420 Westfield Street ♦ Greenville, South Carolina 29601 ♦ Phone 864.452-0500 ♦ Fax 864-452-0515
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Green Steps

Green Steps Schools is an environmental education initiative that encourages individual schools in South Carolina to take annual sustainable steps toward becoming more environmentally responsible.  Our student Green Team is taking the lead on implementing our Green Steps program.  Here at AJW, we will be taking many Green Steps, including:

  1. Recycling paper (cardboard, mixed paper): Parents and students are encouraged to bring in their paper to be recycled!  The Green Team will collect paper to be recycled every Friday.  They will also study the amount of recycled paper collected and its impact on our school.  Other materials will be recycled in the future as well.
  2. GOFO Garden: In the works is our Grow Healthy Kids GOFO (Greenville Organic Foods Organization) organic vegetable garden!  Be on the lookout for volunteer opportunities to come help build and develop this garden with GOFO and other such partners as TreesGreenville (www.treesgreenville.org) and the Greenville Garden Club. Click on a thumbnail to see the garden beds being built, our students planting, farm tour with cooking, and the planting of the trees.

  3. Breathe Better Air (http://www.greenvillecounty.org/air_quality/pdf/B2_program_history.pdf): The Green Team will implement other Green Steps initiatives as well, including the B2 program.  This program includes an anti-idling promotion and study of the impact of idling on clean air. For this to work for the best for everyone and the air quality, please turn off your car if you are sitting longer than 2 minutes.
    • Vehicle exhaust is the leading source of toxic air pollution.
    • Idling consumes 1/2 to 1 gallon of fuel per hour and wastes more fuel than turning off and on your vehicle.
    • It is more efficent to turn off most warmed up vehicles than to idle for more than 30 seconds.
    • A single vehicle dropping off and picking up a child at one school puts 3 pounds of pollution into the air per month
      . 
  4. NEW!!! Composting: Our 1st grade students will be researching compost and exploring how to reduce school classroom and kitchen waste. This year first grade students collected classroom compostable materials, and hosted a "bring your browns" day to bring in enough brown materials to go with the green kitchen and cafeteria food scraps. There are two new compost bins in the garden - a continual feed bin composter and a batch compost tumbler. Students also created an art wall around the composter made of recycled CDs that have student green tips on them. Great job first grade!


  5. Greenville Fun In Gardening (FIG) is a local non-profit corporation established to provide teachers with a full spectrum of educational gardening assistance.  Greenville FIG proudly supports the A. J. Whittenberg Elementary School of Engineering Garden and has greatly participated in its' efforts since the onset of the development of AJ’s Garden.  Through FIG’s support, the educational value, development, and maintenance of AJ’s Garden has made AJ’s Garden a point of pride for our school.  Find out more about FIG at www.greenvillefig.org. 

 

 

Who is the Green Team? Please meet them! These green-minded students will be taking the lead in implementing our Green Steps program at AJW.

 

Interested in getting involved in Green Steps at AJW?  Please contact Ansel Sanders at 864-452-0512 or wsanders@greenville.k12.sc.us.