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Teaching our children to be good stewards of their planet should start at home, but since our children spend a good portion of their day inside a school building it is smart to continue the lesson there.
The move towards greening our schools is gaining ground despite budget cuts and other priorities. Starting with the foundation that the buildings that are occupied by the nations children and their educators “should protect occupant health, provide a productive learning environment, connect students to the natural world, increase average daily attendance, reduce operating costs, improve teacher satisfaction and retention, and reduce overall impact to the environment.” (Green Global USA)
An example of how some school districts are taking this to heart comes from an article I read in the Natural Awakenings magazine that talked about Green Schools in Flagger Co. Florida. Flagger Co. charter schools are doing a good job of implementing these principles. They started a three year project to “Go Green” by sticking to five basic principles.
- A Toxic free setting: by providing an environment for students and teachers that uses no toxic pesticides, no lead-based products, uses building materials that maintain healthy indoor air quality and no building characteristics that would produce mold.
- Using resources sustainably: Energy efficiency, water conservation, and green building design for new construction or remodeling. Green School supplies made of recycled materials.
- Create Green Healthy Outdoor Spaces: Such as non-toxic materials used to build or remodel school yards and gardens.
- Farm to school Organic produce: An initiative to help local farmers and provide students with a mineral rich whole foods menu, void of junk-food, fast food and sodas.
- Engaging the students in the whole “Go Green” process: Uses the project as a learning model for teaching students the dynamics of social and economic change.
Wouldn’t it be great if all schools would take this approach.
September 29th, 2008 at 05:50 pm by bibi in Alternative Energy, Conservation, Green Building, Living Green, Recycle
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Comments
This is a great approach. I also think that by using homemade cleaners, schools can also save tons of money while providing a much safer environment for the students. If the idea of conserving and protecting our planet starts at an early age, it will really make a huge impact.
As a high school teacher, I was always taught my students to love the environment and we’re frequently take part in the local green campaigns as well!
By the way, I loved the ideas, bibi
Yes schools have indeed started teaching them regarding the importance of keeping our environment green and pollution free. The simple yet effective ideas mentioned by you are commendable.
Great post! It is ironic that I stumbled across your blog from the Alltop site as a blog to follow.
Our company, EcoLabel Fundraising LLC, practices this daily. We offer an eco-friendly/green way to raise funds for your school. Our program allows schools to raise money in a low-maintenance, eco-friendly way by allowing the school’s supporters to purchase directly through our secure website, and receive the products right to their door. There are no catalogs/order forms to waste, or checks to collect. The wide variety of products on our site are eco-friendly, organic and/or fair-trade.
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Sign up is easy and 100% free, of course! I am the Founder and a former school employee, so you can imagine having created a program as this how strongly I feel about greening schools! Call me direct (877-274-2707), I’d be happy to get you set up myself to use our program.
With all the mandates that schools have, a green school should be at the top of the list!
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