Being Green: Eco-friendly Child Care
Little Green Tree House is an eco-friendly child care center; the first in the Chicago land area which promotes a message of positive worldly consciousness and modern learning. Our professional teachers coupled with an eco-friendly environment facilitate the optimal growth and development of the whole child. Each child’s potential will be nurtured to build a strong foundation for their future as well as the future of our world. Building healthy relationships with each other and our world is emphasized. Each child will be given the opportunity to grow and learn efficiently and build a strong foundation for their future.
In the development stages of building both of our schools, special attention was paid to the materials that were used. From the Low VOC paint on all the walls to the flooring, to the lighting, special measures were taken to use recycled materials as well as conserve energy.
In the classrooms all of our furniture has been purchased through a company called Community Playthings. Community Playthings is a company that is committed to environmental protection and uses only FSC certified maple in the production of all of their products. We take special care to purchase toys that are PVC and BPA free. We use Green Guard Certified mattresses in the cribs that all the babies sleep in with organic crib sheets and organic cot sheets for the older children.
All food provided to children at Little Green Tree House comes from HOK (Healthy Organic Kids), a catering company that is committed to being as organic and locally sourced as possible. This company does their part by purchasing as much as they can from local organic farms. All food is served to the children using stainless steel cups, plates, bowls and serving utensils to avoid unnecessary waste.
One of our largest conservation efforts comes from the use of cloth diapers on all the children who are not potty trained. We strongly believe that keeping what would be an extremely excessive amount of disposable diapers out of landfills is a huge benefit to the environment. Our diapers are sanitized and washed off-site by our diaper-service company (Green Lil’ Bums).
Every Spring and Summer, our children help the teachers plant and manage our organic raised beds. We also talk about recycling and reusing items at school and home. The teachers include eco-friendly lesson plans several times a year in their classroom’s curriculum. It is also the job of our teachers to educate the children on a daily basis on what it means to respect our world. We believe if the children start out at a young age in an environment that is earth-conscious, they will carry that with them into their older years and make a difference to the quality of life on our planet.
Each location of Little Green Tree House practices composting to help decrease food materials in the landfill and water supply. We teach our children what is and isn’t compostable and why composting is kind to our environment, so that they have a better sense of community involvement and care of our planet.