How to Work With Your Child’s School to Go Green

Frequent Television Contributor and Actress Terra Wellington (www.terrawellington.com) is the author of The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green: Saving the Earth Begins at Home.

For parents who are at their wits end with finding things for their children to do this summer, never fear. School is near. They’ll be going from your lounge pad to their home away from home in a jiffy. And as you consider how you might get involved in your child’s school this upcoming year, I suggest you consider how you can make that educational experience more green and healthy.

Between regular school hours, before-school care, and after-school care, most children spend at least half of their waking hours at school. Since your children learn, play, and eat at school, wouldn’t you want that experience to be as eco-friendly and non-toxic as the home they came from?

In talking about just one of the many environmental issues your kid may face at school, children are more vulnerable than adults to toxic chemicals. The Children’s Environmental Health Network states “Pound for pound, children eat more food, drink more water and breathe more air than adults. Thus, they are likely to be more exposed to substances in their environment than are adults.”

So, the challenge is in how to make greener and healthier changes in your child’s school within a reasonable time period without ruffling administrator feathers, using up all your free time, and not overly pressuring a school’s budget.

Here are some starting tips for you on getting your child’s school to be more green. A complete “Green School Action Blueprint” is available in my book.

• Inform Yourself. Know what are the areas in which a school can be greener and healthier, such as food service, waste collection, cleaning, and transportation. School officials often look to parents for research and information in order to justify programs and any budget outlays. For example, if you are aware of how another school successfully started composting from lunch scraps, you can use their achievement as an illustration in any presentation at your school. Farm-to-school lunch programs are also on the rise, with many success stories at www.farmtoschool.org.
• Be Ready to Volunteer. Schools are budget and time conscious. The more you are able to give them time and help them to find funds for programs, like with fundraising, the more they will listen to you. That said, be careful that you don’t bite off more than you can chew. Additionally, having a passion about whatever slice of “going green” that you pursue will help you enjoy your time spent on behalf of the school. You might feel strongly about the school district only purchasing sustainable seafood products from vendors, so this could be your driving force in the sometimes long path to a greener lunch menu.
• Work with Like-Minded Parents. Most changes in schools require a group effort, and going green is no different. So hook up with your child’s parent organization to get same-thought parents together, write down a list of priorities, and delegate. In an example, perhaps there is too much blacktop at your child’s school and little green space; the parents could get together and make a 1 or 2-year campaign to re-landscape the campus, combining fundraising, school budget, and community sponsorship together to make it happen.
• Look for Budget Savings. With information and research, the good news is that much of going green at your child’s school can save money. Additionally, it can improve children’s’ attendance and attention, such as with added greenscape and natural light, which also saves money and improves the educational experience. The more you can couch your green and health recommendations in a budget-savings light, the more apt the school and its administrators will opt into your ideas. Perhaps you could start up a no-idling program for the district’s school buses – it reduces fuel use (= saves money!) while eliminating pollutants to improve the health of your children and the community.
• Seek Out Community Involvement. A good majority of green changes at schools require an initial money investment, beyond the time and man hours needed. Although you can green fundraise to help pay for this investment, don’t overlook the potential of community businesses and other donors who would give capital to your project so long as there is proper recognition and school district guidelines allow it. For example, if your school is in need of a school bus, there is no reason why you couldn’t aim for a hybrid school bus purchased under an event recognizing several local businesses, potentially with their business names on the school bus for a certain period of time. It gives those businesses excellent PR and recognition while your child’s school benefits.