Greener Lunch
- Pack your child’s lunch in reusable containers and use reusable water bottles. In doing so, you can help reduce the huge amount of waste that ends up in landfills.
- Ask your kids’ school to source sustainable foods for cafeteria lunches, including locally grown or Rainforest Alliance Certified™ produce.
- Pack fruit as a healthy alternative to chips, and you also save on the wasteful packaging!
- If your school has a garden, consider collecting organic material in a compost bin in the cafeteria and creating fertilizer from lunchtime waste.
Greener Transport
- Have your kids walk or ride their bikes to school if possible. Not only does this help reduce carbon emissions, but it is also good exercise for all of you
- If you live too far from the school to make walking or bike riding an option, have your kids catch the school bus as opposed to driving them.
- If you have to drive, arrange a carpool with other parents. Not only will this help reduce emissions, but it will also help minimize your gas costs.
Greener Waste
- Remind your children to use both sides of the page when they’re writing or printing.
- Don’t forget to recycle your own paper waste. Ask your kids’ school to start classroom and cafeteria recycling programs if they don’t already have them.
Greener Supplies
- Save money and trees by purchasing textbooks second-hand.
- Don’t throw away old text books — sell or donate them instead!
- Try to use school supplies from last year; your kids don’t need new supplies every year!
- Use refillable pens made from recycled plastic.
- Use pencils made from Forest Stewardship Council certified wood.
- Reuse last year’s backpacks and lunchboxes if they are still in good condition.
- Choose recycled and/or Forest Stewardship Council / Rainforest Alliance Certified paper.
Greener Education
- For fun and educational games, activities, stories and forest facts, check out the Kids’ Corner on the Rainforest Alliance website.
- If your kids love the rainforest, treat them with Rainforest Survival Challenge, a fun and educational iPad app.
- Tell your kids’ teachers about the Rainforest Alliance’s free school curriculum for K-8th grade, designed to help students understand how our lives are connected to forests around the world.
Thanks to The Rainforest Alliance for kindly providing these tips (I added a few of my own)