Nevada green businesses look to connect with schools
By Michael Martinez, Reno Gazette-Journal
The Washoe County School District is facing a $50 million budget deficit this year. Will greening the operations of the school district erode that revenue shortfall? Probably not.
But what a handful of projects might do is jump-start the district’s mandate to get students prepared for green jobs that the region is eager to develop.
One of the engines to this effort is Envirolution Inc., a company that said it wants to grow green job training and related community outreach programs, develop leadership academies and K-12 education programs with a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and develop green economy professional curricula for those who will teach it.
“Our whole angle is, we look to empower students to pursue green jobs and want to be green business leaders,” said Alex Gamboa, founder/CEO of Envirolution. “So, we educate students about energy efficiency, sustainability and energy auditing as it pertains to any building. That’s what it pertains to: the fundamental basic about conserving energy, whether it be in your home, your small business or your school. On a very fundamental level, all these buildings are very similar: They all use energy in the same way.”
The conduit for schools is called Project Recharge and thus far, Envirolution has worked with Rainshadow Charter School, Hug High School and Dilworth Middle School, which is one of Washoe County’s STEM academies.
