Monday, February 23, 2009
Greenfox News
- Read an interview with Kristen von Hoffmann as she discusses Greenfox Schools for Ecopreneurist in Reenita Malhotra’s article, “Greenfox Schools: Greening the Obama Generation.”
- Greenfox Kids! Magazine is debuting in April. The magazine provides articles on sustainability for grades 3-7 using the Greenfox5 as a teaching tool. It provides games and lesson plans for teachers and parents. The magazine is paid for by sponsors, and is free for schools.
- If you are interested in receiving issues for your class, or sponsoring an ad in the magazine, please e-mail kvh@greenfoxschools.com
- Greenfox is recruiting interns for the spring and summer. Interships are part-time, unpaid. If you or someone you know is interested in applying, please e-mail cs@greenfoxschools.com. Note: interns do not need to be based in the Boston area.
- Greenfox recently had the opportunity to try Eco-Canteens: safe, eco-friendly, and reusable stainless steel water bottles. They are excellent for both children and adults, and can easily be taken to school. Check them out here.
A Closer Look at Public Transportation
Good for the Environment, Good for the Soul
As president of a green company, I advocate for the use of public and alternative transportation as a means of reducing our carbon footprint, and encourage schools to do the same. Choosing sustainable travel greatly impacts both the Energy and Greenspace categories of the Greenfox5.
But, in a more personal way, I can also advocate for public transportation because it has always had special meaning for me.
I think that in choosing public transportation we might also consider what our experience riding the train, subway, or bus means to us.
By making that connection, we may realize that there is a positive aspect to riding the bus, say, because we actually like it.
Kristen von Hoffmann in the classroom
Every once in awhile my mom would let me miss school to come to work with her.
As a four-year-old, I remember taking the train with her from Montclair, New Jersey, into Penn Station, New York; a ride that took about 25 minutes and made several stops along the way.
At the time I had a purple lunchbox with rainbow hearts on it, and I’d pack this lunchbox with things like pencils, erasers, and a pad: an assortment of tools that I would happily unpack once we got to her office—an architectural firm with grey wall-to-wall rugs and lots of natural light in a building many stories high. She worked at a drawing board on an exposed 2nd-floor loft where I could spread my things out, and look out over the architects working below.
In the space between home and destination, I remember the force of the train rushing alongside the platform where we’d be waiting. I would squeeze tight my mom’s hand as I squinted against the wind, squealing wheels, and fuel smell. I felt small and exhilarated at the same time.
On the train I’d slip around on the plastic seats, excited to open my “lunchbox” and mostly, to get my mom to myself for the day.
Since then, I’ve ridden many trains, subways, and buses, everywhere from New York, New Jersey, Boston, and San Francisco to London and Paris. I’ve ridden public transportation to commute to work, for trips, and simply to get from one place to another.
In college, I rode the Metro-North train between New Haven and New York.
Then, as now, I always look forward to riding the train. There is a feeling of being connected and separate at the same time. I feel at once very independent, and also connected to something greater than myself: humanity and the spirit of people all around me.
On the Metro-North trips in college, I’d take care to get ready for these trips, and to consider what I was packing. I wanted to look my best.
The train ride was a half-way place where I wasn’t on campus, and I wasn’t at my destination either. I was not responsible to anyone but myself, and could work, relax, listen to music, and watch the trees and estuaries pass by for an hour and forty minutes.
There was something exhilarating about leaving behind the regularities, comfort, and even boredom of campus life, and breaking away. The anticipation was something like my excitement waiting for the train as a four-year-old.
Sometimes I made these trips as much for the sake of traveling as for reaching my destination. Sitting on the train, caught in the comfortable place of moving in one direction, independent yet surrounded by people, I could reflect on who I was in a space unlike anywhere else.
Now, as a resident of Massachusetts, I do a lot of walking, and also ride the T and bus often. I love being in the mix of people, and, while I admit that the cons of public transportation are overcrowding, florescent lights, and waiting, when I think of all the positive experiences I’ve had in transit, I am grateful that it exists.
-Kristen von Hoffmann
Posted by kvonhoffmann 