Going GREEN this school year!

Guest post by Karyn Climans of Tail Wags Helmet Covers Inc. www.karynclimans.com

Everyone is getting on the GREEN bandwagon and I’m the first to applaud this
initiative. After all, it’s in our best interests to reduce waste and decrease our
dependence on scarce natural resources. With back to school on everyone’s
mind, I’ve put together a GREEN checklist for parents:

• An obvious way to reduce waste is to send packed lunches in re-useable
containers. When I used to teach, the mountains of garbage in the
lunchroom always appalled me.
• Label your kids’ stuff! It saves having to re-buy school supplies and
clothing if your child’s misplaced items get returned to you. I highly
recommend Mabel’s Labels, www.mabel.ca, as a great product (the labels
actually stick!).
• Buy used textbooks. It will save you a ton of money because used books
sell for 50% of the original cost but, more importantly, re-using products
reduces the amount of stuff that ends up in our landfill sites.
• Encourage teachers NOT to re-order the latest edition of textbooks each
year. Usually, there are only minor changes with each new edition so the
only people benefitting from this practice are the book publishers.
• Ask if your children can submit their homework via email or portable USB
drive in order to help reduce the paper trail.
• Encourage your child to ride their bike or walk to school and make
sure they lock it up properly when they get there. Unless they have
a huge project to hand in, there’s no reason to drive them to school.
Even on rainy days, kids won’t melt in the rain. Snow is also not a good
excuse for driving because it’s even more fun to walk home on a snowy
day. It may take longer to get home because of the snowball fights
and snow angels but who cares! What’s the rush when you’re a kid?
• Please make sure your child always wears their safety helmet when riding
their bike. Worried they may lose their safety helmet … that’s another way
Mabel’s Labels can help!

Do you have anything else you’d like to add to my list? Would love to hear
from you with your suggestions and comments!


If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to read 5 Ways to Go Green: Everyday Eco-friendly Tips