Helping Our Green School be Greener Every Day

While Earth Day 2013 has come and gone, I'm one of those people who believes that every day should be Earth Day. In the true spirit of being greener every day, here is a post about greening my children's school, and how you can green your school, too. In fact, many of the suggestions are also applicable to offices.

About three years ago, a casual dinner out with my good friends, Mike and Brenda, changed the whole direction of my life. We were discussing juice boxes, which might not seem very life-changing! But here was the point: Our children go to a small school with under 300 students, yet just one child whose parent packs a juice box every day for school throws out approximately 175 juice boxes in one school year. So in our own small school, we were getting into the thousands for juice boxes thrown out by our kindergarten class alone. And that's just in one school year! Juice boxes take hundreds of years to disintegrate (if ever), so for one little box that gets a couple of sips and squirts, it has a disproportionately long life on earth. Why couldn't our school be more environmentally responsible and encourage the use of thermoses and reusable water bottles instead? Turns out that we could do it--and much, much more.

Brenda encouraged me to start a "green team" at the school, and she offered to assist. (She and Mike both joined the team.) While she was enlisting members, I was researching the best ways to green our school, and came upon the enormously helpful templates at Green Schools Initiative. Before long, I was meeting with the school administrators, all of whom were incredibly supportive and enthusiastic about greening the school to a much larger extent. We had the momentum of a snowball rolling down a hill, and within a year, we became the first school in New Jersey to be named to the Green Schools Honor Roll. How did we do that? Here are just some of our initiatives:

We instituted a comprehensive recycling program at our school, with separate bins in each classroom for mixed paper and garbage, as well as bottle/can recycling in the cafeteria and staff rooms.
We further reduced waste by ordering biodegradable, compostable cups, plates, trays, and utensils (all plant-based) from World Centric for school lunches that are delivered to the classrooms of the younger students.
The school uses non-disposable plates, glasses, and utensils for the older students' lunches in the cafeteria and washes those items in an energy-efficient dishwasher.
We purchased an industrial-sized composter for kitchen and cafeteria food scraps.
No styrofoam cups or plates are allowed at any school events.
The school has a greenhouse and the science teachers incorporate hands-on growing lessons.
The school increased its paperless communications, favoring emails and encouraging visits to the school website for parent information.
We held a year-long crayon recycling program that encouraged students to donate their old, broken crayons to a local business that melts them down and reuses them.
For the educational component of greening the school, we brought in outside experts to present musical shows for the younger students and interactive discussions for the older students.
We set up a "No Idling Zone" at the pick-up line--especially important because it's right next to our playground and we didn't want our little ones breathing in noxious fumes from tailpipes.
We use green cleaners to avoid toxicity issues and provide cleaner air.
We have annual banner or poster contests for the students to celebrate Earth Day, with eco-themed prizes, such as Earthopoly games.
Our green team fundraisers encourage even less waste at lunchtimes. Currently, we're working with Snackaby reusable sandwich and snack pouches.

How can you incorporate a similar program at your school (or office)? Outline your agenda and take it in small steps, with the awareness that it may not be easy or even possible to have 100% enthusiasm or compliance. However, each change you can make is important and builds on itself. The easiest things to accomplish are the ones that are free (like setting up No Idling Zones). The second easiest are the ones that save money as well as resources in the not-so-long run (like using paperless communications and energy-efficient bulbs). Also, anything that decreases health hazards or increases safety measures for children and staff is hard to argue with (green cleaners, No Idling Zones).

So, how did the juice box conversation change my life? I've been chairing our school's green team for three years running. I was elected to the Board of Trustees at the school as a result of my green team involvement. I've met many like-minded friends along the way. And you're reading an environmental blog right now that has its roots in that dinner conversation. So thank you, Mike and Brenda, for urging me to begin the journey, and thank you, Hebrew Academy of Morris County, for always rising to the many challenges of greening our school.

Is your school or office a green facility? In what ways? If it's not, why not? Please share in the Comments section.

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Comments

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WOW! Thats very inspiring Joy! What happened to all those pesky juice boxes? You should go on the Terra cycle web site...they collect a multitude of items that most Americans toss out. they are even collecting cigarette butts now...you have to see what they DO with all this stuff...in huge global ways!

I am so glad I don't have kids (but I have taught thousands of them...in art and craft classes via park districts, summer camps, after school programs, and Young Rembrandts; in volunteering via nature centers, and museums) ...I would be the "mean mommy"..and force my children to eat fresh fruit...juice is bad anyways...for their teeth, and their blood sugar levels. It doesn't have fiber. We need to teach our kids from when they are toddlers...what are the sensible healthy foods.

Posted by: Mary Anne Enriquez | 04/25/2013 at 05:45 AM

Thanks, Mary Anne. Regarding the juice boxes: We started off thinking we wanted to do a thermos fundraiser (branded with our school logo), but after researching it, the costs were prohibitive and the age range within our school required different types of thermoses (2-year-olds need different drink containers than 8th graders...), so we scrapped it. Instead, we wrote a letter that was sent out to parents in the summer, basically saying what I said in this post about juice boxes, and requesting that they switch to thermoses or reusable water bottles. As I said, its impossible to get 100% compliance, but we cleared the big hurdle, which was creating awareness. So many parents werent even thinking about what it means to pack a juice box (creating litter that will be around for ages)--they were just chucking them into the lunchboxes because it was convenient.

I agree on the juice--but my kids dont like plain water (and I need them to drink so they dont dehydrate and get crazy!), so I mix a splash of juice into their water. Many parents I know do it--100% juice is crazy sweet!

Posted by: Joy @ JoyfullyGreen.com | 04/25/2013 at 08:20 AM