Green Tips #11 – Improving Your School’s Environmental Footprint

By Jason Giovannettone, Director of Climate and Sustainability for the Sisters of Mercy

In the last Green Tips article, we covered the first steps that are essential towards improving your school’s overall environmental footprint: forming or expanding a Green Team, and conducting a sustainability audit.

Once you’ve completed your general sustainability audit (find a good example here), you can devote your next Green Team meeting to looking at the results and deciding where you want to focus your efforts.

Look at the number of “NO” checkmarks under each section of the review; a high number of “NO” checkmarks will help you determine which areas may be a priority. Once your team has assessed the results, select one area of focus so as not to become overwhelmed with trying to change too many behaviors or activities at the same time.

Next, conduct a more detailed audit in the selected area; sample audits for some of the major areas included in the initial review are provided at the links below. A helpful hint is to identify faculty and/or staff in the selected area who may be able to help facilitate answering the questions.

• Biodiversity
• Climate Change
• Consumption and Waste
• Energy
• Transportation
• Water

Quick Tip for Schools and Homes: Laundry Tablets

One way to become more sustainable at school and at home is to eliminate plastic from your laundry detergent. Laundry tablets are a great option (laundry sheets and pods still contain plastic). Blueland sells tablets that have also earned the EWG.org “Verified” mark as meeting the strictest standards for health and safety.

This article is part of our monthly Green Tips series. Read more Green Tips here.