Arlena Teitelbaum does not think kids should be exposed to harsh
chemicals found in most cleaning supplies, and she's doing something
about it.
Teitelbaum, with the support of parents, teachers and students, has
made Acequia Madre Elementary the first public school in Santa Fe to
switch to green cleaning supplies.
"We're real pleased with it," said Bill Beacham, the school's principal.
The new cleaning products — Greening the Cleaning — don't leave
that same "clean" smell that traditional products do, Beacham said, but
they do the job just as well.
Beacham admits he didn't know much about green cleaning products or
the effects that traditional cleaning supplies are purported to have on
students.
It was Teitelbaum, who has a son in first grade, who pushed the
issue. "I've always used (nontoxic) products in my home," Teitelbaum
said. "To me it's just common sense."
Because students spend 80 percent of their school day indoors,
Teitlebaum said, it stands to reason that schools should remove any
products that could be potentially dangerous.
Teitlebaum said the school chose the products because the group
producing them, the Diedre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric
Oncology, was one of a handful of groups to disclose its ingredients.
The switch might also result in lower cleaning costs for the
school, Beacham said. The trick is making sure custodians use the
prescribed amounts — the products are concentrated and must be diluted
— to reap the savings, he said.
It will take awhile before they can determine the savings or the
effects of the change, but school district officials are already
talking about expanding the program to other schools and possibly the
entire district.
Greener cleaning products are just the beginning of the district's
efforts to become more environmentally friendly and energy efficient.
Bobbie Gutierrez, the deputy superintendent who will become
superintendent in July, said the district has already tried things such
as waterless urinals at one school and wants to do more any time a
building is renovated or newly constructed.
Officials are hoping a planned new school in Rancho Viejo, for
example, will earn Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or
LEED, certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Gutierrez said the committee that plans the district's construction
projects is even talking about setting aside funds from future bonds to
be used on greening new buildings and for some possible retrofits for
older ones.
Other area schools have already worked to make their campuses more efficient and environmentally friendly.
Santa Fe Preparatory was awarded a LEED gold certification for its
recently constructed library. The building's design makes full use of
the sun, and low-energy fluorescent lights turn on only when ambient
light falls below a certain level. Rainwater is also collected in
buried cisterns and is used to water plants around the campus.
The library was the
first building in New Mexico to attain the gold certification for new construction.
Keep the conversation on the environment going at www.santafegreenline.com. Keep a blog, start a discussion, share your photos and videos of New Mexico and make new friends.
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