Introduction

With the serious destruction of our living environment, many of the Earth's precious species are facing extinction within this century. As a result of this, people are now paying more attention and concerns to the environmental protection. However, besides green home and green office, we can do a little bit more in school because it is a good place to educate our generations with a clear concept/theory on environmental awareness. Therefore, there are many green schools available in different places nowadays.

Maybe you ask: What is green school? Does it have any differences or similarities with school environmental management? Actually, it is not that easy to establish a green school. To make it successful, it should require a well-organized environmental management to encourage schools to setup policy and execute subsequent plans. Once the target is reached, all the school management, teachers, students and other staff should be more familiar with the environmental awareness and thus encourage them to practice more in daily lives. For example, holds a paper/plastic bottle recycling competition regularly in schools to let both teachers & students to experience how to save the Earth's materials and conserve the environment. Moreover, it can further increase the knowledge of environmental protection in their minds by holding more exhibitions.

Not surprisingly, to make our Earth's resources more sustainable, we should educate our young generations on environmental issues at the very beginning. Therefore, from my point of view, the role of school is important and cannot be ignored.

Green school concept

The concept of green school can be summarized into 9 categories:

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Replace
Indoor air quality
Solid waste treatment
Noise control
Education
Internal management
Transport
Green purchase

Reduce

Papers

• Encourage both teachers and students to use double side while printing, and try to produce right amount of copies.
• Reduce to use excess papers for parcels and present wrapping purposes.
• Encourage teachers and students to use more on reusable utensils (such as glass/plastic cups and plates), and use less on paper-made utensils.
• Use less non-recycled papers for printing, photocopying and other purposes.

Energy

• Switch off any lights and electronics after use to reduce unnecessary energy expenditure.
• Check the light intensity if it is too strong to increase the energy consumption and thus wasting energy.
  Consider switching off a portion of unused lights during recess.
• Rely more natural sunlight if the condition is allowed.
• Reduce to open an air-conditioning system during winter times. Close all openings (i.e. windows and doors) while the air-conditioning is in use.

Water resources

• Close all water taps properly after use.
• Use none or less on non-biodegradable pesticides and fertilizers to avoid underground water contamination.
• Avoid watering flowers and other plants during lunchtime. This can reduce the chance of water loss by transpiration.

Reuse

Papers

• Collect those used envelopes and then reuse again.
• Recollect used cardboard for the suppliers and reuse for packaging again.
• Install a recycle bin near photocopier and fax machine, for example: 'Back-paper collection box', 'Envelopes recycle bin' and ' Cardboard recycle bin'.
• Cut some one-side used papers into smaller pieces for notepad purpose.
• Try to use some newspapers or magazines for parcel wrapping.

Recycle

Papers

Install a paper recycle bin in school. This encourages both teachers and students to recollect different kinds of used papers (i.e. newspapers, magazines, etc) and then send it to the recycling factories.

Install another paper box recycle bin near canteen to collect those paper boxes of soft drinks for recycling.

Aluminum cans/plastic bottles

Besides paper recycle bin, it is possible to install aluminum cans recycle bin and plastic bottles recycle bin near school canteen to further recollect both recyclable aluminum cans and plastic bottles as much as possible.

Batteries

Recollect those non-environmental friendly batteries (i.e. alkaline or mercury batteries) to prevent any toxic chemicals leaking from the internal by squeezing, and thus causing harm to the environment.

Replace

Papers and stationary

• Encourage choosing recycled papers and refilled ball pen, glue, correction tape and toner box (for printer) and rechargeable batteries.
• Use more glass/plastic-made utensils instead of paper cups and plates.
• Encourage using more emails for documental transfer than papers.

Water and electricity

• Use energy-saving light bulbs and some high efficiency but low energy consumption electronics to save energy.
• Install a time control in the electronics to make sure the switch must be automatically turned off after use.
• Try to choose an air-conditioning system with an energy-saving function.
• When the weather is cool or cold, it is better to open all the windows to let more winds in, rather than opening an air-conditioning system.
• Install a flow control system or an automatic closed system in all water taps to avoid any water wastage.
• Be aware of the water usage habit and try to use recycled water for watering plants.

Fertilizers and other chemicals

Use natural fertilizers (i.e. animal manure) to replace the use of artificial/chemical fertilizers. This can avoid any underground water contamination occurs.

Choose some natural pesticides and detergents. For example, use some biodegradable washing powder or soap to clean the floor; or use some garlic to be the pesticides to kill the pests (i.e. flies, mosquitoes and mice) in school.

