At Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, one National Park Service building produces as much energy as it uses. It is one example of how the Park Service is turning to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to make the parks more sustainable — and of how parks can be living classrooms in the balance of nature.
A solar array at Cape Cod National Seashore. Credit: National Park Service.
Green technology, coast to coast
| Park | Technology |
|---|---|
| Cape Cod National Seashore | solar arrays, reducing reliance on fossil fuels |
| Golden Gate National Recreation Area | hybrid ferries carrying visitors with less pollution |
| Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area | a net-zero building that produces as much energy as it consumes |
| Zion National Park | building management systems that track energy and water use in real time, so managers can make smart decisions |
| Selected sites in California | electric-vehicle charging stations, installed with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory |
The charging stations are part of the Park Service's commitment to environmental stewardship under its Green Parks Plan. In smart buildings, sensors adjust lighting and temperature automatically to save energy.
What comes next
The Park Service aims to make the parks greener still: carbon-neutral facilities, zero-waste efforts and new solutions — perhaps visitor centers heated by the Earth's own warmth, or maintenance buildings built from recycled materials — to keep the parks healthy for generations to come.
Sources
Based on "Greening Our Parks: How STEM Is Building a Sustainable NPS Future," National Park Service STEM series, a work of the United States government in the public domain.
In these publicationsScience, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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