Middle School Grades of Green student leaders Leslie and Mariana from Long Beach, CA wanted to help their school conserve water, so they set out to install a rain barrel on campus to collect rain water! To install a rain barrel, they first had to raise money to purchase the rain barrel. These rockstar students decided to host “Recycling Fridays” to collect bottles and cans to be redeemed for money. Every week, they encouraged their peers and community to bring in their recyclable bottles and cans. After a few months, they eventually raised enough money to purchase their rain barrel and even had extra money to spare, which was used to support the school garden!




Next, Leslie and Mariana wanted to create a sign to educate their campus on the purpose of their rain barrel. Using a free graphic design website called Canva, they were able to create a professional-looking sign that informed their campus of what a rain barrel is and how they conserve water. Way to go Leslie and Mariana!



Interested in implementing a water project, like installing a rain barrel, in your community? Check out Grades of Green’s Water Campaign, and click here to register today!

Grades of Green is proud to congratulate the exceptional students who participated in the Los Angeles 2017-2018 Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program! Over the weekend 200 students, family members, and community members gathered for our Environmental Expo to conclude the year. The celebration took place was generously hosted by our partners at Subaru Pacific in Hawthorne. The event included delicious vegetarian pizzas and salads, an ice cream cart, a photo booth, games, live music, a DJ, and science -fair style booth presentations from each  Youth Corps Eco-Leader showcasing the Grades of Green Activity they implemented over the past year. In the past nine months, Youth Corps leaders have accomplished some amazing environmental feats including installing rain barrels on campus, rolling out e-waste drives, teaching Eco-Lessons in their classrooms and more.




Each student was presented with a certificate of recognition from Grades of Green, as well as a certificate from their respective Los Angeles County District office. Six Youth Corps student groups were even awarded a $100 scholarship from Subaru Pacific to continue and expand their Grades of Green Activities. These six student groups were voted as Crowd Favorite, Most Impressive Metrics, Best Community Builder, Most Persistent, Strong Leadership Skills, and Most Creative Display. To top it all off, the Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program was honored to be presented with a check of over $10,000 from Subaru’s Share the Love event! To check out photos from the celebration, click here!




This year’s Youth Corps Eco-Leaders are leading the way in environmental stewardship, and we could not be more proud! Thank you to the incredible sponsors who help us make this program possible: Arconic Foundation, City of Santa Monica,    County of Los Angeles 4th District,  Subaru Pacific, LAcarGUY, Beach Cities Health District, Continental Development Corporation, and Klean Kanteen!

Are you interested in leading a Grades of Green program at your school or in your community? Email info@gradesofgreen.org for more information on how you can get involved in our global Waste and Water Campaigns!

 

As the school year comes to an end, Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leaders are starting to get recognized by their schools and communities for all of their Grades of Green eco-activities that they began implementing back in the fall. Grades of Green Eco-Leaders Johanna and Averie from Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica and Noah and Braeden from St. Marks School in Venice were recently recognized for their leadership by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl from the LA County Board of Supervisors 3rd District. Johanna educated her community on ocean pollution solutions, Averie is working to ban plastic water bottles on campus, and Noah and Braeden reduced their school’s waste by 75%!  Check out the article by clicking here (also available here)!


Interested in leading a waste or water campaign in your school or community? Email info@gradesofgreen.org for information on how Grades of Green can support you!

Grades of Green  Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program students participated in their first meet-up of the year at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Eco-Leaders were guided through a leadership workshop, and then discussed their next steps in their chosen Grades of Green Activity. The theme of the day was creating a vision, which included a session on crafting goals to meet each student’s vision for their activity. Of course, everyone got to go on a tour to explore the beautiful arboretum, and to check out the peacocks roaming the property! Take a look at photos from the afternoon here.

Thank you to the incredible sponsors who help us make this program possible:  City of Santa Monica,  County of Los Angeles 3rd district, County of Los Angeles 4th district,  Arconic Foundation, Continental Development, Subaru Pacific, Klean Kanteen, Fresh Brothers, and Grow.

