School Notes: School of the Environment
September/October 2010

Professor questions health of “green buildings”

Standards used to certify buildings as environmentally friendly are insufficient to protect human health, according to a report authored by John Wargo ’81For, ’84PhD, professor of risk analysis and environmental policy at the environment school. Wargo, in the report funded by the nonprofit Environment and Human Health Inc. (EHHI), said that although the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program has been effective in encouraging energy efficiency, well-insulated buildings often concentrate chemicals released from building materials, cleaning supplies, fuel combustion, pesticides, and other hazardous substances.

“The underlying problem is that thousands of different chemicals, many of them well recognized to be hazardous, are allowed by the federal government to become components of building materials. Very few of these chemicals have been tested for their toxicity, environmental fate, or the danger they pose to human health,” he said. “Although the primary stated purposes of the Green Building Council are to promote both energy efficiency and human health, even the council’s most prestigious platinum award does little to ensure that hazardous chemicals are kept out of certified buildings.”

Three students awarded Switzer fellowships

Three environment school students, Stephen Blackmer, Kyra Busch, and Michelle Lewis, were among 21 environmental scholars selected as Switzer Environmental Fellows by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. They have been awarded $15,000 toward the completion of their degrees. The Switzer Fellowship is one of the nation’s most prestigious academic awards for environmental leaders.

Steve Blackmer has spent over 25 years in forest conservation and forest-based community development. He is interested in the role of religion in social change movements, how faith communities can broaden and renew the environmental movement, and how the environmental movement can deepen itself by renewing its own sense of the Earth as sacred. He is pursuing a joint master’s degree in religion and environmental management.

Kyra Busch focuses on environmental justice, community development, and sustainable food systems. This summer her research has taken her to Panama, where she is learning about successful models of bicultural and place-based education and the connections between food sovereignty and the transfer of environmental knowledge. In New Haven, she is developing a farm-based education curriculum and training environmental educators in her role as the public schools program coordinator for the Yale Sustainable Food Project.

Michelle Lewis is pursuing a joint master’s degree with the Divinity School. She is concentrating on connecting underserved urban populations, including at-risk youth and juvenile offenders, to the environment through their religions and popular culture. Prior to Yale, Michelle spent 12 years as a U.S. park ranger.