Green up your school or group28 June 2011
Green up your school or group
Call in an 'Action at School' team
'Action at School' is an environmental programme run by Global Action Plan. Teams give advice about water use, waste, energy use and transport issues. The programme is curriculum linked and endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Computers
Switch off. Computers left on overnight or over lunch waste energy. If you're not able to switch off the machine, get into the very good habit of switching off the monitor. Computer monitors use 60% of the energy needed for the whole computer. Here are more school-specific energy saving facts and ideas from the West Wales Eco Centre.
Green events
Find an environmental event in your area:
- green fairs
- talks
- training courses/workshops
...and take part. Or organise one in your school/community. Encourage your students to take part too. Then publicise details of events that you're involved with on Friends of the Earth's Community forum.
Make recycling work
Set up a school recycling scheme. A quick scan through the phone directory should provide some numbers for recycling collectors, local waste paper merchants or national paper collection companies. As well as paper, many companies will recycle a range of other items too.
Think before you print
Encourage your colleagues to print less by sticking a sign above the photocopier, such as: 'Think before you print to save energy and paper' or 'Do you really need all those copies? If you do, print double sided.'
Walk to School Week
Get involved in the National Walk to School Week in May. The theme this year is 'Strider saves the Planet' - How you can reduce air pollution by walking to school. Find out how to take part.
© Balthazar Serreau/Friends of the Earth
