Enjoy Hockey? Watch the LA Kings Go!

The LA Kings have joined forces with Grades of Green to promote environmental action. The LA Kings Team have made serious environmental changes to help the planet. Just last month, the LA Kings celebrated the past Earth month by building edible gardens, installing solar panels, and by promoting Grades of Green’s upcoming Fall Water Campaign. In addition to their on the ground actions, they have encouraged fans to save water, conserving over 1,000,000 gallons of water on World Water Day!

Check out their blog post to see all of their environmental activities HERE.

When hockey season rolls around again in October, you’ll know who to cheer for- the environmentally active LA Kings!

Water Campaign Friendships

Two years ago, Aquatic Society of Omaha from Nebraska and St. Roza from Uganda joined our 2017 Water Campaign. These two teams met each other through the Campaign as partner teams and learned about methods to improve water quality and water conservation efforts. During the Campaign, the two teams communicated a common interest in water conservation, food security, and improving sustainable agricultural efforts. Since first meeting each other, Aquatic Society of Omaha and St. Roza have collaborated on several environmentally focused projects and have kept in contact in future Campaigns. We’re happy to see our Campaign teams get along so well!

Continued Collaboration

These veteran Grades of Green Campaign teams have continued to participate in environmental efforts together- most recently in the Pollination Project. Aquatic Society of Omaha and St. Roza are committed to learning about modern agricultural practices in order to improve agricultural efforts, learn about water dynamics in soil, and improve sustainable resource usage. Both Aquatic Society of Omaha and St. Roza are working to improve awareness and solutions for water issues by researching the impact of water scarcity and by working on food growing units. By improving food growing aspects in incremental steps, the teams are improving water and quality by incorporating water testing and soil testing kits into food growing units while taking action on other agricultural measure. Other innovations include adding nets to the bottom of food growing units to prevent pests from attacking food roots and adding enriched soils to these kits.

Join the Water Campaign!

Want to join teams like Aquatic Society of Omaha and St. Roza in fighting water issues around the world? Feel free to join us in our next Water Campaign here!

Who knows? Maybe you’ll find a great partner team to collaborate too!

Grades of Green was featured in South Bay Magazine!

The Southern Californian magazine highlighted Grades of Green student efforts in communities, local governments, and beyond. Co-Executive Directors, Allie and Emily go on to talk about how Grades of green started and how much the programs have expanded. In the article, Allie mentions Grades of Green’s humble beginnings, stating:

“[Grades of Green] was an idea from a group of passionate parents who really wanted to work with their young children and the peers of their children to help them learn some environmental habits they could carry with them for a long time,” says Allie. “It started off with the idea of engaging students in simple habits like turning off the water when brushing your teeth or using both sides of paper before recycling it. It evolved from students not only wanting to practice those habits but also lead environmental projects and activities in their communities.”

Click here to read the rest!

St. Roza and their Water Campaign

St. Roza, a veteran Grades of Green Team from Uganda and winner of the first Water Campaign, has joined us once again for this semester’s 2018 Water Campaign. The team has made incredible accomplishments in recent years. For the first Campaign, they have installed a water filtration system to maximize water efficiency for their garden. In addition, they used their well-earned prize money from the first Water Campaign to build a 40,000 liter well for their school and their community!

St. Roza’s Grades of Green Team has been looking into ways to solve their community’s water issues. In Uganda, 61% of Ugandans lack access to safe drink water. In addition, the nation’s tropical climate creates distinctive periods of rain and drought- known as wet and dry seasons. This can make water conservation and water quality efforts more difficult to manage. After building their 40,000 liter well, St. Roza has managed to address the water conservation portion and are looking into ways to keep their hard earned water in good quality. Without centralized water infrastructure, people in Uganda have to be creative and resourceful when it comes to safe drinking water.

Water Facts!

Let’s check out a few water facts to learn how to be resourceful with our own water!

1) The average global footprint for daily activities per person is about 3400 liters of water.

2) The average American diet alone uses up about 3785 liters of water a day.

3) Nearly 22% of indoor home water water use comes from doing laundry.

4) 80% of all diseases in developing nations are related to lack of safe water for drinking and sanitation.

5) Activated charcoal is an ingredient used in many water filters. It can absorb nutrients and other chemicals from water sources due to its extremely high surface area.

Do you have any water facts and tips? Share with us on Instagram @gradesofgreen

A Leader Returns

Younes, a Water Campaign alumni and Youth Environmental leadership Winner has returned for the 2018 Fall Water Campaign. Younes now leads his team of 34 students and counting in Morocco at George Washington Academy.

Last year, George Washington Academy’s Campaign Team fought to reduce plastic bottle usage at his school. The team conducted several activities, including a bottle drive, a taste-test competition between the school’s tap water versus bottled water, and hosted an environmental conference at the school to educate the entire school body about environmental issues and solutions.

Today, Younes met with Grades of Green Mentor, Jordan, to discuss the first steps of this year’s Water Campaign! With the team’s activism and enthusiasm, we foresee great things from the team and we can’t wait to find out their solutions and videos for this year!

Students and teachers at St. Roza in Uganda are taking initiative to help conserve the environment. Today we Skyped with the incredible students who are already planting trees around their community and neighborhoods, filtering drinking water and much more. Several students are members of Wildlife Club at their school whose motto is to ‘conserve nature’. Kids of all ages are being encouraged to conserve water by harvesting rainwater and reducing water misuse. So far, students at St. Roza have concluded that the majority of water in their community is used for home chores such as for cooking, cleaning, toiletry, and irrigation. After making this assessment, students are currently focused on finding innovative ways to cut down water usage for household activities! St. Roza is part of Grades of Green’s Water Challenge Pilot Program. Keep up with the students at St. Roza by referring to our blog. You can also follow in St. Roza’s footsteps by registering here and utilizing Grades of Green’s Earth Tips to spread the word on campus!

Do you love teaching about our forests in urban environments? Do citizen science projects tickle your fancy? If you are a K-12 educator or teacher in the Greater Los Angeles region, this could be your chance to acquire a grant ($400-$800) for piloting and sharing your lesson plans involving hands-on urban forestry activities. The Earthwatch Institute is offering several grants for lesson plans using the materials developed by its Urban Resiliency Program.

Start small, think big: native, drought-resistant gardens are one way to impact urban environments and increase resiliency at a smaller level of green space. Grades of Green’s “Drought Tolerant Garden” activity is an interactive lesson in water conservation, soil sustainable practices (for example, lowering pesticides and fertilizers used), and local biodiversity enrichment.

Lesson proposals are due by October 3, 2016, but keep in mind that the proposal should have pilot lessons plans for implementation in the classroom setting before February 1, 2017. The urban resiliency lesson plan should include an activity that collects urban tree data for analysis in the classroom. Apply here.

For more information about the grant, check out this document!

Need help tending your school’s garden? You can empower your students for caring about the environment by assembling a Grades of Green Team to work on a variety of green activities.