Abington Friends School students using nature as their classroom.
The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered the ways in which schools function. Moving forward, it will be important to re-evaluate how schools teach, clean and operate. To accelerate this change, leaders and educators can look to green school planning that will enable them to incorporate sustainable practices into school operations while adapting to a new reality. The article, “Green Schools are the Right Answer - Now More Than Ever,” in Green Schools Alliance, Timothy Baird, Ed.D, explores how green schools provide the perfect flexible learning model for our new reality.
The pandemic has tightened school budgets across the country. Changes to learning environments, including improved technology for remote learning as well as altered cleaning procedures to ensure safe learning spaces, can be expensive. As schools look to lower their expenditures, Baird notes: “Schools that focus on stewardship and sustainability have major advantages in addressing these issues over schools that do not.”
Education for Sustainability
Abington Friends School uses their established rain garden to engage students in outdoor learning.
Developing flexible learning models will be key. Education for Sustainability (EfS) curricula expose students to real-world environmental problems that require an interdisciplinary approach to solve. EfS is amenable to virtual learning, too. Baird describes how students could develop a waste-reduction plan for their families by conducting an at-home kitchen waste audit in lieu of participating in a school cafeteria waste audit. Free and numerous online resources make for readily accessible EfS curricula. He emphasizes that schools that focus on EfS can ease the transition back to in-person learning as well. Because EfS lessons are environmentally-based, there are enhanced opportunities for outdoor classes. This seamlessly facilitates social distancing.
At Abington Friends School, the campus has become an outdoor learning lab. Director of the Center for Experiential Learning, Rosanne Mistretta notes: “We are turning our campus grounds into a learning lab of sustainable practices, including rain gardens, raised farming beds, pollinator gardens and bee hives. We're involving students from all divisions and many community partners.”
Safe Cleaning Practices for Healthy Schools
When students make the return to indoor learning, increased attention must be paid to cleaning procedures that prevent the spread of the coronavirus while exploring options that are environmentally friendly. In the rush to reopen schools, Baird worries that schools will turn to unsafe chemicals and cleaning agents to ensure sanitary campuses. However, clean schools are not always healthy schools. He highlights that using safe chemicals and cleaning agents is integral to making schools healthy for students and teachers in the long-term. Advances in cleaning technology, like electrostatic sprayers, will allow schools to safely and quickly sanitize classrooms. Investing in these practices now will help ensure healthy teachers and students who are more resistant to disease. Additionally, providing nutritious meals and access to clean air and natural light, as well as limiting the use of pesticides and herbicides allows schools to teach their students healthy behaviors that can be transferred to their own communities.
Sustainability Savings
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy lower school students explore a nearby creek, bringing the classroom outdoors.
Finally, green schools can save money by focusing on sustainability. Baird explains that “one of the major misperceptions around green schools is that they are expensive.” Many of these green capital expenditures will save significant money in annual energy bills. For schools on particularly tight budgets, there are many low-cost options for resource-conservation projects that will still save money. These include energy-efficient heating and cooling systems for lowered electrical bills, rainwater harvesting via rain barrel for reduced irrigation costs, and more efficient waste management practices for decreased hauling fees, to name just a few. Student involvement with identifying and designing green cost-saving solutions deepens student engagement with sustainability.
Preparing Students for a Sustainable Future
SCH Academy’s Carie Szalay and students observing nature.
As explained, green schools use their community and grounds as real-world laboratories to promote sustainable practices. Educating for sustainability, reevaluating cleaning and operating practices to make them as safe as possible, and resource-conserving efforts to save money create a powerful sustainable synergy that helps students think critically about building a sustainable future. To be most successful, green schools must recognize that learning beyond the confines of the classroom brings fresh innovation and engagement to solving some of the world's most pressing challenges.
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Written by Samantha Friborg, junior at Yale University majoring in Environmental Studies, and Sustainability Intern at Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants.
Article printed in PAISBOA’s Friday Flyer, Vol. X, No. 1, February 5, 2021.
