Title Basic UC8 - Evaluate environmental work practices ✅

Information Sheet 8.1-1 IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY Environmental literacy is the knowledge, skills and ability to cope with the environment and promote environmental sustainability. Students must assess current environmental practices, or the absence of them, and use their critical thinking skills to help them problem solve and create a solution to become more sustainable. Environmental literacy is important for students to understand. Students need to understand the balance between their personal lives and environmental sustainability. The lack of education on climate change, and the role of humanity in it, is unacceptable. The youth of today do not have the luxury of treating the environment as an elective. Recent research indicates people born after 2010 will face up to four times as many climate-induced natural disasters as people born in 1960, and that is only if we manage to keep warming under 1.5 Celsius. Environmental literacy To be environmentally literate is to have ―an understanding of how natural environments influence individual organisms, including humans, and how organisms, especially humans, in turn, influence the planet’s systems.‖ This does not mean just adding a ―climate literacy‖ subject to school curriculum. Rather, true climate literacy involves embedding environmental perspectives into all relevant subjects. A comprehensive environmental literacy education also includes a full understanding of how individuals can engage with political, social and economic systems in order to reach their environmental goals. We owe it to today’s youth to give them the knowledge, skills and efficacy to address the mistakes of the previous generations and shape their own futures. It has been the youth who have led the push for better climate education. According to high school student and environmental advocate Diya Kandhra, ―consistent conversations regarding climate change and sustainability are simply not present in general public school courses.‖ Kandhra recalls that ―in my 12 years of public school education, climate change was sparsely discussed in the standard biology curriculum, and I had to go out of my way to learn about climate change in school, only having the opportunity as a high school senior registering for AP Environmental Science.‖ Fed up with a lack of educational options, local students have taken to directly advocating to their elected representatives. Students such as Kandhra recognize that ―combating climate change is an unavoidable responsibility for the younger generation... The only way we can step up to the challenge is by being empowered with climate literacy—knowing is half the battle.‖
Education programs are an important avenue to channel youth frustration over the historic lack of action on climate change and growing climate anxiety into positive action. Because climate change is a global issue, climate literacy can also be used to foster unity and communication across borders. Student-driven efforts have ranged from placing pressure on legislators to demanding better from school boards to creating their own climate education. Environmental education (EE) connects us to the world around us, teaching us about both natural and built environments. EE raises awareness of issues impacting the environment upon which we all depend, as well as actions we can take to improve and sustain it. Whether we bring nature into the classroom, take students outside to learn, or find impromptu teachable moments on a nature walk with our families, EE has many benefits for youth, educators, schools, and communities. As a long time supporter of environmental education and as an Adjunct Professor of EE at University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, it is my passion to inspire future educators in this field. Over the years, I have asked each of my classes to share the reasons they teach EE, what it means to them, and how it can benefit learners of all ages. Here are our top ten benefits of EE. Top 10 Benefits of Environmental Education 1. Imagination and enthusiasm are heightened EE is hands-on, interactive learning that sparks the imagination and unlocks creativity. When EE is integrated into the curriculum, students are more enthusiastic and engaged in learning, which raises student achievement in core academic areas. 2. Learning transcends the classroom Not only does EE offer opportunities for experiential learning outside of the classroom, it enables students to make connections and apply their learning in the real world. EE helps learners see the interconnectedness of social, ecological, economic, cultural, and political issues. 3. Critical and creative thinking skills are enhanced EE encourages students to research, investigate how and why things happen, and make their own decisions about complex environmental issues. By developing and enhancing critical and creative thinking skills, EE helps foster a new generation of informed consumers, workers, as well as policy or decision makers.
4. Tolerance and understanding are supported EE encourages students to investigate varying sides of issues to understand the full picture. It promotes tolerance of different points of view and different cultures. 5. State and national learning standards are met for multiple subjects By incorporating EE practices into the curriculum, teachers can integrate science, math, language arts, history, and more into one rich lesson or activity, and still satisfy numerous state and national academic standards in all subject areas. Taking a class outside or bringing nature indoors provides an excellent backdrop or context for interdisciplinary learning. 6. Biophobia and nature deficit disorder decline By exposing students to nature and allowing them to learn and play outside, EE fosters sensitivity, appreciation, and respect for the environment. It combats ―nature deficit disorder‖ ... and it’s FUN! 7. Healthy lifestyles are encouraged EE gets students outside and active, and helps address some of the health issues we are seeing in children today, such as obesity, attention deficit disorders, and depression. Good nutrition is often emphasized through EE and stress is reduced due to increased time spent in nature. 8. Communities are strengthened EE promotes a sense of place and connection through community involvement. When students decide to learn more or take action to improve their environment, they reach out to community experts, donors, volunteers, and local facilities to help bring the community together to understand and address environmental issues impacting their neighborhood. 9. Responsible action is taken to better the environment EE helps students understand how their decisions and actions affect the environment, builds knowledge and skills necessary to address complex environmental issues, as well as ways we can take action to keep our environment healthy and sustainable for the future. Service-learning programs offered by PLT and other EE organizations provide students and teachers with support through grants and other resources for action projects. 10.Students and teachers are empowered EE promotes active learning, citizenship, and student leadership. It empowers youth to share their voice and make a difference at their school and in their communities. EE helps teachers build their own environmental knowledge and teaching skills.
