THE GREEN FILES
By Sonia Green-Brown, PE
Issue 239- Charter for a Green School
As we continue to move towards a more sustainable Bahamas it is increasingly important for us to engage the youngest members of our population by establishing “Green Schools”.
These schools would help to ensure that the next generation of Bahamians are fully equipped to be good stewards of the local environment and would help them to be prepared for the inevitable growth of the sustainable industry.
In such an environment, learning about sustainability would become a part of every subject from Mathematics to Social Studies to English Language. Indeed the structures that make up the school would make the best use of natural resources and effectively minimize their carbon footprint, providing environments that are safer and healthier for staff and students and indeed cheaper to operate. Think of the benefits of using fair-faced block walls to eliminate the need for paint as effectively implemented at Aquinas College. We could go further and utilize polished concreter floors that require simple soap and water for cleaning which is cheaper and safer.
The schools would in effect be living laboratories where sustainable living is practiced by staff and students, therefore becoming so ingrained in their psyche it then becomes second nature, thus moving the idea of reducing consumption, reusing where possible and recycling from concept to an everyday reality.
Imagine school buildings so orientated that they capture the wind to their best advantage and harvest sunlight to limit the need for, both fans and artificial lighting, a school that captures rain water for flushing and irrigation use. Buildings would be so designed as to bring the outdoors in, engaging young minds about the importance of preserving the environment that we rely on for our livelihood not only through tourism but through fishing and farming as well.
You would not be able to take a step through this school without learning about indigenous flora and fauna as the school would be landscaped using such plants and each tree carefully labeled. Of course using native trees would radically reduce expenditure on watering. The school walls would be display areas used to improve environmental literacy through depictions of natural wildlife with descriptive text and through the naming of classrooms and other areas.
Such a school would implement procurement strategies that ensure that where practical items are sustainably sourced and that conservation and efficiency are an integral part of every purchasing decision.
Indeed many of the tools for learning would not need to be reinvented as organizations such as Bahamas National Trust, Atlantis, Nature Conservancy and others have existing programs that can be incorporated into the school calendar.
Such a school would resist the urge to take students on field/shopping trips to South Florida but would take them to the Exuma Land and Sea Park for example.
The effort it would take to re-imagine our approach to education would reap citizens who are better prepared for sustainability in the work place, are empowered to manage their consumption of power and would be innovators of new industries that do not exist today.
Send questions or comments to sbrown@graphitebahamas.com. Sonia Brown is Principal of Graphite Engineering Ltd and is a registered Professional Engineer.
