This is the fifth and last in a series that depicts U.S. businesses and individuals working to solve environmental problems.

How better to teach students about the environment than to turn their school into a green project? At Redmond High School near Seattle, students learned about energy audits, energy efficiency and carbon footprints. Their school is now saving thousands of dollars and tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Green schools, like the school in Washington state shown in this photo, are “in.”

A few years ago, students at Redmond High School, near Seattle, set out to measure their school’s carbon footprint. They looked at the school’s electricity and water consumption, how much waste it produces and where it goes, how students and teachers travel to school — and at every other school activity that generates greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, the school in the northwestern United States is saving some $30,000 in annual electricity costs. Waste costs have dropped by $10,000. Carbon dioxide emissions, meanwhile, are down by 200,000 pounds (90,718 kilograms) annually.

It means that Redmond High has, in effect, beaten the emissions reduction goals set by the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty. The school has also incorporated its successes in its environmental education curriculum to teach students about climate change.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)