Going Green...

Next year Parentcrew will be adding a new committee - a "Green Committee."

Going green means “to pursue knowledge and practices that can lead to more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible decisions and lifestyles, which can help protect the environment and sustain its natural resources for current and future generations.” (http://www.thrall.org/special/goinggreen.html)

Going green means exercising ingenuity; when we teach our children to be resourceful we are teaching them valuable skills essential to problem solving and self reliance. Going green promotes respect; respect for one’s community spawns respect for one’s self. This type of respect for ourselves and our society is contagious and has been found to help foster and encourage a non-violent setting which is also a focus in schools today.

How will we go green? Here are some initiatives to explore:

• Hosting an Eco-Fest or Earth Day with eco-friendly activities such as a sampling of natural and/or organic foods, recycling competitions and collection booths, eco workshops and interactive environmental displays, a reverse dunk tank, outdoor activities, incentives for students through an environmentally inspired point-system that will lead up to prizes given at the event, planting new trees/flowers on the school property, and inviting businesses to exhibit eco-friendly solutions.
• Moving to behave in a more paperless fashion through the utilization of information sources such as the Parentcrew blog/knowledge bank and the school website. Promoting the use of projection technology at meetings vs. handouts, etc.
• Providing education on animals that are close to extinction because of environmental impact.
• Creating a school garden club.
• Having a carpool challenge week through planning a week of carpooling with friends to reduce the number of automobiles coming to school each day.
• Community clean up once a month - students and staff help clean up the schoolyard and its surrounding community.
• Focus on consumption by having a “Litter-less Lunch Day” (packing a lunch that creates zero waste) and having an Energy Conservation Day (reduce lights in use, open windows for ventilation, power down computers for one hour).
• Composting Day - implementing a composting program (it’s estimated that 30% of our waste can be composted!).
• Installing energy-saving LED lights in classrooms and offices.
• Battery Collection Day by saving and bringing in old batteries for proper disposal.
  

Going green can also help provide another kind of “green” for our school. Some fundraising ideas include hosting a school wide yard/consignment sale, partnering with community businesses (for example, selling reusable Kroger shopping bags and TAS registered Kroger cards together), exploring opportunities through environmentally minded fundraising organizations such as “Greenraising” (www.greenraising.com), hosting an Adopt-a-Tree fundraiser, and/or hosting a Green Motion Marathon where participants can take part in the marathon using any type of transportation they wish, as long as their vehicle of choice is 100% earth-friendly like bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, or their own 2 feet!

These are all just brainstorming ideas at this point. What we do know is “small acts make a difference” – please share your ideas or thoughts on Parentcrew Going Green. Also, if you have an interest in working with this new committee please contact us at president@anthonyschool.org.