EPA unveils Village Green Station at Chicago’s Jane Addams Elementary School

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled its latest Village Green Station at Jane Addams Elementary School, located on Chicago’s Southeast Side, with a ceremony attended by students and teachers from the school and EPA Acting Region 5 Administrator Robert Kaplan.

Village Green Stations are park benches that serve as air monitors and are self-powered with built-in wind and solar energy capabilities. They are made with recycled materials, and current air quality data is displayed both on a sign next to the bench and online at www.airnow.gov/villagegreen. The Jane Addams station is the seventh that the EPA has installed.

Additionally, the students at Jane Addams will use the EPA’s new AirMapper technology as part of a pilot program. AirMapper is a small, portable air sensor kit that can gauge factors like particle pollution, temperature and humidity. It will allow students to design their own field studies, and the information gathered through the sensors is available online at www.epa.gov/retigo.

“EPA’s Village Green Station and the new AirMapper are great tools to help Jane Addams students and Southeast Side residents learn about local air quality issues,” Kaplan said. “The more people know about the air they breathe, the better-equipped they are to take steps to protect their health and their community.”