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Pittsburgh Schools Going "Green" - January 2006

January 26, 2005

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – The Pittsburgh School District is one of a growing number of schools across the country going “green” by reducing student exposures to toxins.
Children spend approximately 1,100 hours per year in school buildings. Increasingly, parents, health care workers and school officials are looking at reducing potential exposures to toxins in the school by improving indoor air quality (IAQ). According to Lyn Garling, education specialist for the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management Program, improved IAQ includes factors such as proper ventilation, heating/cooling, pest management practices and less-toxic cleaning and sanitation products. “Every product in existence has environmental and health outcomes. Given the number of hours that children spend in school each year, we need to ensure that products used in schools have minimal health or environmental impact,” says Garling.

And that is exactly what the Pittsburgh School District has done, under the direction of Jayfus (Jay) F. Boyd Jr., Director of Plant Operations for the school district. “As an environmentalist, my business is kids,” he says emphatically. “They are in the environment I created for them, which makes me a parent of around 38,000 kids.” 

Boyd says he began thinking about potential toxic exposures in the school in1999 after some inquiries from the environmental group Clean Water Action. As a result, Boyd initiated two pioneer programs in the district; Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in all facilities (see PA IPM News article dated Fall 2003) and substitution of “green products” for conventional cleaning and disinfection products, many of which are caustic and/or poisonous.

Boyd and his supplier of cleaning products, Paul Bertenthal of D.H. Bertenthal & Sons (http://www.dhclean.com/), began to explore reducing toxicity of cleaning products used in school facilities. “Together with Conservation Consultants, Inc. of Pittsburgh (http://www.ccicenter.org/) we began working on developing some specifications for materials to qualify as ‘green products’ and developed bid specifications for suppliers,” Boyd explains. “We wanted to be sure the products worked and were less risky. Just because it has a smiley face on it doesn’t mean it is environmentally friendly!” he says.

According to Bertenthal, at first it was difficult to find products that met their standards. “The Green Seal Certified products effort (http://www.greenseal.org/), which has since provided listings of over 200 products from 50 manufacturers, still had not gathered full steam, but Jay was adamant,” says Bertenthal. “This school district is in my body; I went to school here as a child and I started working here in 1967. I know what goes on!” Boyd explains.

Boyd points out that unsafe practices are common among custodial workers; he knows because he too was a custodian at one time. Consequently, Boyd made staff training a key component of his program. “Beginning with head custodians and working on down through the ranks including labor landscape personnel, I made sure everyone was following proper cleaning and safety procedures,” he says. Bertenthal adds, “I work with 150 schools and colleges – no one has more dedicated training programs than Pittsburgh.” 

In addition, Boyd created a new position of Risk Manager/Safety Officer to keep track of trainings and procedures. As a result of all these innovations, injury rates and emergency spill situations in the district were significantly reduced.

In order to be sure that the new practices would be sustained over time, Boyd made sure to codify them into policy, thus, a “Healthy Schools Non-toxic Cleaning Policy” for the school district was created. In addition, the mandate for “continued monitoring and use of environmentally-friendly products that will not harm the waterway, students or employees” is included as part of Boyd’s contract renewed by the school board each year. 

Did the effort to switch to green products costs more?  “Initially yes, but that was in part because at first we could not find the products,” says Boyd. “Also, we had a lot of training to do and other inventory to get rid of.” Now, green product prices are competitive and custodians, with new equipment and training, are making do with less. The new green program was introduced first in facilities housing the youngest, most vulnerable, students. Once the final group of 14 high schools is incorporated, all 84 schools in the district will be under green management.

People in high places have noticed Boyd’s dedication and success in creating healthy environment for students.  In 2002, the Pittsburgh Public School District was the recipient of the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence and received citations from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Senate and House of Representatives. In addition, this past March the district received the 2005 Children’s Environmental Health Recognition Award from EPA’s Office of Children’s Health and Protection.

As for Boyd, he shrugs at the mention of awards. “It’s the kids that matter, we work for them,” he says. Boyd’s advice for other facilities directors who want to create their own green school programs is “Be dedicated to the process. Results can take time – but it is worth it.”

For more information on the green program at the Pittsburgh School District and their custodial products bid specification, visit Web site:

To obtain the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s publication “Green Cleaning Maintenance and Supplies Guidebook for Schools (2001)”, go to their online publications order form at http://www.gggc.state.pa.us/gggc/cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=152680. In addition, more information on green products and certification can be found at Green Seal’s Web site at http://www.greenseal.org/. New American Dream’s Web site at http://www.newdream.org/ is another good resource for purchasing green products.

The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or visit Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/. To view our archived news releases, see Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/10.html.