Solarized Mobile Sustainability Classroom Creates Opportunity: Two nonprofits come together to bring sustainability education to underserved kids and families.
When Britt Crow-Miller of CityWild set out to turn a 1969 Airstream Caravel trailer into a mobile classroom, she knew it had to be powered with renewable solar energy. After reaching out to several local solar contractors in Portland, Oregon, she connected with Twende Solar. With a mission to empower underserved communities with renewable energy systems, the two organizations were poised to be a perfect match to take sustainability education on the road.
CityWild’s mission is to inspire curiosity about the natural world through fun, exploration and hands-on learning for kids and families, including those from underserved communities. Their mission is rooted in the belief that from curiosity comes learning, from learning comes respect, and from respect comes stewardship and advocacy. CityWild’s new mobile sustainability classroom, the Wild Bus, was inspired by the need to deliver programming to kids and families that don’t typically have the opportunity to connect with nature in their daily lives, especially those who live in cities and those from underserved and historically marginalized communities. For the families that can’t come to where CityWild is working, the Wild Bus lets CityWild come to them.
“Having the Wild Bus solarized is such an amazing way to spark curiosity about renewable energy systems in our communities. Not only does the trailer’s solar installation help us reduce our own carbon footprint, but it’s a visible conversation starter that opens the door to learning about important topics like energy justice and climate change,” says Britt Crow-Miller, Founding Director of CityWild and a professor of environmental geography. Crow-Miller says that while topics like this may seem like they’re overly complex or off-limits with children (or even non-scientist adults!), visual aids and creative hands-on, nature-based programming can help children wrap their heads around much more than they are often given credit for. “If a small solar panel installation on the Wild Bus can help kids connect their everyday lives to broader issues and systems related to sustainability, including sustainable energy, then they have done their job, and then some,” said Crow-Miller.
In securing the materials for the Wild Bus installation, Twende Solar looked to the solar industry itself to make the project possible. Ultimately, it was collaboration with project sponsors SunPower, Van Life Tech, Tiny Watts Solar, SunPower by Milholland Electric, and Elemental Energy, as well as support from donors and volunteers that brought the project to life.
With every empowering project Twende Solar installs, they work to plant seeds that will one day bloom and bear sustainable fruit. “Knowing that children from all walks of life will have early exposure to and experience with clean, solar energy through this install and CityWild's programming makes us feel hopeful for a future powered completely by renewable energy,” says Twende Solar Executive Director, Marissa Johnson. “With these seeds we plant, we never know which will grow into tomorrow's solar project, engineer, teacher, policy leader or renewable energy advocate.”
Twende Solar believes that a world with sustainable energy for all is achievable. They connect industry experts, resources, and goodwill with empowering projects worldwide and see each project as a way to create opportunities to learn, to access modern healthcare, to power economic development, and create brighter futures.
“We cannot wait to see what happens when youthful curiosity encounters solar and what opportunities it inspires in the communities visited by the Wild Bus,” Johnson says.
Britt Crow-Miller and John Grieser plan where solar controls and DC-powered outlets will go.
John Grieser and Katie Martin run wire to connect the solar modules to the battery.
Ryan Schalk and John Grieser run wires from solar modules (panels) to the inside of the Wild Bus.
Almost complete: working on final touches at the Van Life Tech workshop in St. John’s.
Photo of the Wild Bus, post install under the St. John’s Bridge in Portland, OR.