Reducing our Homeschool's Carbon Footprint

[coastalfam]

Just looking to reduce our homeschool's overall environmental impact next year. There are a lot of things we do already, and a lot of things I have planned. Here is my newest campaign:

 

Our newest change is transferring a good bulk of our curriculum to digital in the way of teachers books, planners, and student texts, in some cases changing to a new curriculum to accommodate this desire. We purchased a used full-size iPad, which makes this a perfectly doable solution for us. And second, for our living books, we will either be borrowing them from our public library (I plan to have the librarian school me on inter-library loans very soon), or borrowing from our charter curriculum room, or purchasing the Kindle version, or purchasing used. My personal goal is to not purchase any *new* physical books for our homeschool this year. It's going to be a really fun challenge!

 

What sort of things do you do in your homeschool to reduce your consumption, your carbon footprint, or actions you take to invest in environmental preservation? I'm curious!

[...................]

I definitely would never give up real physical

Books do save paper. The health of my children in not having even more screen time is important to me.

 

However we are recycling fanatics and my kids work really hard never to throw away recycleBle. Our trash is only 25 gallons can per week for family of four and considering we stay home for three meals per day, that's amazing.

 

We will a huge 65 gallon recycling can every week.

 

My husband just got an electric car, my van is a. It of a guzzler ...

Edited July 13, 2017 by Calming Tea

[73349]

We take the bus at least part of the way for a lot of our field trips. (I wish we could do more--a bus goes by the piano studio, and another to my favorite grocery store, but it would take hours to get there because neither is the bus that goes by our neighborhood, and they connect only at the station downtown.)

We buy materials secondhand when possible.

We are able to avoid wasting materials (e.g., DS has one pencil and has been using it exclusively for a couple of years now).

We've used the Zero Waste Home techniques, so our trash most weeks is < a gallon per person, plus the kitty litter.

We turned off the natural gas service and the house is now electric-only (nuclear source); I'm working on limiting our demand, especially during peak hours. We can't do solar because of all the trees.

 

If you do FB, there's a group called Journey to Zero Waste - Homeschool (or something like that) for sharing ideas.

[regentrude]

For paper, use paper that has been printed on on one side. If you have a college nearby, they are probably drowning in stacks of one sided printed paper.

[Jackie]

Most of the changes we made were initially for financial reasons and just happened to have less environmental impact. :)

 

Our lighting is all LED bulbs. Ceiling fans instead of A/C. Doors open to cool off in morning and evening. Much of our lighting is task lighting, so trying to be conscious of turning lights out and using natural light.

 

Only rechargeable batteries.

 

Cloth napkins. Cloth cleaning rags. No disposable plates, cups, or utensils.

 

Modular furniture. May sound silly, but we've moved frequently and having highly adjustable pieces has really cut down on needing to buy to fit a space.

 

We plan on doing some worm composting for the container garden on the balcony.

 

We already use the library for the vast majority of our books. We already recycle everything we can.

 

Our biggest energy drain is our electronics. Between the stunning number of personal electronics and the multiple computers DH needs in his home office, we use a lot of electricity. We did put the tv and other entertainment devices on a power strip so we can flip the switch and they don't use the standby power.

 

I could shop more in bulk, but that's not the nearby grocery store so it's a decision between walking to the one 5 minutes away and having more packaging, or driving and having less packaging... Anyone know how to figure the math on what would do the most good on this one?

[coastalfam]

For paper, use paper that has been printed on on one side. If you have a college nearby, they are probably drowning in stacks of one sided printed paper.

 

That is a fantastic idea. My husband works as a University. :) I have pdf's of appropriate composition paper for each of my kids that I can easily print onto paper that has been used on one side.

[Runningmom80]

We buy used books and curricula when possible.  I buy some ebooks, but I find DS doesn't retain as well.  (Maybe this is my own bias, but it seems to be true so I'm going with it.)

 

I only buy what I know I will use within the next 8 weeks.  I've bought too many things and then not used them and had to sell.  I'd rather not even have to do that, because there is shipping carbon foot print.

 

We just try to buy used, and as little as possible.  Digital when it makes sense.

[Lori D.]

School related:

 

Our homeschool group has a weekly PE day during the school year that meets at a park, and we have a blessing table, where you leave whatever you're done with (clothes, home goods, small furniture, toys, books, etc. etc.) and take whatever you need. Whatever is left at the table at the end of PE is collected up and donated to a local second hand store that funds a charity.

 

As much as possible, I try and buy used books -- recycles what's already been printed and keep it out of landfills. I also try to donate a lot of books and homeschool materials when we're done to keep it recycling so fewer new books/materials need to be printed. :)

 

 

General:

 

We just switched over to LED lights in the house. We had solar panels installed almost 2 years ago, and we started water harvesting over 3 years ago. I lug 5 gallon buckets of water all around front/back yards to water now. (And that really is a sacrifice in June when it's over 100Ëš and I have to water every 2 days to keep plants alive!)

