Educating a school community about green practices takes more than one day. Use Earth Day as a starting date for promoting more eco-friendly practices with the computers at school. Involving students, faculty and administration in different activities is a good way to not only reduce the impact of technology at school but also will affect environmentally positive practices at home.
Printers
Paper is a large source of waste, both in its creation and disposal. Start a recycling program or promote the current one. Use April 22nd as a day to remind others to reuse the backs of paper for scrap and recycle sheets when finished with them. Also, remind others to only print when necessary and to be patient and not click print more than once if multiple systems share the same printer.
Another paper saving technique requires a school network or teacher email. If the school has a network in place, encourage teachers to accept assignments and papers electronically instead of as a printout. This can be achieved by email or a software solution such as Virtual Classroom or Blackboard.
Printers themselves are also wasteful. Newer printers have energy saving features but older ones might not; start an educational campaign to encourage everyone to turn off the printer at the end of school. Printer cartridges typically end up in a landfill even though there are many recycling programs available. Use Earth Day to start a printer cartridge recycling program. Check online or with a local technology supplier, some programs even pay schools in return for the empty ink cartridges.
Computer Systems
The computer and monitor together can use a large amount of electricity. Promote turning off the systems at the end of each school day. An educational activity surrounding how much power each system used, the number of systems in the building, and what that means in terms of wattage use, money and greenhouse gas emissions can be a powerful message.
Check with local recycling facilities about holding a technology recycling day on April 22nd. Many facilities accept old and unwanted systems, from monitors and computers to cell phones and PDAs. These systems are then broken down into reusable parts, such as plastics, boards and precious metals, and then recycled. Since technological devices also contain environmentally harmful materials, such as lead, these are removed and can then be disposed of safely. If the school is not looking to dispose of computer systems, then hold the event for the entire community.
