Making a Green Schoolyard Out of Natural Building Materials

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In “Asphalts to Ecosystems,” author Sharon Gamson Danks explores the ways schoolyards are transforming into energy efficient educational facilities.
In “Asphalts to Ecosystems,” author Sharon Gamson Danks explores the ways schoolyards are transforming into energy efficient educational facilities.
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This amphitheater at Commodore Sloat Elementary School in San Francisco, California, used natural building materials—large eucalyptus logs, which fell during a storm—to create seating tiers.
This amphitheater at Commodore Sloat Elementary School in San Francisco, California, used natural building materials—large eucalyptus logs, which fell during a storm—to create seating tiers.
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This whimsical teepee at Malcolm X School in Berkeley, California, is made from 12-foot long bamboo poles, which are two inches long in diameter.
This whimsical teepee at Malcolm X School in Berkeley, California, is made from 12-foot long bamboo poles, which are two inches long in diameter.

In Asphalt to Ecosystems (New Village Press, 2014), author Sharon Gamson Danks shares some of her knowledge about increasing the use of renewable energy in schools around the United States and around the world. Her methods are not only energy efficient, but they serve to educate the children within the schools as well. This excerpt, which explains how using natural resources can create an environmentally friendly school yard, is from Chapter 8, “Ecologically Sensitive Materials for Schoolyard Landscapes.”

Buy this book from the MOTHER EARTH NEWS store: Asphalt to Ecosystems.

Wood as a Natural Building Material

Wood is one of the most versatile, natural building materials for schoolyards. It can be incorporated in its roughest forms—as stumps, logs, branches, twigs, and mulch, and in its more refined form—as milled lumber. Some green schoolyards include entire trees, downed in a storm or felled by disease, as ornamental play elements. Others use portions of tree trunks, large branches, and sturdy twigs, obtained from local arborists or cut onsite, in their outdoor seating areas, stairways, and pathways.

Standard milled lumber and unprocessed logs can be purchased from many places. Look for local, sustainably harvested lumber, if possible. In my area, for example, reasonably priced, sustainably harvested dimensional lumber can be purchased from an urban mill that specializes in creating lumber from trees that local arborists remove from our region. Local arborists are also good sources for logs, branches, mulch or other wood products; often they would rather donate these materials to schools than pay a fee to dump them at a landfill.

  • Published on Oct 17, 2014
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