On April 17th, Grades of Green Youth Corps Eco-Leadership student Grace C. reduced many footprints- carbon footprints that is! Grace C., a sophomore at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, taught the Boys and Girls after school program from St. Anne’s a Grades of Green Eco-lesson on Reducing Your Carbon Footprint. Over 40 underprivileged students learned about greenhouse gases, the carbon cycle, and how to make a smaller environmental impact on the earth. Did you know that using a screen saver on the computer everyday (instead of turning the power off) will make 3 lbs of CO2? Turning on the lights in your room (and then forgetting to turn them off when you go to school) for 6 hours a day will make 2 lbs of CO2? And taking a bath uses up to 3 lbs of CO2? (A 5-minute shower would use only 1 lb). By reducing our carbon footprint, we can help with the problem of global warming. There are simple things we can do, and the students at St. Anne’s learned how to do, to reduce our carbon use. Students learned that it is better to take a shorter shower, turn off the lights, compost, use reusable containers, and many other tips to help the earth! Grace also played a fun game with them to visually show them how to reduce their footprint. They were all very inspired and educated on how to create a healthier environment. Way to go, Grace! Interested in participating in the 2017-2018 Youth Corps Eco-Leadership program? Applications will be available at the end of May on our website at www.gradesofgreen.org.

On October 10th, two Grades of Green Youth Corps students, Lauren S. and Annemarie D., taught Leadership Manhattan Beach a thing or two about how to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle.  Leadership Manhattan Beach, a local organization, hosted a special class where numerous environmental groups educated the members about the local habitat. Since the mission of Grades of Green is to inspire and empower kids and the broader school community, we decided that the best teachers would be our very own students. Lauren S., a sophomore at Mira Costa High School, has been on the Youth Corps since its inception, six years ago. She quizzed participants to see just how big their carbon footprint was-some had pretty big environmental impacts- and then showed them ways to reduce their environmental footprint. Annemarie, a junior at Marlborough High School, has been on the Youth Corps for five years. She gave an intriguing lesson on healthy dirt, i.e. compost!  Leadership Manhattan Beach was inspired and impressed all while learning a few things about ways to live a cleaner, greener, lifestyle!