Eco School Smarts

Photo: iStockphoto.com/sjlocke
Here's how to help your child's school rise to the top of the class.

Okay, you’re probably already packing a “boomerang” or litterless lunch. You shut off your engine so you don’t idle in the school parking lot during drop off. Or, maybe you’re already sending your son out the front door, eco-friendly school supplies in hand, to join the neighbourhood’s walking school bus.

But is there more you can do to green your child’s school? Because it’s the many small initiatives that have a big environmental impact—for example, by introducing a No-Idling program last year, a Calgary school cut down the number of cars idling nearby by 20 percent in just two months. So read on to find out how easy it is to make their learning environment that much greener.

Get e-busy.

Push for paperless communication by helping to type in email addresses for class lists. (Or let your children practice their keyboarding skills by helping to input emails.) That way more communication can be done electronically. “That’s something that can be time-consuming and it’s an ongoing thing to keep up with people’s emails, but it can really help,” says Catherine Mahler, program coordinator of the Ontario Eco-Schools program, a program encouraging environmental education as well as improving schools’ environmental practices.

Snip and clip.

Clip articles relevant to environmental news to help keep a school bulletin board fresh. “Again, it’s time-consuming for teachers, and this way a board in a busy hallway is maintained and people know that it’s new stuff,” says Mahler.

Push for a school or class-wide project.

The Reusable Bag Project is an initiative in which children collect old, heavy-duty materials such as jeans or work pants and, with the help of parent volunteers or student environmental clubs, turn them into reusable bags. “You could even sell them as a fundraiser,” says Lidija Puteris, youth program manager for the Learning for Sustainable Future program, a school and community program supporting sustainable development.

…Or reinforce an existing project.

“Sometimes it’s difficult for families to maintain a stock of good plastic containers because kids lose them and they’re expensive, and that can be a barrier to programs such as Litterless Lunches,” says Mahler. “So if some families have extra containers, set up a depot in school for ‘got it-need it’ plastic containers.”

Be a green mentor.

Is there another school in your area looking to improve its environmental practices? Connect with parents and teachers there, and mentor them through their initiatives. “It requires a great deal of cooperation from the schools but if there’s a way students, staff and teachers can get together and help swap ideas and troubleshoot, it’s quite helpful,” says Mahler.

Lend a green thumb.

Encourage the school’s staff to start a Food for Thought program which involves students growing food at school in containers. “They start it there and watch the progress, and then before the summer starts, they take it home to either plant it outside into a larger container or a garden,” says Puteris.

Plan environmentally friendly gatherings.

Make Meet the Teacher or Curriculum Nights “Lug-a-Mug” nights, to which attendees bring mugs from home for refreshments. Or, take up a collection for gently used dishes, glasses and mugs to outfit the staff room with reusable dishware.

Whatever you push for, Mahler notes that any effort is about role-modeling sustainable behaviours for your children, and pushing for students to become engaged in environmental action. “We do need supportive adults in our parents and teachers, but it’s all about facilitating student action,” she says.


Comments

i like to know if you know any ideas for my school project and im just a kid and i kinda like your site but i need more ideas. but your website did not give any helpful ideas and i hope you can write back to me and give me some litterless lunch ideas before i go to school on monday for my school project oh and im doing a poster to tell people to bring litterless lunches to school.
My daughter's school just held their first Eco-Friendly Fundraiser - Kids Konserve Waste-Free Challenge. I love all the products for lunch packing and best of all you can buy al a carte! The stainless steel containers are wonderful. I even use them for my snacks. No more ziploc baggies!!!
I have stumbled upon a great school initiative here in Halton. There is a way to send back and forth money and permission slips without using plastic baggies to do so. Someone has designed a reusable "tote" for this purpose, it even comes with a place to put your childs name on it! The tote is made of recycled material and zips up nicely, a bonus is that is fits into my childs agenda pouch. We send in the money/forms and it comes back every time! Less plastic in the landfill. Check out www.greeen-school.ca
Additional ideas: Form a walking group for children living with 20 blocks of the school. Parents alternate walking the kids, stopping at each house to 'pick up' and 'drop off' the school child. The kids get some excercise as well and the parents get to know some of the other kids. Encourage all grass clippings to be composted and the resulting compost to refresh the flower gardens around the grounds. Make sure that there are plants that bloom so that butterflies, bees and hummingbirds can find food and shelter in town. Growing these plants can be sciense projects for the classes. Have a Back To School Painting party - invite the oldest grade level and their parents to come one morning a week prior to school opening to repaint needed areas. Have a picnic and open sports in the afternoon. Assign an area of the school grounds to each class. Points are awarded for keeping the area free of litter and graffitti. Students who mess up other areas get points subtracted from their class. (Peer pressure works!)

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