I work in the academe and it’s very recently when I realized that schools are very significant contributors to the destruction of the environment. For one reason, the school uses a lot of paper and there are very few green policies that are being implemented. If I will be head of the school for just one day, here’s what I will do to achieve my green dream
1. I will impose a Clean As You Go and Segregate (CLAYGOS) Policy. This is not a very new policy as I’ve already seen schools that require their students to clean as they go. However, what’s really lacking here is the student’s initiative to also segregate their waste. I will impose heavy fines on student’s who will not follow this particular policy and would even assign garbage monitors who will look out for trash that are not properly segregated.
2. I will encourage my faculty and staff to set themselves as role models to students. I will ask them to bring their own coffee mugs or drinking bottles so that they won’t have to bring in bottled water. I will require them to recycle paper by printing on both sides and using the school copier’s image reducing feature, reduce the image that they want to be reproduced in the smallest size possible so that more images can fit in one page. They will be responsible in segregating their own trash and throwing even their smallest garbage like a candy wrapper in its proper place.
3. I will donate all fax machines to charities and switch to online fax services. Online fax services save a lot of money and trees. It does not spew out junk fax messages because every message are viewed through the inbox and if you see any junk fax, all you have to do is delete it. Online fax will not require fax papers nor inks and toners and since it is web-based, every computer all over the campus can be transformed into virtual fax machines.
4. I will host an event that will focus on Zero Waste Management to increase awareness among students, parents and teachers alike on the various benefits of going for no waste facilities. I can also have it transformed into a fund raising event and the funds that will be collected will be used to install bigger windows in our classrooms and schools. It will also hope to create sun roofs for offices so that electricity will be conserved.
5. I will encourage our school copiers as well to copy on both sides of the paper to reduce their paper cost and be helpful to the environment. I will also encourage them to use only post-consumer recycled paper to ensure that even the paper that they use are recycled themselves.
6. I will require students to bring home every trash that they brought inside the school. This means that any school child who packs anything for their snacks, they have to bring home whatever trash that will be generated from their lunch packs.
Of course, these are my green dreams. For the mean time, I would have to work on my dissertation so I can be the school headmaster that I dream to be.
