How to go greener at school

You spend most of your day at school, so make sure you’re going greener there, too. Why not persuade teachers and governors to help if your school’s not green enough?

Here are some easy ways you can keep up your greener habits at school.

Walk to school

One of the most obvious ways to be greener is on the way to school. About one in five cars on the road at 8.50am on a weekday are taking kids to school – and half have only one child in.

Walk to School runs two annual walking events for parents, teachers and children – one in May and the other in October. But if you have to drive because of where you live, why not set up a lift share with some friends?

Eat more greenly

Food and drink used in a school can have a big environmental impact. Why not talk to teachers and governors about using locally produced or organic food in the canteen? Even better, encourage your school to set up a vegetable patch in the school grounds.

If you take a packed lunch to school, you can still make a difference. Something as simple as drinking from a reuseable container, instead of cans or cartons, will mean cutting back on disposable packaging.

Cut out the waste

Wherever there are a lot of people, there’s a lot of waste – so why not see how you can reduce it?

Talk to teachers about setting up recycling bins in the classroom – if they’re always close to hand, other kids are more likely to get into the habit of using them.

Another tip that, if done all the time, could halve waste paper is make sure you always use both sides of every sheet.

You could also kick-start a compost area for the school’s organic waste. And to show everyone why you’re making all this effort, ask a teacher to arrange a trip to the nearest landfill site so they can see what happens if they don’t recycle.

Use energy efficiently

Does your school encourage pupils to turn off the lights when they leave a room or turn computers and printers off? There are lots of ways the school can use less energy and you can help with them too!

Try shutting the doors once you're inside – it's a good way to keep the heat in and lower the school's energy use.

For even more energy-saving tips, visit the Generation Green website.