Green schools 101

Everything you need to know about greening your child's school.

Tue, Apr 28 2009 at 3:44 PM

Related Topics:

Go Green, Education

Green school news

Benefits of an eco-friendly school

If you've landed on this page, you're most likely a parent or a teacher who would like your children to study in a greener environment. That's a great idea. Our kids spend at least 6 hours a day, 180 days a year, at school. Their physical classrooms, the books they use, the heating vents in the school, the water in the faucets, and even the food being served in the lunchroom can all have a big impact on the health of your child. There have even been good studies showing that greener schools boost test scores. Helping your local school with their efforts to go green is worth your time and energy and will set a wonderful example for your children.

So how do you begin the task? For most schools, the work is a combination of efforts that you can make with your own child (for example, encouraging him not to waste paper) and bigger efforts that you can mobilize other parents around (like planting a kitchen garden on school grounds to grow part of the cafeteria offerings). Keep reading for a practical list of tips to green your school from our parenting blogger Jenn Savedge.

What our experts have to say

Write a recycling program proposal that's guaranteed to be approved

Tips for making greener school lunches

When schools make kids sick

Ways to green your school

Start a green team: Help your child join forces with other eco-savvy students to form a Green Team that evaluates the school’s environmental programs and brainstorms innovative ways to improve them. Green Team members can initiate a school recycling program, present environmental education workshops in other classrooms, or lobby the school board to replace existing light bulbs with energy-saving CFLs. Check out MNN's Texas Student Correspondent's post on how his state's Association of Student Council is leading the change.

Skip the supplies: Before you head to the store to buy new pencils, notepads, and binders for school, check to see what’s hiding in your desk drawer from last year. Borrow or rent equipment (like musical instruments or sports gear) that your child will only use a few times.

Ban bus idling: If your child rides a bus to school each day, he may be exposed to dangerous levels of pollution. Check out this post on the dangers of bus ilding and make sure your school has a policy in place to ban it.

Go paperless: Encourage your child as well as teachers and other school staff to go paperless whenever possible at school. Ask teachers if they will accept assignments turned in via email or on disk instead of on paper. School announcements and meeting minutes could be distributed via email. Daily lunch menus could be printed on a chalk or dry erase board.

Clean up: Does your school use a bucket load of chemical cleaners to clean and disinfect classrooms? If so, ask them to make a switch to eco-friendly cleaners that are better for the environment and non-toxic for the students, teachers, secretaries, and administrators, that spend their day there. Order the free Green Clean Schools guide from the Healthy Schools Campaign and hand it over to your school administrator.

For more: Read Jenn Savedge's post, '5 MORE ways to green your school.'

Our favorite green school links

You might also like:

Join the conversation

Comments: 15

kim_office_team Mar 12 2010 at 7:25 PM

Encourage your students to go paperless by empowering them with cloud storage tools. Office Live Workspace is a great online tool that provides users with 5GB of storage for free, and it syncs seamlessly with Office. You can learn more about it here: http://workspace.officelive.com/en-us/learn-more.

Cheers,
Kim
Microsoft Office Live Outreach

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Guest Sep 16 2009 at 10:58 AM

How Eco-Friendly is your PTA? The new school year is in full swing, PTA meetings are in session, and ideas are flowing! But are you finding that old habits and the same fundraisers are hard to break? There are so many new and great, not to mention GREEN, ways to raise money (and awareness) for your school. Kids Konserve Waste-Free Challenges are a great way for schools to take on and to raise money with a message. Kids are the VOICE of CHANGE and so is your PTA! Visit http://www.kidskonserve.

.... More

com/schools.asp to learn more about how we can help you make a difference. Kids Konserve - greening your lunches, your school, and your pocket! http://www.kidskonserve.com

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Guest Sep 11 2009 at 4:46 PM

I agree the world is obviously way over populated, and that humans are the cause of all this destruction, but if the smart and eco-minded people stop having babies, don't you think the world will eventually be full of littering, fuel-burning, polluting idiots? I mean, if the people who don't care about the earth continue to have children (which they will, because they don't care) then who will be there to pick up the pieces and try to make things right again? I say if you are a responsible person

.... More

who is willing to raise an intelligent and informed/concerned human being, then do it! Let's start raising a generation of amazing earth friendly people... somebody has to put a stop to the assholes.

