Vision

We wanted to work on finding practical, ongoing ways to reduce our carbon footprint as a school. We decided to take a number of actions to engage our school community, including Kindergarten-Grade 8 students, along with staff and the parent and family community members. We engaged stakeholders such as the City of Burlington, Safe Streets Halton, TerraCycle and Staples, and more!

Action

– promote and support a year-long walk to school campaign with particular interest in increasing engagement during the winter months
– run a school-wide waste audit in the fall to engage everyone in the school community in identifying cross-contamination in our waste stream, educating staff and students on proper use of our green/blue/and garbage bins, and offer strategies and ideas to reduce overall waste output
– to collect writing tools that are used up to recycle through TerraCycle to keep plastics out of the landfill
– run an “Anti-Idling” campaign to hand out swag and information about the harmful actions associated with long-term vehicle idling to inform and encourage our parent/family community to turn off their engines while they wait for students to be dismissed
– to run a Waste Reduction Contest as part of our Earth Month celebration to revisit/remind/promote the importance of proper waste sorting and waste reduction; promotion of litter-free lunches
– run a curriculum showcase “Eco Night” where students can share projects and learning about the environment, climate action, and the UN SDGs

Reflection & Celebration

It has been an incredibly busy year! We have definitely seen an increase in engagement this year with our sustainability initiatives, and have seen a positive increase in student and staff engagement. We’ve noticed parents asking questions, turning off cars, and working to pack litter-free lunches. We still have work to do, but we are getting there!