Golden Globe Award-winner Matthew Modine came bearing a new green script when he visited Carroll Gardens to help jumpstart an energy conservation program at Middle School 442.
The Tinseltown eco-buff received a warm Brooklyn welcome at the learning institute — also known as the New Horizons Middle School at 317 Hoyt Street — where he helped kick-off the Green Schools Alliance (GSA) inaugural “Green Cup” challenge, calling upon schools to reduce their carbon footprint.
The student-driven, inter-school initiative urges schools to measure and reduce electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to supporting such greening efforts as recycling and water conservation while raising awareness about climate change, and the importance of resource guardianship.
Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation Founder Marcus Lewis, Schools Facilities’ Chief Executive Officer John Shea and City Sustainability Deputy Director Adam Freed shared the platform with Modine, the prolific star of such movies as “Full Metal Jacket” and “Vision Quest,” who requests that his scripts be written on both sides of the paper, and who originated Bike for a Day to “help empower individuals with tools which they can use in their every day lives to make a measurable, tangible difference to our community, our environment and our personal health.”
To boost its environmental conscience, New Horizons recently received a $49,000 grant from the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation to build a green roof, said Principal Deanna Diable, adding that the canopy would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and help her students use a special soil to plant, maintain and harvest a self-sustaining garden as part of the school’s service learning project, the produce from which would be donated to local charities.
This is the first year that New York City public school students will participate in the Green Cup Challenge, which runs through February 12. Students from nearly 1,600 schools located in 1,260 public school buildings are eligible to participate, with schools located in shared facilities collaborating to reduce building-wide energy consumption levels.
In addition to city schools, more than 150 other schools in 22 states, Canada and Australia will take part in the program, and GSA will announce the names of schools that achieve the greatest energy conservation improvements later this year.
Over the past two years, the Division of School Facilities began “benchmarking” school buildings as a foundation for reducing energy consumption in City school facilities. Benchmarking measures energy usage by adding up the total energy consumed in a building and adjusting for other factors — including the hours a building is occupied, total square footage, and building type — so that the City can understand the factors contributing to energy use in individual schools and better identify inefficiencies.
For more information about the Green Cup Challenge, visit www.greencupchallenge.net.