Eco-Friendly Schools & Adaptation
Table of Contents
Adaptation & Safety
Clean Buses
Electric buses are particularly useful tools in both cleaning the air around school campuses, reducing ecological impact, reducing traffic congestion, and even helping to manage energy use. Buses can act as batteries, storing energy harvested during peak solar hours, then using that energy to help move students, even plugging into the grid during darker hours to help provide additional power.
Funding
Walk & Ride to School Programs
The percentage of children who walk or roll to school under their own power (bike, trikes, and scooters for example) has been steadily declining as roads become more dangerous and more are brought to school by car.
The presence of cars not only makes the spaces around schools much more physically dangerous, but the tailpipe pollution has been shown to warm the planet and harm student health. In fact both noise pollution from cars and their tailpipe fumes have been shown to harm students' mental health, even lowering their grades.
A very cheap, and long-term solution is to put limitations on vehicle drop off. A growing number of schools is banning drop offs and asking gradians to park further away or even forgo cars all together.
Click the How To: Walk & Bike to School Program button for ideas on how to encourage more walking, cycling, and other active modes of transport among your students. If your area is particularly dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, then working with your local government, local charities, and other groups, simple roadways changes for walk or ride to school program now can have long-lasting impacts on the whole community's ability to move safely.
These might include new traffic lights, safe paths, gates or routes installed as shortcuts, zebra stripes for safer road crossing, and more.
Click the How To button below to learn more about creating your own Walk & Bike to School Program.
Buildings
Temperature Control
On a global, keeping buildings are one of the biggest sources of man-made emissions, after transportation and manufacturing. When looking into energy use among buildings, we find that keeping buildings warm or cool are among the top greatest energy users. Good quality insulation can help reduce energy use dramatically by maintaining safer temperatures all year long, while cutting energy use.
Double glazed windows, appropriate building material for the geographical region, roofing design and materials all provide long-term benefits with minimal maintenance. Even strategic tree planting or including green walls or roofs can help, but will require some long-term maintenance, and occasional replacement of sick or expired plants.
Energy Use
Energy use in buildings accounts for about 40% of energy use and emissions. By setting an example at school, we can engage students and introduce them to eco-friendly alternatives.
Click the Green My Energy button to learn more about greener energy alternatives, and general energy providers.
Click the Solar for Schools button to find grants and companies that are intended to help schools go green. Many of the solar companies also offer educational materials to help students understand solar power, and even track their school's energy use!
Roofs
Solar
One common solution is to use roofs as energy generating space, with the added benefit that PV Panels help protect roofs from severe weather including providing some shade from the hot sun.
If your school needs hot water for activities like cooking, laundry, or allowing students to take showers after their atheltic activities, you may also want to consider installing a solar water heater.
Classrooms
Supplies
Arts & Crafts
Consider eco-friendly supplies like recycled crayons. Crazy Crayons has a recycling program in the USA, and offers these free colouring pages that focus on caring for the planet.
Consider helping kids learn to make their own colours with food scraps, wild flowers, or even safe earth elements.
Ask kids to bring waste from home to craft with. These could be old water bottles, empty cereal boxes, and other common items. A physics lesson could make use of old paperwork, by using the sheets to fold paper planes.
Click the Eco-Friendly Art Supplies button
Music
Your local Library of Things or regular library may offer sheet music, musical instruments, music stands, and other important items for students who can't afford to buy their own.
DIY instruments can be made from cans, boxes and string, old plastic tubs, and more. Help kids learn to make their own instruments, and look at existing instruments for inspiration.
Paper
Scroll down to Waste Managment for some fun paper recycling projects.
Connecting Students with Nature
Extra Opportunities for Students
School Trips
School trips can be a great way to open up the world to your students. Children benefit from new experiences, hearing from experts, and hand on activities.
Click the School Trips button to learn about places that offer unique, and often interactive opportunities for students. There is also a section for grants that help pay for travel.
Grounds
Green spaces are excelent for encouraging children to discover how their world works. Greenery improves mood and brain function, plus plants help clean polluted air, further protecting students' brains, lungs, and hearts from dangerous vehicle emissions and other pollutants.
Even fairly small and simple solutions such as planting a hedgerow can have massive positive impacts for students, wildlife and our local communities.
Water Use, Access, & Waste
Toilets are vital for any school. They help maintain hygiene, but they can also cause problems if they flood. Using water-free toilets may prevent flooding that can be caused when children stuff too much toilet paper into one.
Click the Toilets button to learn more about the existing options.
Waste Management
Waste management is important for any institution, but in schools it can also serve as a learning opportunity, and a way to engage students with their world.
Click the Waste Management button to learn more about waste hierarchy and places that take different types of recycling.
Paper Recycling Projects
The following are listed from most child-friendly and accessible (no blender or deckle), to methods that require slightly more dangerous, or more-difficult-to-acquire equipment further down.
DIY handmade paper | How to make paper without blender and deckle | Recycle Paper | Vijayta Sharma
12:33 minute video shows how to make paper with warm water, scissors a plastic bottle instead of an electric blender, plus some fabric and a shallow tray or tin box instead of a deckle set. You will still need a piece of fabric, sponge, or rolling pin to flatten the paper, plus a space for drying.
The shaking process may be more fun and engaging for young children if paired with a song and dance.
Pulp & Deckle: Making Recycled Handmade Paper
6:10 minute video showing the standard method with a blender, and deckle.
Making Paper From Grass... and Printing On It
6:01 minute video using grass from outside, a cooking pot on a stovetop, a deckle set, and an electric printer.
Kits
How to Recycle Crayons With the Sun
4:17 minute video from the inventor of this kit!
Programs
North America
USA
New York
Clean Green Campuses "Connecting New York State’s higher education institutions to resources and financial support to advance clean energy and low-carbon solutions at the campus and community level."
P-12 Clean Green Schools Initiative "The goal of NYSERDA’s Clean Green Schools Initiative is to help public schools that traditionally lack resources to invest in infrastructure improvements become healthier, more productive learning environments. The P-12 Clean Green Schools Initiative aims to improve the environmental sustainability of those schools by reducing school energy loads, decarbonizing their building portfolio, improving indoor air quality (IAQ) and providing clean energy educational opportunities."
Grants
International
EA Animal Welfare Fund "The Animal Welfare Fund supports advocacy, research, and movement-building work aimed at improving the wellbeing of nonhuman animals, primarily farmed and wild animals. This includes corporate and policy advocacy, research, and the promotion of alternative products."
North America
USA
Eat The Change "ETC Impact™ is a grant program working to promote and expand access to climate-friendly foods. We're donating more than $1.25 million over three years to support a diverse group of changemaking nonprofit organizations."