Climate Conversations: Schools

Join us for a discussion about leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning tools and technologies to advance ethical climate solutions.

Like all sectors of U.S. society, the K-12 education sector faces substantial challenges addressing its carbon emissions, with hundreds of thousands of buildings, and hundreds of millions of bus trips and billions of meals served each year. Reducing these emissions while meeting the myriad goals of schools will require leveraging the considerable strengths of education professionals and community partners nationwide. Despite many challenges, competing priorities, and limited resources, there are initiatives underway to reduce emissions and save on overall costs and energy use. Anisa Heming (U.S. Green Building Council) will moderate a conversation with Andrea Suarez Falken (U.S. Department of Education) and Shannon Oliver (Adams 12 Five Star Schools) exploring the variety of approaches employed by schools – ranging from energy efficiency retrofits to zero-emission buses to supply chain management – as well as the programs that can help schools meet the up-front resource needs often associated with these efforts. The broader role of education in addressing climate change will be discussed in a future conversation. The webinar will be webcast on the Climate Conversations: Schools webpage on Thursday, August 24, 2023 from 3:00-4:15pm ET. Closed captioning will be provided. The conversation will include questions from the audience and will be recorded and available to view on the page after the event.

Climate Conversations: Pathways to Action is a monthly webinar series from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that aims to convene high-level, cross-cutting, nonpartisan conversations about issues relevant to policy action on climate change.