Are you a student who is ready to take on a Grades of Green Activity in your school, but you don’t live in Los Angeles? Not to worry; Grades of Green offers support to students across the globe! You can schedule a meeting with one of our Advisors anytime by clicking here.

There is no better community event for Grades of Green than one focused on students! This week we attended two events in our community. Youth Corps eco-leader Leslie educated and inspired nearly one hundred teens and adults at Marine Teen Night at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. She used Grades of Green’s Eco-Wheel to teach Aquarium guests interesting water, waste, toxins, energy, air, and earth facts. Many students were also interested in getting their school involved in Grades of Green’s Water Challenge, which is a great way to engage teens in environmental issues affecting their local water supply.

The Grades of Green team also hosted a short workshop with Amigos Unidos Manhattan Beach to train their teen volunteers on how to inspire and empower their peers to care for the environment. Twenty volunteers learned about the importance of waste reduction as well as simple things they could be doing to help care for the environment including reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting.

Are you inspired to care for the environment? Grades of Green is currently recruiting schools from across the globe to join our Spring 2018 Water Challenge! For more info, email us at info@gradesofgreen.org today.

On October 11, 2017, the California Coastal Commission unanimously passed Jr Ocean Guardians’ Resolution declaring November as No Straw November. The efforts were forefronted by founder, 16 year old high school junior, Shelby O’Neil! Way to go, Shelby!

Here’s Youth Corps Student Johanna’s essay on going straw-less!

I am Johanna, a 13 year old student at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, California. I have a passion for the environment, and for working to keep it healthy. In addition to being a part of the Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program, some of my spare time goes to working with Heal the Bay to fulfill this interest. I have helped volunteer at multiple beach cleanups, and I always notice that there is an incredible amount plastics, which contains an awful lot of straws. “In the past 15 years, Heal the Bay volunteers have removed nearly 100,000 plastic straws and stirrers from LA County’s beaches and watersheds” (Heal the Bay’s Marine Debris Database). And that’s only found on the sand. Many more straws and other plastics end up in the ocean. Many animals which live in the ocean mistake pieces of plastic for food. Plastic drinking straws can also get stuck in sea animals nostrils, which could cause the animal to not breathe well. Using straws has become an instinct when we go out to eat. We are automatically given a straw, and even though we are perfectly capable of sipping from a glass, it is natural to use a straw when we have the option. If customers and even employees really knew what simply using a straw could do, the decision to decline using a straw would start to become natural. After all, it is what we do at home! “Plastic straws and stirrers are the Number 7 most common item found on beaches worldwide on International Coastal Cleanup Day…” (Planet Experts: Open Letter to Starbucks). Who made straws number 7? We did. Who can change that? With the help of merchants we change change our mentality towards seeing straws as plastic pollution. Plastic Pollution Coalition recommends customers only be given straws by request, and further, the straws should be reusable such as stainless steel, or easily biodegradable such as paper based. The Last Plastic Straw states, “500 million straws are used and discarded every day in the United States alone. That’s 175 billion a year filtering into landfills (environment) and littering our waterways and oceans”. When we look at it this way it seems that we really have to try to skip the straw, or use compostable or reusable straws when we are out to eat.

 

 

Grades of Green welcomed 55 passionate students to our 7th annual Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program this past Sunday, October 1st, at Orientation Day. Each year 4th-12th grade students in the greater Los Angeles area are invited to apply to the Youth Corps. After carefully reviewing all applicants, an elite group of students are selected, where each student is committed to rolling out a Grades of Green Activity of their choice throughout the school year.

Orientation day is the first time the group gets to meet each other, and get ready for a great year. This jam packed afternoon included Grades of Green’s Jeopardy game, where students could learn all about the different  Grades of Green Activities, small group discussions on picking the perfect activity, a parent and student orientation presentation, a meatless, trash free lunch, and more. To check out the photos from Orientation Day, click here!

