Greening Your Child's School

April 27, 2010

By Jennifer Lo Prete

With Earth Day just passing we are reminded that the choices we make in our lives can make a positive or negative impact on the environment. Many times we evaluate our family and home life for ways to minimize our footprint on the Earth. Considering the amount of time that most children spend in schools and care centers, perhaps we should also turn our attention to improving the those environments.

At Itsabelly Baby Planners, we understand that change is most sucessful when approached in baby steps. In line with this, we provide two simple, small steps that are easy to achieve and have a positive impact on both the environment and teaching our children the importance of caring for the Earth. You can look forward to future posts with more simple steps to green your child's school.

Two Simple Solutions for  Greener School

Encourage Recycling: Schedule a visit from your community's recycling program to talk to the children about how to recycle. Or better yet - see if you can go there on a field trip. Many recycling and garbage collection services have school presentations that teach the importance of recycling in a fun way for children. Children of all ages can help sort recycling items. An added bonus and cost-saver is that many recycleable items, such as paper towel rolls, newspaper and yogurt cups can be re-purposed into art projects. We found some ideas on the SCRAP (Scraps Creatively Reused And Recycled Art Projects) blog and  Kiwi Magazine.

Use Green Cleaning Products: Strong and toxic chemicals are not needed to achieve a clean school. Cleaning companies are now offering eco-friendly cleaning supplies or your school can make their own (could even be a fun science project for the children!). Sometimes cleaning solutions are not even needed when you can use green cleaning tools, such as a UV sanitizing wand or a steam cleaner.

Find An Ec0-Friendly Child Care Center

The Oregon Environmental Council certifies childcare centers as being "eco-healthy centers" after the center completes a 30-point checklist to "reduce children's exposure to environmental health hazards" (OEC). Visit the OEC website for a checklist and procedure information to help your school achieve certification. Currently 1418 centers are certified. Click here to find one near you.

More Information

• Video on UC Berkeley's Highly-Rated "Green" Child Development Center
• Ec0-Healthy Child Care Initiative
• Gaiam article: Childcare Centers Going Green
• Seattle Times article on Eco Childcare Center
• Edutopia: Design Eco-Friendly Schools
• Eco-Friendly Schools in the UK
• Smart Ways to Make Your School More Eco-Friendly

Itsabelly Baby Planners is the only Green America certified baby planning service. Not only can we help your family go green, we can provide consultations in helping your school or child care facility become more eco-friendly with solutions that fit your budget. With offices in nine cities across the United States and Canada, there is bound to be an Itsabelly Baby Planner near you! Contact Itsabelly Baby Planners today and let us know how we can help you.