Early Efforts to Going Green: One District's Tale

In an effort to support green schools and thus sustainability, my district kicked off a going green campaign beginning with a school-wide showing of An Inconvenient Truth followed by posters to highlight ways students can make a difference. (For Teacher Resources for An Inconvenient Truth: Click Here) Beginning in school, students launched a school-wide recycling program through their Environmental Class. Recycling bins were delivered to each teacher with a listing of what can and what cannot be recycled. Once a week students empty the recycling bins during their class. Teachers were also encouraged to join in the spirit of conserving energy by keeping shades down to block window draft in the winter, shutting off lights when they leave the room, and shutting down computers when they left for the day. An energy manager keeps us on track with updates of our efforts to conserve energy as well as reminders for long weekends and vacations and tips to use at home. Periodically, the energy manager checks classrooms and rewards teachers conserving energy by giving them a smiley face that can be entered into a monthly drawing for a Dunkin Donuts or a Starbucks gift card. Teachers who need to focus more of their efforts on going green are given a frown face. The district also gets involved as all in-house correspondences and important documents are conveyed via email. Future efforts for going green will be led by the 2008-2009 Environmental classes.