 

We live in a drought-desert area, so there is a lot of debate about whether cloth or paper napkins are better on the environment here. Paper napkins and paper towels (that are not dyed, and that are not greasy/oily) can be composted into a garden; cloth requires washing, which takes precious water away from our parched environment and scarce groundwater.

 

For all of my adult life, I've cooked from scratch as much as possible rather than buy pre-packaged foods -- first because it's more healthful, but second because it reduces packaging waste.

 

Where possible, I'm trying to switch to buying liquids (like olive oil) that are packaged in glass bottles (which can be recycled into food-grade containers), vs. plastic bottles (which can not be recycled into food-grade containers -- only non-food grade plastic items).

 

For years, I mostly air-dried clothes on a clothesline, rather than use a dryer. For a number of reasons I've had to use the dryer for the past few years, but once we can get our landscaping sorted out and put in, I plan to have a retractable clothesline again to reduce dryer use, and hence, electricity. 

Edited July 14, 2017 by Lori D.

[Melissa in Australia]

In general living. We grow almost all of our own vegetables year round. We eat according to the season. Veggie garden is bigger than a tennis court

 

Compost everything that is compostable.

 

Produce or harvest a vast majority of our meat.

 

Have renewable wood heater and wood slow combustion stove for cooking on that also heats our hot water. We have solar hot water service as well

 

Our roof is covered in solar electricity panels and the surplus hat we don't use is sold back to the grid. We get checks in the mail instead of bills.

 

We collect our own rain water and that is stored in big concrete tanks and the only water we have for all purposes so we use it carefully.

 

Have over 40 fruit trees

 

Hang all laundry out to dry (as do most Australians)

 

Try to use reusable shopping bags

 

Don't buy clothes unless we really need some clothes. In other words pay no attention to fashion, and don't have huge amount o clothes. What we do have is all natural materials

Have a house-cow that produces our milk

 

School work

 

Use text books,

 

write a lot of schoolwork like spelling tests etc on a whiteboard

 

 

I am sure there are more things we do....

[coastalfam]

In general living. We grow almost all of our own vegetables year round. We eat according to the season. Veggie garden is bigger than a tennis court

 

Compost everything that is compostable.

 

Produce or harvest a vast majority of our meat.

 

Have renewable wood heater and wood slow combustion stove for cooking on that also heats our hot water. We have solar hot water service as well

 

Our roof is covered in solar electricity panels and the surplus hat we don't use is sold back to the grid. We get checks in the mail instead of bills.

 

We collect our own rain water and that is stored in big concrete tanks and the only water we have for all purposes so we use it carefully.

 

Have over 40 fruit trees

 

Hang all laundry out to dry (as do most Australians)

 

Try to use reusable shopping bags

 

Don't buy clothes unless we really need some clothes. In other words pay no attention to fashion, and don't have huge amount o clothes. What we do have is all natural materials

Have a house-cow that produces our milk

 

School work

 

Use text books,

 

write a lot of schoolwork like spelling tests etc on a whiteboard

 

 

I am sure there are more things we do....

 

How fortunate you are to be able to produce so much of your food! That would be my dream come true. We aren't able to purchase land at the prices they are here, but luckily we get our veggies, fruits, and meats all locally. Also luckily, my husband is an electrician, so we have solar. On our tiny little lot, we do produce quite a lot of blueberries, though!! I have left handed kids, and left handed kids can't use white boards as they erase what they wrote as they go. Who knew? My right handed kid uses the board for spelling tests, though.

[Julie Smith]

I once read that the most important change the typical American can make to reduce his/her carbon footprint is to eat less meat.

 

ETA: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/giving-up-beef-reduce-carbon-footprint-more-than-cars

Edited July 14, 2017 by Julie Smith

[Lori D.]

...luckily we get our veggies, fruits, and meats all locally...

 

Buying local! If enough people could do this, it really would help reduce carbon emissions currently needed for trucking, shipping, mailing... :)

 

 

... write a lot of schoolwork like spelling tests etc on a whiteboard...

 

That's a good homeschool one! (We were big whiteboard users here!)

 

And while it never worked for us (DSs needed completely different materials for math and LA), a lot of families are able to slide page protectors over the workbook page, have the child complete with a marker, take a digital photo, erase, and reuse the workbook for the next child. At the end, you could then resell, recycling the workbook for yet more use!

 

And for those with auditory learners, what about audiobooks via digital files rather than print books?

Edited July 14, 2017 by Lori D.

[....]

What we do:

 

Get most of our books from the library

Books on Kindle if we have to buy a book

One Note scheduled on the Kindle (no paper schedulers)

Record-keeping on Excel (saved on hard drive)

 

[coastalfam]

Buying local! If enough people could do this, it really would help reduce carbon emissions currently needed for trucking, shipping, mailing... :)

 

 

 

That's a good homeschool one! (We were big whiteboard users here!)

