American Canyon School Leads Nation In Being Environmentally Friendly

AMERICAN CANYON (KCBS) – A high school in the Napa Valley is only three years old but already it has set the standard for being environmentally friendly.

American Canyon High has become the nation's first school to be certified as a "green school" by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS).

Don Evans of the Napa Valley Unified School District is the one responsible for the design and construction of the high school.

"A lot of green features were built right into it from the beginning," said Evans. "We knew we wanted to save as much energy as we could, and thus reduce the operational costs of the school."

KCBS' Dave Padilla Reports:

Evans said that the school has a geo-thermal system to keep the temperature constant. It has a newly built one megawatt photovoltaic system. In addition, Wi-Fi runs throughout the entire school so students can log on and keep track of energy use.

"It's the leader today, and we hope and know that other school districts across the nation will join us as we go along," said Evans. "But it's kind of neat to be the first in the nation to have that certification."

The school also got a nice mention recently in the Huffington Post for its energy-saving facilities.

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