Greening up our schools

Check out this video. Kelly Creek Elementary School in Gresham, Oregon won $250,000 from Ford to implement a whole bunch of eco-friendly changes, including Marmoleum flooring, CFL light bulbs, low-flow toilet fixtures and a new playground set made from recycled materials. It's pretty cool. They got the money because they had a passionate champion who wrote the winning essay -- the head custodian. It's every school's dream (or it should be).

Oregon schools just had millions of dollars cut from their budgets, so I suspect eco-friendly improvements like these are not high on the list. And of course not everyone can win a big old prize for their schools. So you end up focusing on the smaller things. Our elementary school has a Green Team, of which I'm an inactive member (next year will be better, I promise). At the start of the year they bought reusable water dispensers for school potlucks to replace the bottled water they use to sell. Signs about water conservation were hung in all the classrooms. There are plans to encourage parents to pack waste-free lunches, which is great. Small things, baby steps. It's really about all that can be done at this point.

I'm curious what other grade schools are doing. Switching to green cleaners? Getting rid of the antibacterial soaps? Installing solar panels? It's tough to make changes in a public school system, what with all the policies and expense involved. And you also have to get teachers on board. What changes have your schools successfully made, and what's in the works?