By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Cranbury School’s attempts to go green caught the eye of a statewide nonprofit that promotes good stewardship of the environment.
The school was recognized in September by Sustainable Jersey with a bronze certification, one of 91 schools the organization recognized around New Jersey with either silver or bronze status and one of four schools in Middlesex County.
A plaque honoring the school sits in the main office greeting visitors.
Cranbury does things a little different. Staff and students do yoga; there is a garden that grows carrots and other vegetables, and there are plans for building a greenhouse out of water bottles. In each classroom, there is a blue recycling bucket; janitorial staff use “green” cleaning products and there are water-refilling stations in the gym and the cafeteria.
“It’s not like we came in and said, ‘Ok, we’re going to do Sustainable Jersey for Schools,’ ” said Theresa Vaccaro, a member of the town’s environmental commission who has a son attending the school. “It was more that we wanted to up the wellness and sustainability within the school. And Sustainable Jersey gave us a really good framework to work on projects and keeping in mind the big picture of the areas that would be good to work on.”
The road to becoming recognized by Sustainable Jersey goes back to when it had received a donated rain barrel three years ago.
“So the objective was to turn it into a (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) project,” said Susan Shiffman, the enrichment specialist at the school, who has the barrel in her classroom.
From there, she said, it evolved to a creating an aquaponics system, in which fish and plants work together, in the school cafeteria.
“The plants clean, filter the water for the fish, and then the fish feed the plants,” Vaccaro said.
The school is not resting on its laurels. In looking to the future, there are goals to reduce energy use, recycle more, compost food waste and eliminate Styrofoam food trays. But Vaccaro said that since the dishwasher is “so old,” the school cannot switch to reusable trays.
“We have big visions,” said Shiffman, “but it’s taking very small steps.”