District alone uses 75,600 tons of paper in a year. Overall, paper represents about 50 percent of schools' waste-stream, and most is disposed in the landfill where its decomposition creates methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heat-trapping capacity of carbon dioxide.

• In a typical school, about 25 percent of the energy used is wasted through inefficiency. U.S. schools spend about $6 billion on energy costs — the second largest expense after personnel. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the potential $1.5 billion from conservation savings could fund the equivalent of 30,000 new teachers.

• According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than half of schools have poor indoor air quality. Poor indoor air quality stems from inadequate ventilation, off-gassing of chemicals from building materials, cleaners, dust, and mold, and can cause and exacerbate respiratory illnesses. Asthma is the single largest cause of school absenteeism from a chronic illness, resulting in more than 20 million missed school days per year.

• By 2010, it is estimated that nearly half of children in North America will be overweight, and school lunch programs contribute to unhealthy food choices and eating habits, according to a recent report in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. The choices we make about the quality of the food we eat, and how it is grown, processed, and distributed, have enormous impacts not only on our personal health but also on the enormous environmental impacts of agriculture globally.

But the Good News is that the Green Schools Initiative is making loads of progress:

Now, thanks to many pioneering schools, we have tangible examples of how schools can reduce their ecological footprint and of the benefits of doing so. Many colleges and independent schools have pursued LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for new buildings, ratcheted-up their recycling programs, increased the use of local foods, turned to biodiesel for grounds equipment, installed wind turbines or solar panels, and otherwise worked to reduce their carbon footprint. At a recent environmental conference, former President Bill Clinton made a point of praising Sidwell Friends School (Washington, DC), his daughter's alma mater, for its new middle school — the first in the nation to receive the LEED platinum rating. "Green" education conferences, like the recent California Green Schools Summit, are emerging to help schools focus on everything from building construction to developing a green curriculum.