Tree Hugging Family » green school audit

Back to school the green way!

Jennifer — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:41:20 +0000

School is starting up soon and it’s time to start planning your green school efforts. Tree Hugging Family has covered a lot of school topics here already, but this year I’ll be bringing in some new cool ideas, green school gear, and tips. If you’ve got a specific question about greening your school experience (for you or the kids) this year, this would be a good time to ask. Leave a question in the comments and I’ll try to cover it soon.

That said, before we take off for the 2009-2010 school year, let’s look at some past resources plus a few new ones…

Green school basics:

Green education for the smallest tree huggers:

Green your college experience:

Green school gear:

Green your school lunch:

[image via stock.xchng]

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Weekly Green Audit: School Grounds

Jennifer — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Continuing on with our green school audit this week, we’re going to take a look at the school grounds. We actually just completed our green audit of home yards – so, you can shift much of that audit into a school grounds audit, only on a larger scale.

School grounds are really important, and a tough green issue. Many schools have a large amount of ground space and want it to look good. However, this doesn’t mean your school needs to use harmful chemicals and pesticides. A big yard can be just as pretty when treated organically.

Questions to consider that are related to your school grounds include:

What products are used on the actual grounds – chemical or organic?
Do you have a school flower, fruit, or veggie garden? Are you growing these items organically?
Do more trees need to be planted for shade, windbreakers, or to prevent water erosion?
How much water is the school using? Can you build rainwater barrels, or cut out some grass and have a big sandbox instead? Is there vegetation that can thrive with less water use at your school?
Does your school encourage natural wildlife specific to the area, such as bees, birds, and butterflies? If you don’t see any of these native creatures around your school yard, odds are, your school has the wrong sort of plants growing.

More on healthy, green school grounds.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Weekly Green Audit: School Transportation

Jennifer — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 01:20:30 +0000

For this week’s weekly green audit, we’re going to continue with green school audits. With the server issues last week, we didn’t quite finish. This is actually the fourth time I’ve tried to post about school transportation; a topic that appears to shut down this blog

I read in a book once that if you attend school for 12 years that’s over 5,000 trips to and from your school. If you multiply that number by all the students you go to school with; well, that’s quite a lot of transporting to and from school. This week we’re talking about greening our schools. Today we’re looking at transportation.

Obviously 5,000 transports even multiplied by just 10 results in a lot of pollution created by cars or buses.

Questions to consider for your school include:

How you and all the other students get to school each day – walking, cars, carpools, school bus, city bus, bike?

Does your school have a drop-off and pick-up system that could be improved? Often you see schools where parents line up and sit idling in their cars twice a day. Does the school have space for an extra parking lot where parents could park? Or could a sign be posted asking parents to turn their cars off as they wait for their kids after school?

Is there a decent carpool program in place? The upside of a neighborhood car-pool to school is not only that you’re living greener, but that you save time. Parents who share a child carpool get four days off and one day of transporting kids – depending on how you divvy up the schedule.

Is there a good school bus program – school buses aren’t that green pollution-wise, but they do create one massive transport system. In the long run, one school bus carrying 40 kids may be better than 40 cars idling for a half hour each day.

Options for change:

Can you walk to school? Or bike? If one parent in the neighborhood volunteers to walk or bike a group of kids to school each day that’s a huge reduction in pollution cause by cars. Plus you get exercise, so it’s a double bonus. In my neck of the woods, I know parents who drive their kids to school, even when school is only five blocks away. Most often the reason cited is weather. It does rain a lot here – but come on. You won’t melt in the rain. If you’re not an Oregonian you can even carry an umbrella (real Oregonians don’t).

Can your school change their schedule? Most schools in one community start and finish at the same time each day. This creates a lot of traffic. Since traffic is stop and go, it’s more polluting than not having traffic obviously. If all the schools in the local area run on different time table, your community may be able to cut down on gas use and traffic stress.

If it’s in the budget, your school could even look into greener school buses:

Michigan greener buses

Hybrid School Bus website

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Tree Hugging Family Week in Review

Jennifer — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:45 +0000

Let’s see what you you may have missed this week…

Instead of a green audit, this week we looked at green yard renovations. We checked out: Composting for Soil Health, Greening Your Lawn, and Choosing the Right Plants.

Make Your Own Dowel Vase Cover

Recycled kitchenware in amazing colors.

How to test your dishes for lead

Bake a greener birthday cake plus some great cake recipes.

Where to get used coffee grounds for your garden – and why in the heck you would want to.

14 Ways You Can Love the Earth

Great green architecture links

Free Green Home Poster

We hugged (and learned about) the Cheetah and met his non-toxic stuffed version.

Homemade Organic Facial Toner

Two stellar green youth programs: Journey North and IslandWood at Bainbridge Island.

We saw two green videos – one a wee sarcastic and the other good for little ones.

A great book for kids.

Reusable Bags as Wrap

Lastly, we started our Green School Audit.

As always we appreciate all of you tree hugging families (and singles, couples, etc.) who visit and leave great comments. See you next week!

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Weekly Green Audit for Youth: School Sustainability

Jennifer — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:01:28 +0000

This week’s green audit is going to be kid specific; although adults are certainly welcome to participate. We’re going to be looking at schools, or rather the greening of schools.

What we’ll be looking at this week will include:

How schools can protect resources such as paper, water, and electricity.
What’s scary and not so green about the school cafeteria.
Schools supplies and how they affect sustainability.
The school grounds; including cleaning and maintenance.
School-based traffic and transportation.

We’ll also take a look at some very green schools, and a few other random issues that affect school greenness. I’ll offer some easy checklist formats this week, so that the kids in your family can participate easily in learning about the impact their school has on the environment.

For youth – how to get started with your green school audit:

Not all schools have environmental guidelines. Many don’t have complete guidelines. Some kids have tomorrow off for President’s Day; however, when you return to school, ask your teacher if he or she is aware of the environmental guidelines for your school. Ask at the main office. Try to find out, who, if anyone knows what the exact eco-guidelines for your school and district are.

Don’t be surprised if you get some blank looks. Like I said, not all schools have eco-sense. Not yet anyway. The point of this green school audit will be for you and your school friends to start a process of change. Your audit can help to remind people that the earth’s resources are important. If people, if you, don’t question what your school is doing to save the environment, maybe no one will.

Your one voice can change everything. Think about it. Tomorrow, we’ll get going on our green school checklists.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family