Information about conservation, sustainability and environmentally friendly living cascades upon us like a full and raging waterfall. Every day, we witness the magnitude of these problems and the resources available to become a solution for each situation. Every day, many of us feel the daunting weight of these issues on our shoulders and experience a sense of helplessness as to effective action.
How do we separate the issues from the tips? What do we prioritize as first steps? And most importantly—how do we bring this issue to our children so that they can become involved in their growing years?
Go Green Initiative, an organization formed in 2002 by an activist mother, could possibly help many families, schools and communities move forward on the sustainability path gradually and effectively. The mission of the Go Green Initiative is to unite parents, students, teachers and school administrators in an effort to make real and lasting changes in campus communities that will protect children and the environment for years to come.
Go Green’s clear philosophy, user-friendly website, resource lists and free membership program all aim to help parents, students and teachers combine forces to work on sustainability issues. Go Green’s premise is very simple.
They believe that:
- people care about protecting children’s health and safety through environmental stewardship.
- people will do the right thing when given trustworthy information, expert training and simple tools.
- people appreciate programs that provide a framework for success, options and the freedom to choose the options that work best for them.
- people want a panoramic, three-dimensional approach to environmental education, which will equip young people with the skills necessary to manage the environmental impact inherent in all activities.
Go Green Initiative’s primary document is the “Go Green Planning Guide.” This 27-page booklet is a perfect primer for any school community dreaming of becoming sustainable and green. Balancing enough facts with “to-do” style worksheets, the booklet guides schools to understand, assess, evaluate and implement successful, cost-effective and environmentally friendly changes.
I also find Go Green’s mission of working with teachers, as opposed to adding yet another project on their already full schedule, very admirable. Go Green enlists parent volunteers to help teachers succeed in the program. Parents are given enough empowerment so that they can aid with writing grants, scheduling educational assemblies, bringing in technical experts for staff training, raising funds for after-school ecology clubs, and seeking corporate sponsors for needed school equipment. In addition, Go Green Initiative works with individual schools to identify appropriate environmental education curriculum that best fits the state’s existing educational standards. These approaches certainly introduce the feeling of “holistic living,” while accomplishing a physical environmental success story in each school.
I am also heartened by testimonials provided by school officials. For example, a school district Superintendent says, “[Go Green Initiative] is respectful of school site autonomy and allows for unique implementation plans at every school. Yet, [it] fully supports our schools with training, information, advice, resources and tools, which gives school administrators the confidence that their campuses are heading in the right direction.”
The success of Go Green Initiative is apparent in the way its objectives have spread globally. Since its inception in July 2002, it has been endorsed by the National School Boards Association, National Recycling Coalition, adopted by eight State PTA Boards, implemented in 46 states and over 850 schools, along with schools in Europe, Mexico, Indonesia and Africa. Globally, there are over 1 million students and 75,000 teachers involved in Go Green Initiative schools. They also present a yearly “International Earth Summit” to reflect on past challenges and successes and to introduce new tools.
When I browsed the list of cities where schools have registered to join the initiative, I found only Lahaina listed on the island of Maui. It seems egregious that we do not take full advantage of comprehensive and successful programs, such as Go Green Initiative, to keep growing and becoming as environmentally friendly as our mainland and global counter-parts.
I hope that teachers, students, parents and community members who read this article will become enthusiastic in guiding their schools to register with the Go Green Initiative and add another dimension in the greening of Maui school campuses. We owe it to ourselves, our children, and most importantly to our ‘aina.
Subashini Ganesan organizes, researches, writes and implements efforts to create social and environmental change. She is a part-time resident of Maui and can be reached at subashinig@gmail.com.
Website:
www.gogreeninitiative.org
Contact:
Kate Jupina, Assistant to Executive Director
P.O. Box 1604, Pleasanton, CA 94566
(925) 484-1851
katejupina@gogreeninitiative.org