23.08.2021

7th grade student develops a project to reduce paper consumption

By Bruna Cronfli 

Beatriz, a 7th grade student (Y7), observing the issue of sustainability, voluntarily decided to measure the use of paper by students at the school. By collecting much information and performing significant analysis, she prepared a presentation which had details on consumption, reasons for reducing use and alternative proposals to physical notebooks.

“The reason I created this presentation is because I believe Beacon is consuming too much paper. A single year (Y7) consumes 41, 760 thousand sheets annually. If all grades use as many sheets as Y7, that would mean Beacon is consuming 542,880,000 notebook pages annually (and that number does not include grammar books, textbooks, workbooks, reading books or library books). If included in the calculations, the estimate would be a consumption of about 1.5 million pages per year. It’s a very big number! In perspective, to have all these pages, 3,000 trees would have to be cut down. So, what can we do about this?” asks the student, in one of her project slides.

Beatriz also explains  that there are other reasons that led her to think about it, besides the trees that are felled. This entire chain can affect the climate and even cause the extinction of some species of wild animals. The student also includes the weight of the backpacks with the use of physical notebooks as a factor to be considered.

Beatriz suggests the use of “online notebooks” as an alternative to the excessive consumption of paper. According to her, even the sharing of information would be facilitated, besides organizing and concentrating projects in a single place. 

The student has already been invited to publicize her project in other classes, establish a partnership with the Coordination of the segment and also with the school’s Communication area. In addition, the school made her a room to participate in meetings with Beacon’s sustainability advisor, Reconnectta, in order to keep her informed and engaged in other projects in favor of the environment.