Indoor air quality

• The ventilation system should be checked, cleaned and under maintenance in a fixed schedule.
• Keep the indoor air quality fresh and avoid smoking in enclosed area.
• The proportion between people and space within the room should be appropriate.
• If there is a construction on going within school area, it should be well separated by using high wooden boards to avoid any dust flying around.

Solid waste treatment

Install a recycle bin in a popular area in school so as to encourage more teachers and students to participate in material recycling activities (such as waste papers, glassware, plastics, aluminum cans and toner box for printers).

Install a special recycle bin for collecting sharp objects and broken glassware. This can protect cleaners away from accidents.

Noise control

• Try to arrange any construction work at non-lecture hours and non-examination periods. This can avoid any disturbances caused by noise.
• If there is a construction work near the school area, try to discuss and cooperate with the constructor to lower the noise level first. If there is still no improvement, it should report to the Environmental Protection Department at once.
• Move any noisy equipment away from classrooms.
• Try to fix any air-conditioner(s) if there is water droplet or sound produced by the machine.
• If the school is suffered from the above noise problems or has a highway nearby, it can install double windows or some noise absorbers to reduce the inconvenience generated by noises.

Education

In order to reach the goal of environmental protection in schools, education is an essential element and thus cannot be ignored. Below are some aspects to promote the environmental protection:

Internal management

Post some advertisements or posters in school areas and let more teachers and students to know how to care about the environment through daily activities.

Give a promotion course of how to keep and treat the stocks to all staff and teachers, and adopt a 'first come first use' concept to avoid any stocks reaching the expiry date without consumption.
List out all toxic chemicals and store them in a safe place, or try to use biodegradable & environmental friendly detergents/pesticides instead of harmful ones.

Transport

Encourage teachers and students to use either public transport or on foot when go to school. This helps to save the environment by producing less air pollutants generated by vehicles.

If one decides to take a car to school, he/she must use an environmental friendly gasoline (i.e. unleaded gasoline) to save the environment free from pollution.

Encourage drivers to switch off car engines while waiting. Therefore, the health of both teachers and students can be safeguarded.

Green purchase

• Purchase some reusable/refillable products like recycled papers and toner boxes.
• Repair some damaged products or equipment rather than throwing them out and buying new ones.
• Request the suppliers not to use too much parcel papers for wrapping. Under some circumstances, these papers can be recycled for use.
• Hold some activities and exhibitions to let more students and their parents to understand the importance of environmental protection, and encourage them to buy and use more green products.

Environmental protection activity

There are many different kinds of green activities to be held by green school. This provides a good opportunity for both teachers and students to experience and have a better understanding on the advantages/usefulness of environmental protection. Below are some examples:

Establishment of Environmental Protection Workgroup

Aims:

Raise some green activities in school and thus to encourage both teachers and students to participate into different kinds of these activities, and finally, increase their environmental awareness.

Arrange some normal courses or extra-cirriculum activities in schools and thus let more students to receive the correct education of environmental protection.

Increase the promotion area of environmental activities into a larger scale. This can let more and more people to feel the seriousness of environmental pollution at the moment and thus raise their concerns to the protection, as well as save the Earth's resources.

Functions & development:

Editing/printing a guidebook about environmental protection:

This guidebook provides some useful tips which aims to help teachers and students to experience how to protect the environment through different kinds of daily activities, and thus reaching both environment improvement and resources conservation as the ultimate goal.

Constructing different kinds of activities:

By constructing different kinds of activities in schools, it offers a good chance to promote the importance of environmental protection nowadays. Through these activities, students not only can have a direct contact with the nature, but also increase their knowledge towards the environmental conservation and try to establish their new values as well.

Activities include:

• Paper recycling competition
• Recycled papers demonstration
• Participation of tree seeding project, bird-watching and farm visit.
• Holding and participating in environmental protection exhibition.
• Editing some magazines and websites related to environmental protection.

Nomination of students' environmentalist prize:

Through the nomination period, more students are going to pay more attention on environmental issues and try to participate into many activities as possible. Finally, the target of environmental improvement and resources conservation can be reached without any great difficulties.

Others:

It is possible to increase the communication channels between different school management teams before the environmental assessment report has been produced. After that, try to review the whole performance of environmental protection and its effectiveness. Besides, it is essential to point out coming-year environmental principles and its future plans in annual report and, some policies and targets which have been successfully reached last year.