Gutter says that the green schools program does a lot of work on policy the local, state, and federal levels. She talks a lot about identifying people and empowering people to go out and educate other people about how schools can actually save money for a district. The the program works with a group of legislatures in about 35 states and out of those 35 states 12 of them plus the District of Columbia have stated that they will never build another school that is not green.
A great many schools are having budget problems. Gutter says that schools can still be built green and end up saving over $100,000. She claims that liberals and conservatives both have proposed legislative bills and the Green initiative is slowly growing.
Gutter is an enthusiastic leader and seems to be the type of leader who allows the changes that our schools need to grow at their own rate instead of trying to force it on everyone. She claims that a school can start out by empowering the students to remember to close the outside doors, or to make sure that the water in the restroom is shut off. That might grow to an eventual curriculum built around sustainability and then maybe it will grow from there.
Let's hope that Rachel Gutter can continue to take the green schools program to higher heights and continue to make a difference in the lives of our children.
