The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has awarded its first annual awards and grants recognizing and encouraging green building curricula.

The Excellence in Green Building Curriculum Recognition Awards and Incentive Grants are open to any green building programs and curricula from pre-K to college level. The Incentive Grants provide $20,000 for each recipient to develop new curricula.

The USGBC gave its first set of awards and grants to 12 programs throughout the country, and will compile information from curricula submissions and make a teaching resource database.

The Recognition Grant recipients are:

• The Council of Educational Facility Planners’ School Building Week: School of the Future Student Design Competition, which encourages students to redesign their schools to conserve resources, enhance learning and be environmentally responsible

• Kentucky Environmental Education Council’s Kentucky Green & Healthy Schools web-based program which helps students study the efficiency and sustainability of their schools

• Prescott, Ariz.’s, Yavapai College’s Residential Building Technology Program, which looks at designing, building and managing green homes and includes topics like climate-specific building materials

•  Grand Valley State University campus-wide sustainability initiative, which includes committing to LEED construction

• University of Texas Austin’s Alley-Flat Initiative to create small, detached residential units that can be accessed from Austin’s network of alleys

• University of Virginia’s ecoMOD project focused on creating ecological, modular and affordable housing units

The Incentive Grants were awarded to:

•  Chicago Architecture Foundation, for creating a junior/senior level for its Architecture Handbook curriculum

• Youth Learning Academy in Charlottesville, Va., to develop its Design + Build + Live Green initiative to promote interest in green construction as a career

• Eastern Iowa Community College District to make a four-credit green construction course

•  Santa Fe Community College to make on online course to visually document the entire process of building an energy-efficient house that generates its power off the grid

• Cornell University to make its Collaborative Green Building Practice course which emphasizes that students to leave the classroom to meet with authorities, professionals and the public to learn how key stakeholders play a role in determining building design

• University of Maine Farmington for establishing a sustainable architecture course that will include the use of the campus’ two LEED certified buildings