 

And while it never worked for us (DSs needed completely different materials for math and LA), a lot of families are able to slide page protectors over the workbook page, have the child complete with a marker, take a digital photo, erase, and reuse the workbook for the next child. At the end, you could then resell, recycling the workbook for yet more use!

 

And for those with auditory learners, what about audiobooks via digital files rather than print books?

 

Audiobooks save me with a living book heavy curriculum. Oh my. Do they ever! I like the page protector idea. I had shied away from that because of not knowing if I should keep a physical copy, but I never thought to snap a picture for our record. Now I think I will do this.

[coastalfam]

I once read that the most important change the typical American can make to reduce his/her carbon footprint is to eat less meat.

 

ETA: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/giving-up-beef-reduce-carbon-footprint-more-than-cars

 

I have read this as well. We get our meat locally, which is really expensive (actually, our groceries are our biggest expense and we have to live much more simply to afford to buy local, though the reaches of that decision are worth it for us), and have found that if we are choosy about our meat producer, we can find very ethical, well managed, and small scale meat sources, but ya, we have to eat less of it to do it this way. 

[shawthorne44]

...

We live in a drought-desert area, so there is a lot of debate about whether cloth or paper napkins are better on the environment here. Paper napkins and paper towels (that are not dyed, and that are not greasy/oily) can be composted into a garden; cloth requires washing, which takes precious water away from our parched environment and scarce groundwater.

...

Napkin rings were created to label each person's napkin since they were only washed once a week.  

[SparklyUnicorn]

Although to be fair, aren't all the gobs of devices more problematic than books? 

 

I don't know the exact answer.  It just seems that would be the case.

 

 

[regentrude]

Napkin rings were created to label each person's napkin since they were only washed once a week.  

 

We use napkin rings. Also, the few napkins and reusable dish cloths in the laudry are negligible compared to the heaps of clothes. I can always fit six napkins into a full load.

 

If laundry reduction to save water (and electricity) is a goal, rewearing clothes for multiple days will have a much larger impact.

[Lori D.]

Although to be fair, aren't all the gobs of devices more problematic than books? 

 

I don't know the exact answer.  It just seems that would be the case.

 

Yes, there are a lot of toxic materials and heavy metals used in electronics, which does make them problematic for disposal -- and people upgrade electronics very frequently, which leads to a fast build-up of electronic waste and the exposure to toxic materials needed to recycle/recover materials out of the electronics. :( 

[shawthorne44]

Although to be fair, aren't all the gobs of devices more problematic than books? 

 

I don't know the exact answer.  It just seems that would be the case.

 

And also the important parts of those devices are made of materials that shouldn't be tossed.   Recycling computer parts is FAR more important than recycling your paper products.  

 

I'm not knocking devices, and I have the normal number of them.   I just don't think most people realize what an environment impact that they have.  Same with batteries.  

 

At our former house, the city used to have a free mulch bin.   They would grind up the tree branches that people would put out front into this big bin, and you could help yourself.   It isn't something I used often, but one day it was gone.  They had to start adding the ground up trees to the trash in the landfill.   People were so religious about recycling paper, the landfill wasn't decomposing properly.   The landfill is basically a giant community compost pile.   Imagine a compost pile with no trees, leaves or paper, it was just a soupy, icky mess.   

[Lori D.]

If laundry reduction to save water (and electricity) is a goal, re-wearing clothes for multiple days will have a much larger impact.

 

We've always done this. :)

Edited July 14, 2017 by Lori D.

[coastalfam]

Although to be fair, aren't all the gobs of devices more problematic than books? 

 

I don't know the exact answer.  It just seems that would be the case.

 

I don't know the answer either. We buy all our devices used, and we share them, except my husband and I do each have our own phone. So between the five of us there are two iPhones, an iPad, and an iMac, and all bought were used from craigslist, or refurbished from Apple. We've never had an issue with quality buying used, so if people want use these tools, I would definitely recommend this practice. I prefer books hands down any day of digital documents, but it is actually really convenient to have teachers manuals and texts that are only used for a few minutes a day as digital, also I can print what I need from digital workbooks, and therefore what I don't need does not then get wasted. 

[Emba]

Last year I did a Little House on thee Prairie unit and Dd used a slate and chalk instead of the whiteboard. That seems like it would be an improvement over whiteboard (less chemicals, less plastic) if you can sell the DC on it.

[coastalfam]

Last year I did a Little House on thee Prairie unit and Dd used a slate and chalk instead of the whiteboard. That seems like it would be an improvement over whiteboard (less chemicals, less plastic) if you can sell the DC on it.

 

And probably slate and chalk would smear much less for left handed writers (of which I have two). Good idea!