10 Paths to Green
Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Kennedy (mkennedy@asumag.com)
Schools and universities seeking to make their campuses more environmentally friendly have many avenues available to them.
Local food
One sustainable practice becoming more popular among schools and universities is the effort to buy and serve food that has been grown or produced locally. Using local food sources enables schools to reduce the energy expended transporting products and benefits the local economy by supporting area farmers.
The National Farm to School Network has been formed to encourage this trend. The movement is supported by eight regional lead agencies; more than 8,700 schools in 2,000-some school districts are involved in the network.
In addition to providing locally grown food, the Farm to School program promotes teaching students about composting, establishing school gardens, offering cooking demonstrations and conducting farm tours.
Cleaning
A school facility may be designed and built using sustainable strategies, but once the building is open for business, the cleaning and maintenance operation can undermine the environmental friendliness the planners intended.
The Healthy Schools Campaign has created The Quick & Easy Guide to Green Cleaning in Schools to help maintenance staffs at education institutions choose the right products and follow the appropriate practices to achieve a safe and healthful cleaning operation.
The guide spells out five steps as an overview for establishing a green-cleaning operation: Use green-cleaning products, use green equipment and supplies, adopt green-cleaning procedures, use paper and plastic products that are green, and share the responsibility.
"It is important to communicate with administrators, staff, teachers, students, visitors and vendors about green cleaning and educate them about their role in maintaining environmental improvements and preventing future problems," the guide states.
Daylighting
Using natural light to illuminate learning spaces is one of the green practices that has been embraced most widely by the education community. Daylighting strategies enable schools and universities to save energy and money by reducing the use of artificial light, and, if they are designed effectively, can provide a learning environment that improves student performance.
Effective daylighting involves more than just adding windows to let light into a space. The light needs to be reflected and diffused so that it is spread throughout a space and doesn't cause a glare that can detract from concentration and learning.
School daylighting strategies typically use a combination of clerestory windows, light shelves, skylights, baffles, louvers and overhangs to admit enough light to provide a comfortable learning environment that relies less on artificial lights.
Mike Kennedy, staff writer, can be reached at mkennedy@asumag.com.
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