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Most of life's greatest lessons have been learned in school, but now more than ever business can follow the trend that many school systems are setting, by going green. Schools have been incorporating many Earth friendly changes and are improving in this area yearly.

If school systems can conserve resources, so can any business. Here are some important lessons that can be incorporated

1) Catalogs. One of the most wasted uses of natural resources is receiving an abundance of catalogs. Sometimes each teacher receives three of the same catalog just with different versions of their names or titles. Step one is to call each catalog company and explain that you no longer want to be sent the catalogs. Ask instead to use the online catalog. This alone will reduce many garbage cans full of wasted paper. Apply this same rule to the workplace. Discontinue all catalog mailings from companies in which an online catalog can be used.

2) Newspapers. Newspapers do not need to be filling up land fills. Companies can subscribe to online versions of newspapers for employees. If printed newspapers are desired look for better ways to use the newspapers instead of dumping them in the garbage cans. In our school, the art teacher uses the excess paper to put under student art work. Some newspapers are used in the projects. Some schools have started compost projects and shredding newspapers is part of this process. It is also shredded and used for packing material too.

3) Food and Drink. One of the most wasteful behaviors in the teacher workroom can be take out containers and disposable coffee cups. Purchase a coffee maker for the office and a pumper pot. Instead of purchasing coffee in disposable cups, bring a reusable one. After a pot of coffee is made, pour it in the pumper pot instead of allowing the carafe to stay on the hot burner for hours at a time. Only turn on the pot to make the coffee itself.
Instead of bringing carryout containers to work, pack a lunch in reusable containers. Absolutely no disposable water bottles should be in the workplace. All bottles must be reusable. In school, students can use reusable water bottles only. Many school lunches are going back to ketchup bottles instead of packets for instance. Look for ways to reduce packaging at lunch time. Kids are increasingly becoming the "Green Police" at school raising awareness of wastefulness at lunch time.

4) Excess printing and copying. Most of the waste in a school setting is paper just as in the workplace. Just

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