Sprouts Preschool – A green place to grow!

We have consciously decided to include Environmental Studies into the curriculum.  We anticipate the use of a plot in the local South Street Garden, and have decided to compost all of our organic waste (i.e. food leftovers for use in our garden. Other initiatives will be to encourage recycling, and explain to the preschoolers why that is good practice. We feel that environmental issues are set to expand into the forefront of our daily lives, and that this generation of preschoolers and young children will take an active part in environmental issues globally. We feel that it is relevant that they are prepared as early as possible.

This whole idea presents many new challenges. As a result of renovating an existing building, we have had to try to include our environmental ideals into common business sense. However we made a conscious decision to recycle materials within the building itself, and use environmentally friendly products for our floor coverings. Our final layout was influenced by what was here before and we adopted a policy of adapt and reuse, rather than rip-out and replace. This resulted in very little debris going to landfills, (we never had a dumpster), and perfectly good material that would normally be thrown away such as metal studs, and doors, being reused elsewhere in the building. Essential safety items such as the fire alarm, emergency lighting and exit signs,  were replaced as a matter of course and safety.

The tile floor is made of entirely decomposable materials (stone and a cardboard type material) so that when it eventually is at the end of its life and placed in landfill, will readily decompose. The new carpet is made by shredding plastic beverage bottles and stripping and cleaning reclaimed carpet, so that those materials are stopped from going to the landfill.

We will always try to do our part – that’s all. We don’t profess to being greener than we are, however will allow ourselves to involve impact on our environment as an element of our decision making in a practical way.