Class act: Green Gloves: Good for environment, bottom line
Fall 2012
This Golden Bell-winning effort got its start in 2007, when the Oakland Unified School District’s governing board adopted a districtwide Energy and Water Plan to evaluate and reduce its energy, water and waste-hauling service costs.
Saving money, of course, was an important motivator—especially in these difficult fiscal times. But Oakland education leaders also wanted to reduce greenhouse emissions and shrink the district’s carbon footprint, and, of course, provide outstanding opportunities for excellent teaching and learning.
The result is the district’s Green Gloves Program, a comprehensive recycling and composting campaign. In 2011, when the district submitted an application for a CSBA Golden Bell Award, staff reported the program was saving the district upwards of $50,000 a month. Green Gloves is a community effort, engaging students, teachers, administrators and parents in a wide-ranging campaign led by the district’s custodial staff.
Custodian and nutrition staff help sort through the kitchen and cafeteria waste, which makes up more than half of all school-generated waste. The program stresses project-based and service learning, and uses a curriculum provided by the Alameda County Waste Authority’s StopWaste.org program that’s aligned to state academic standards.
“A key component is collaborative teamwork,” says Nancy Deming, OUSD Sustainability Initiatives program manager. “We work with our community partners as much as possible: Waste Management, Altamont Education Advisory Board, the district’s after-school providers and other supporting staff and parents. It takes a village for a sustainable school.”
Also critical: administrators and teachers to champion the initiative at each school site, parent and community volunteers to support custodial staff and teacher efforts, and local government and community partners to supplement district resources and provide technical expertise.
Green Gloves recruits school custodians to engage students and teachers; in 2010-11, custodians initiated and led improvements in recycling and composting programs at nine school sites in the district, bringing the total number of Green Glove schools to 28. The program has since expanded even further to include 40 of the district’s 90-plus campuses. Last year district cafeterias got rid of all Styrofoam.
The custodial staff’s involvement and support was crucial. “Our custodial staff could have seen this as something that falls outside their normal scope of activities,” said Troy Flint, OUSD’s public relations director. “Instead, they took it as a challenge and made their involvement in Green Gloves a point of pride.”
—Carol Brydolf