CHPS Celebrates National Healthy Schools Day with Free Webinar

For immediate release
Please contact: Ariel Dekovic, 415-970-6604, ariel@chps.net

April 22, 2009 (San Francisco, CA) - The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) will celebrate National Healthy Schools Day with a guest webinar by Professor Vivian Loftness of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture on the recent report Green Schools: Attributes for Health and Learning. National Healthy Schools Day, coordinated by Healthy Schools Network, Inc., is an important day to promote and celebrate healthy school environments that are conducive to learning and protect occupant health.

“We believe that all schools have the opportunity to be healthy, high performance schools,” said Charles Eley, CHPS executive director. He continued, “Our goal is to provide the best possible information and resources to decision makers to help them make the right choices that will impact their future generations of schoolchildren.”

During the free, one-hour online seminar, Professor Loftness will review the 2006 National Research Council report Green Schools: Attributes for Health and Learning, which examines the potential of green school design for improving education. An assessment of the complex connection between overall building conditions and student achievement will be included in the discussion, as well as a question-and-answer session.

Vivian Loftness is an internationally renowned researcher, author and educator with over thirty years of focus on environmental design and sustainability, advanced building systems and systems integration, climate and regionalism in architecture, as well as design for performance in the workplace of the future.

She has served on seven National Academy of Science panels as well as being a member of the Academy’s Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment, and given three Congressional testimonies on sustainable design.

As a result of her research, teaching and professional consulting, Professor Loftness received the 2002 National Educator Honor Award from the American Institute of Architecture Students and a 2003 “Sacred Tree” Award from the US Green Building Council. She has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Architecture from MIT, and is on the Board of Directors of the USGBC, AIA Communities by Design, Turner Sustainability, and the Global Assurance Group of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a registered architect.

Schools, parents, personnel, advocates, and agencies unite nationwide this April 27th to promote healthy and green school environments for all children. Register for this event.