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Stucifer Sep 08 2009 at 11:40 AM

Enter your comments here Start a green team: Make your kid join the only club lamer than the chess club. Skip the supplies: Being cheap is good for the environment. Fuck the economy. Ban bus idling: Your child should hop on the bus as it zooms by at 50 mph. Go paperless: Trees Never grow back. Clean up: Fuck stopping the spread of disease among the most vulnerable part of the populace by using effective cleaning agents to kill infectious microbes and lice. You should clean your floors with orange

.... More

juice (because there were no fossil fuels used to produce that, right?). Also, all children will have the option to either pray toward washington, DC or Mecca 5 times a day durring class. They have to choose one. Rosaries and yamakas should be banned because they are bad for the environment and offensive to Allah (hence why Mohamed says in the Koran to kill ALL Christians and Jews).

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Guest Sep 03 2009 at 11:08 AM

If you really want to be kind to the planet then stop having children. We humans are the biggest negative impact on the planet. We have way overpopulated the world and pushed thousands of species into extinction by doing so. So all this talk about green schools, etc just makes me laugh. If you HAVE to have children, have ONE. No more 3-6 child families pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Jodi Dunlop Sep 02 2009 at 11:22 AM

You can download free guidance on improving the energy efficiency of your school from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers at www.ashrae.org/freeaedg. This book helps you go beyond minimum standards.

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Guest Aug 21 2009 at 10:41 PM

on discs would be much more harmful for the environment than doing it on a piece of paper...Just buy recycled paper =D

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Guest Sep 11 2009 at 4:47 PM

Or email your homework?

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Deborah Moore, ... Aug 18 2009 at 2:51 PM

I share your goals and strategies! I run an organization called the Green Schools Initiative, www.greenschools.net . We have developed a lot of really helpful resources to make it easier for schools to go green. Check out our site where you can Take a Quiz to see how green your school is, read profiles of other schools, use our Green Schools Buying Guide to find green products, get curricula ideas and activities and loads of other resources and tips for how to get started. Our Take Action and How

.... More

to Green Your School pages have a checklist and a "7 Steps to a Green School" framework to help.

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Ginger Criswell Aug 12 2009 at 2:17 PM

Jenn, Thanks for your information. This segment of the population is all too often overlooked. I have been the PTSA Environmental Chair of both an elementary, and middle school for my two daughters for the past 7 years. I have also just been asked to Chair the PTSA Environmental Committee for their high school even though they aren't even in high school yet. My passion about educating students about the environment has led me to found a website that can be found at www.greenschoolnetwork.org and

.... More

to write a book that is coincidentally called Green School 101. The book details information on how parents, educators and students can Green thier schools right away with little or no budget. It's currently in the process of being published. I've even created a costumed character called Recycle Michael who puts on shows to help educate and inspire younger students to get involved by recycling both at school and at home. Thanks again for your information Jenn. I beleive the children are the ones who really can change the world!

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Terrye Bretzke Aug 19 2009 at 6:15 PM

Thanks for a great article. There's so much information out there and so many wonderful resources to greening a school. I'm undertaking it at my son's school and am delightfully overwhelmed by all the free information that is available. I'm grateful.

Ginger, when is your book due out?

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Ginger Criswell Aug 12 2009 at 2:25 PM

I "Believe" I didn't do a spell check~

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Jane Hiller Aug 12 2009 at 12:48 PM

Schools across South Carolina are establishing model quality sustainable eco-projects through the SC Green Step Schools Initiative. Read more at www.greenstepschools.com

Log in or register to post comments
Report This Post

Daisy May 10 2009 at 2:24 PM

I am a 4th grade teacher. My students reuse a lot because they often can't afford new pencils and backpacks. I don't recycle papers if we can reuse the back; kids go to my "oops" box for scrap paper. I hope they're learning life skills!