Information Sheet 8.1-2 WASTE MINIMIZATION Waste Minimization is reduction in the quantity of hazardous wastes achieved through a conscientious application of innovative or alternative procedures. Simple adjustments to a process producing wastes (e.g. a teaching lab experiment, a vehicle cleaning operation, etc.) may be the only requirement to achieve some results. However, looking at the broader picture in the University environment, it is often difficult to recognize waste reductions due to the complex and changing growth patterns within the campus community. Reductions are often offset by increased staff and student growth and/or building construction. Waste minimization often results in cost minimization. However, it is not uncommon to devise techniques to minimize costs without a corresponding reduction in waste quantities. For example, proper segregation of wastes will reduce disposal fees but only because these quantities are reassigned to more appropriate waste streams for cost effective disposal/treatment off site. While this is not technically waste minimization, it is still a beneficial process. Waste Minimization Suggestions  Substitute less hazardous chemicals or ingredients for ones you are using now. Green Alternatives Wizard - This is an MIT-developed tool made possible by an EPA People, Planet, and Prosperity grant.This database provides information on alternatives to hazardous chemicals or processes (i.e. substitute SYBR Safe, GelRed, GelGreen instead of Ethidium Bromide (a known mutagen).  Subsitute alcohol thermometers for mercury thermometers. Contact EH&S for information on the no cost exchange program.  Borrow a chemical from a colleague to conduct an investigative research trial. Contact EH&S to find out what other labs on campus might have the chemicals you need to borrow.  Test your ideas on the smallest scale practical to minimize disposal costs.  Keep your wastes segregated by compatibility and type; avoid cross contamination as much as possible.  Avoid mixing hazardous and non-hazardous wastes; avoid contaminating glassware.  Rotate chemical stock to keep chemicals from becoming outdated.  Order smallest container of material necessary for use.  Review experimental protocol to assure that chemical usage is minimized.  Take care when weighing and transferring chemicals in order to minimize spills and additional wastes generated during spill clean up.
 Neutralize hazardous by-products as the final step of an experiment (Contact EH&S 459-4840 to write a benchtop neutralization procedure as required by regulations).  Practice good housekeeping.  Distill and reuse solvents. Start your waste minimization thought process by following the proper campus hazardous waste procedures.  Keep an up-to-date chemical inventory in Chemicals.  Review your inventory periodically to remove unwanted or unusable chemical stocks.  Manage peroxide formers and dispose of them by their expiration date.  Only purchase gas cylinders from manufactures who will accept the return of the partially used or empty cylinders.  Ensure proper identification is on all chemical containers.  Attach a properly completed hazardous waste tag to each chemical waste container.  Submit the container for pickup through the WASTe Program.  Contact the Hazardous Waste Manager (459-3086) if you have any specific questions or need help with your project. Every year, millions of tons of waste are generated from both households and building construction, most of which end up in landfills with a small percentage being recycled. Thus, there is a great need for waste minimization as this will not only have a huge environmental impact but also present substantial economic and social benefits. Waste minimization entails limiting the amount of waste that is generated, thereby helping to eliminate the production of persistent and harmful wastes, effectively supporting efforts that promote a society that is sustainable. Thus, waste minimization involves a change of societal patterns that relate to production and consumption as well as redesigning products to eliminate the generation of waste. ―Waste Minimization is reduction in the quantity of hazardous wastes achieved through a conscientious application of innovative or alternative procedures. Simple adjustments to a process producing wastes (e.g. a teaching lab experiment, a vehicle cleaning operation, etc.) may be the only requirement to achieve some results. However, looking at the broader picture in the University environment, it is often difficult to recognize waste reductions due to the complex and changing growth patterns within the campus community. Reductions are often offset by increased staff and student growth and/or building construction.―