Schools wave green flag
Schools worldwide are waving the green banner, for real. Their love
for the environment is on their sleeves, and on their websites for the
world to see.
After all, being an environment-friendly school means that aside
from the nature-loving messages extolled in lessons, the school also
takes measures to become healthier for students and teachers, costing
less to operate and maintain.
Practicality-wise, that’s a big pro right there: the school helps the environment, their students, and the school system.
Example 1. Stanford University’s environmental clubs.
Stanford University has everything from an Environmental Management Club (promotes understanding of environmental management and sustainable development issues) to a Redwood Action Team at Stanford(protects California’s redwood ecosystem).
There is also a Students for Environmental Justice at Stanford, which hopes to find out the root cause of social and environmental injustice, and a Students for Environmental Education at Stanford. They
are the ones who go to East Palo Alto elementary school to educate the
youth using hour-long interactive lessons every week.
There is also a Stanford Community Farm (hands-on introduction to organic food production), Stanford Environmental Law Society, Students for a Sustainable Stanford, and a Stanford Vegan Action.
Encouraging the proliferation of environment-conscious organizations
or organizations adopting this cause is one way of spreading the word
to the student population.
Example 2. St. Paul University Quezon City (SPUQC)
On May 2007, administrators and teachers attending the SPUQC
Educator’s Congress pledged to incorporate environmental education in
their curriculum. It became the advocacy of the entire Paulinian
community, resulting in various university-wide activities to raise
awareness and educate students about how to help the environment.
To better underscore their commitment, they created the
Spirituality, Mission and Advocacy Office. From here stemmed an
integrated and comprehensive eco-literacy program for the students.
A few months later, the office launched a series of activities to
highlight its institutional commitment. This included ecoliturgy, a
forum on the environment, mural printing competitions, essay contest,
pet blessing, environmental exhibits and tree planting in Mt. Banahaw,
Sariaya, Quezon.
Example 3. Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy.
Diesel school buses are old school for this center’s Project Green
Fleet—they became retrofitted to cut air pollutants in the bus exhaust.
This idea has won the organization a US Environmental Protection
Agency Clean Air Excellence Award, in its effort to minimize the air
pollution caused mostly by diesel vehicles in Minnesota.
Project Green Fleet helped school children avoid pollutants, and
contributed to the improvement of air quality in the area. It had many
sponsors which paid for the retrofitting of nearly 1,000 school buses
in the state, but everyone benefited in the end. The Excellence Award
only served as the icing on the cake for this simple, straightforward
and inexpensive idea.
Sources:
Dela Cruz, Ronel. “Taking care of our home: SPUQC launches Environmental Advocacy.” Retrieved March 15, 2009 by http://www.spuqc.edu.ph/environmental_advocacy.html
“Environmental Groups at Stanford.” Retrieved March 15, 2009 by
http://www.stanford.edu/group/enviro-reps/groups.html
“MCEA wins award for turning yellow school bus green.” Retrieved March 15, 2009 by
http://www.mncenter.org/minnesota_center_for_envi/2008/05/mcea-wins-award.html
(Published 30 March 2009, Smart Communications, Inc.)
