Ways for a School to Go Green

In an educational arena that seems flooded with reports of budget cuts, from staff reductions to supply analysis and redistribution, superintendents across the country must repeatedly find ways to conserve resources and grow more efficient. However, despite the emerging theme of minimization with staff and supplies-in essence, spending as little as possible and still receiving the largest return, the most critically related ideal to true conservation has yet to rise in importance.

While at times financially intelligent and at others a fiscal investment, the need for schools to become more eco-friendly is rapidly approaching a decisive moment in terms of helping to safeguard our environment's future. Although not the mass consumers or polluters that many large companies throughout the world are, schools certainly possess innumerable ways to become more green, and, as a result, aid in fortifying a local environment that reflects an eco-conscious school system.

In addition to the obvious environmental returns, if a school elects to make a genuine commitment to going green, it will create a generation of knowledgeable, caring students who have engrained in them the practices of a non-wasteful person. These students will then, without realizing it, pass this new lifestyle along to those around them and then onto to future generations that they themselves create and raise. Thus, the school can make immediate impacts on the world while its students can cement lasting effects in the times to come.

Below is a list of ways for a school to begin greening itself. Some represent quick alterations, and others take a more sustained, patient effort. Some require little to no financial support, and others need significant investment that almost insures a quality return both environmentally and monetarily. In any event, schools must start to make the required changes.

1.

Offer Green Professional Development for staff: Saying you are going to go green is simply a set of words without an action plan. The school should bring in an expert to show staff exactly how to make adjustments throughout the day, and to reinforce the need to model the behavior. If the admired adults within the building fail to properly and enthusiastically follow the protocol, the students will never truly follow. Staff participation and modeling is critical to the daily success of any program.

2.

Offer a class on environmental concerns and responsibilities: Develop a curriculum that gets the class to initiate, sell, and sustain programs throughout the building. The class would have a positive role model in the teacher, bring in community experts to further instruction, and allow students to become intimately active and responsible for the school's green progress. A course such as this could easily fit inside any science department's list of electives.

3.

Begin Green Clubs or Student Organizations: Student movements attract attention and educate. Having students mobilize for the cause can enact change rapidly, especially if enough get on board. The groups can create projects, fundraise, and publicize. Making the surrounding community aware of the efforts within the building almost always results in quicker response and greater interest.

4.

Construct a viable recycling program: Have multiple baskets in each classroom, office, and the cafeteria to separate recyclables. Teach the students what belongs in each bin and reinforce the issue each occasion a student makes a mistake. Over time this diligence will turn into second nature activity by the staff and students. Again, staff modeling is critical to the success of the program.

One specific recycling possibility that extends beyond the standard paper/plastic set up, and one that should have large returns in middle and high schools, is a cell phone bin. Students rely on their phones, and often by the newest upgrade. Rather than having them sit in a drawer at home, get thrown out, or wait to be purchased in ebay, encourage them to contribute them to the recycling program.

5.

Reduce electricity consumption: A large school district can have upwards of 4000 computers, most of which run continuously throughout the year. If these machines ran only 40 hours per week, thus having the staff member in charge of each shut it down when leaving work, energy consumption would decrease and the district would save approximately $80 per unit, which amounts to annual savings of roughly $300,000-money that can certainly be spent in other more valuable places.

Similarly, the school should have staff unplug all non-essential items when not in use. Plugged-in appliances and electronics leak energy even at rest, so disengaging them from the power source will eliminate wasted energy-the average US home, according to dreaminggreen.org, leaks 400kWh per year.

Also, schools should install motion detectors that automatically shut off lights after a period of time if no movement exists. This will help avoid lights left on all day and night. Financially, this will clearly minimize electric bills.

When current light bulbs burn out, replace them with efficient upgrades rather than an identical part. Most districts will not discard lights working perfectly fine, so a solution would be to purchase energy efficient bulbs to install when replacements are needed. Over time, the school will have a complete switch.

When possible, the school must consider purchasing EnergyStar appliances and computers, ones with maintenance contracts or take-back programs. EnergyStar products are certified to come more energy efficient.

Finally, the installation of controllable thermostats will allow for a building to become far more sensitive to heating and cooling needs. Many older systems pump unneeded heat or cooling, which represents a massive waste. If staff can control the temperatures throughout the building, the regulation will undoubtedly result in a more comfortable environment for the students as well as a more efficient and cost effective system for the district.

6.

Closely monitor the consumption of food: Roughly 18% of Green House Gases

globally relate to food production (natural gas to make fertilizer, diesel for tractors, methane emitted by cattle, diesel to transport and refrigerate food, power for food stores). Compare this to the fact that we discard about 1/3 of the food we eat and throw it away. If a school could watch portion size and determine how much students actually eat, it could make the adjustments needed to cut down on the overall consumption. The school can also encourage the use of items that do not require packaging and transportation, such as bottled water (instead use tap water), and the cafeteria can begin serving less meat products. Actions such as these will not only save on food and the energy it takes to produce it, they will also make wise financial sense for the district and generate a healthier diet for the students, which, in turn, could impact the number of obesity and diabetic cases.

7.

Make better use of electronic capabilities: Now that everything across the globe seems electronically linked, schools should follow suit. Schools should eliminate paper memos and communications in favor of email, and digital filing should supplant the current system of paper collection. Also, schools should consider downloading software rather than purchasing the discs and paper products normally needed. Department chairs and librarians may wish to investigate the value of ebooks or online text materials. Core books should remain but all ancillary texts could go electronic. Teachers may wish to begin using online quiz and testing programs to eliminate an endless stream of copies, and they should also weight the option of online submission of papers. In the end, each student could have his or her own data file with all the major work completed-easy to review and revise if needed. Any printing required should employ the front-to-back approach. Overall, in making use of electronic resources the school can reduce the use of paper tremendously, and, in doing so, save considerable funds.

8.

Purchase and manage supplies efficiently: Purchasing clerks should order refillable pens and pencils, and they should buy recycled paper. Administration should suggest that faculty reuse folders, binders, paper clips, etc. as much as possible, and teachers should push students to use an entire notebook page rather than scribing one line on a piece and discarding it.

9.

Maintain existing systems: If maintenance staffs worked to do preventative upkeep on all current systems, the machines and appliances would function more efficiently and less costly. Cleaning heating and cooling units, changing air filters, and monitoring air flow and temperatures could allow the products to work better and longer, all the while reducing the energy output.

The above represents just the beginning of a school making the transition to becoming ecologically friendly and aware. In the future, we may see schools become ultra-progressive and adorn themselves with solar panels, or we may see them go traditional and bring back the nostalgic bike rack. In any event, the schools in our country, regardless of their community or region, must begin to take the required steps to growing into a more efficient, sustainable place. Not only will they make financial savings that can be reinvested in the students' learning, but they will also educate the young people about a way of life that must occur.

In the end, we all must recognize that the goal of the human race is to sustain itself and to prolong life. What better way to do so than to invest in our two most precious commodities: our children and environment.