Thank you to the incredible sponsors who help us make this program possible:  City of Santa Monica,  County of Los Angeles 3rd district, County of Los Angeles 4th district,  Arconic Foundation, Continental Development, Subaru Pacific, Klean Kanteen, Fresh Brothers, and Grow.

Are you a student who is ready to take on a Grades of Green Activity in your school, but you don’t live in Los Angeles? Not to worry; Grades of Green offers Advisors who can support any student from anywhere in the world! Email us at info@gradesofgreen.org to begin working with your personal Advisor today.

Last month over 23,000 lbs of trash was collected from California beaches in honor of Coastal Cleanup Day – that’s about the weight of two adult killer whales!  The California Coastal Commission hosts a Coastal Cleanup Day event every year to help clean up different beaches across California. This year’s event attracted over 9,663 volunteers. Grades of Green joined in on the action at Dockweiler Beach by recruiting UCLA Environmental Law Society students and other Grades of Green supporters. Even Youth Corps Eco-Leadership students Lauren S., Penn C., and Carter C. rolled up their sleeves to rid the beach of pollutants.




Grades of Green volunteers mobilized and spent the morning  filling up buckets with trash found at the beach. The usual suspects – cigarette butts, plastic straws, and food wrappers – were all collected by volunteers. Similarly, polystyrene pieces, the tiny culprits from foam cups and containers, were found all along the shores of our beautiful beaches. Although it was disheartening to find so much trash in our beaches, we are grateful that so many Grades of Green and other volunteers were inspired to come out and help restore 54 miles of beaches to their natural beauty. Grades of Green volunteers were thanked for their hard work with eco-friendly bathbombs that were donated by Lush.



Are you interested in taking a stand against polystyrene? Click here to learn how you can help reduce polystyrene use in your community. Are you inspired to implement eco-activities in your school or community? Click here to join our webinar on October 12 to learn how you can start an environmental movement at your school or community!

I am Johanna, a 13 year old student at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, California. I have a passion for the environment, and for working to keep it healthy. In addition to being a part of the Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program, some of my spare time goes to working with Heal the Bay to fulfill this interest. I have helped volunteer at multiple beach cleanups, and I always notice that there is an incredible amount plastics, which contains an awful lot of straws. “In the past 15 years, Heal the Bay volunteers have removed nearly 100,000 plastic straws and stirrers from LA County’s beaches and watersheds” (Heal the Bay’s Marine Debris Database). And that’s only found on the sand. Many more straws and other plastics end up in the ocean. Many animals which live in the ocean mistake pieces of plastic for food. Plastic drinking straws can also get stuck in sea animals nostrils, which could cause the animal to not breathe well. Using straws has become an instinct when we go out to eat. We are automatically given a straw, and even though we are perfectly capable of sipping from a glass, it is natural to use a straw when we have the option. If customers and even employees really knew what simply using a straw could do, the decision to decline using a straw would start to become natural. After all, it is what we do at home! “Plastic straws and stirrers are the Number 7 most common item found on beaches worldwide on International Coastal Cleanup Day…” (Planet Experts: Open Letter to Starbucks). Who made straws number 7? We did. Who can change that? With the help of merchants we change change our mentality towards seeing straws as plastic pollution. Plastic Pollution Coalition recommends customers only be given straws by request, and further, the straws should be reusable such as stainless steel, or easily biodegradable such
as paper based. The Last Plastic Straw states, “500 million straws are used and discarded every day in the United States alone. That’s 175 billion a year filtering into landfills (environment) and littering our waterways and oceans”. When we look at it this way it seems that we really have to try to skip the straw, or use compostable or reusable straws when we are out to eat.

Interested in taking the pledge to skip the straw? Click here to learn more about Heal the Bay’s Strawless Summer Campaign.

Want to become an eco-leader like Johanna? Click here to learn about Grades of Green’s Youth Corps Eco-Leadership Program!

Want to help protect California’s coast? Click here to learn how you can join Grades of Green and Heal the Bay at Coastal Cleanup Day 2017.