Our Post Carbon Cities program encourages cities to think about the vulnerabilities they face in peak oil and climate change. After all, local governments are not just responsible for safeguarding the well-being of thousands of people. They're also employers, debtors, and the owners of millions of dollars worth of buildings, vehicles, equipment and other infrastructure.

Schools operate as mini-cities in their own right. They have hundreds or even thousands of students under their care, and employees, buildings, vehicles and equipment under their administration. From a tiny grade school in rural Texas to the 200,000+ student-strong City University of New York, schools of all sizes face significant challenges in a world without cheap oil -- and would be wise to plan accordingly.

As places of learning and, often, focal points for their neighborhoods, schools can play a special role in preparing localities for peak oil and climate change. Primary and secondary schools have been the testing grounds for basic sustainability education, as well as local projects like community farming (the Edible Schoolyard program at MLK Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California is a great early example). Many universities were early adopters of (and experimenters with) car-sharing and green roofs. No matter what the scale, when a school pushes ahead with a sustainability solution, the community notices -- and often follows.

Portland, Oregon, where the Post Carbon Cities office is headquartered, is full of examples of the valuable roles that schools can play:

• DaVinci Middle School students turned an unused tennis court into a thriving educational "water garden" that purifies and recycles both stormwater and leftover cafeteria liquids.
• Sunnyside Middle School is the centerpiece of a college student project to organize a district energy system for their neighborhood based on a solar-powered geothermal pump at the school
• Portland State University was an early leader in adopting green building standards for new construction, developing sustainability curricula for urban planning and public policy sudents.

One of the most far-reaching efforts to come out of Portland's educational sector is the Diggable City project, in which a group of Portland State Univeristy graduate planning students inventoried unused City-owned properties for their potential as agricultural land. The final study determined that around 10% of over 400 identified sites had real potential for urban agriculture. Even more importantly, the project spurred a shift in attitudes about urban agriculture among both community members and policy-makers:

In addition to identifying specific sites, the Diggable City project has also served as a catalyst for raising awareness and advocacy for urban agriculture locally and internationally. [City offices] evaluated their property portfolios for potential new uses and public/private partnerships. Multnomah County is actively pursuing a "Diggable County" project. Presentations at conferences in the U.S, Canada, and India have raised the profile of municipal efforts to growing food in the urban core.
- The Diggable City, Phase III: Implementation Strategies and Recommendations, July 2007, Portland/Multnomah Food Policy Council

Portland State University's official motto is "Doctrina urbi serviat / Let knowledge serve the city." In this time when creative thinking about both resources and policy is sorely needed, what better reminder is there of the essential role that educational institutions should play in our communities?

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PHOTOS of Da Vinci Middle School Water Garden. Top and middle photos: Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership. Bottom photo: Da Vinci Middle School

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