green Archives | Grades of Green

QUARANTINE DOESN’T HAVE TO MEAN THAT ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION IS CANCELLED!

“This month, Grades of Green launched the bingo challenge with LASAN, was featured on the South Bay Eco Festival with LASAN, had a Grades of Green student honored with the “President’s Environmental Youth Award,” and shared our student’s work and pitches on Instagram!

BINGO CHALLENGE:

Grades of Green is partnering with LA Sanitation & Environment (LASAN) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day by challenging Los Angeles families to reduce their impact on the environment by improving their waste footprint!”

Click HERE to Join in on the Fun!

PRESIDENT’S ENVIRONMENTAL YOUTH AWARD

Justin from the Parallel Projects received the EPA’s “President’s Environmental Youth Award.” He has created a global network of passionate students wanting to make a difference by reducing their waste through upcycling. Last year, Justin and his friend Perise in Cameroon transformed nearly 8,000 plastic bottles into useful projects! For all their hard work and impact, Justin and the Parallel Projects were also the recipients of one of the Eco-Grants from our last campaign!

Read About Ways to Stay Environmentally Active HERE!

We hope that you all stay safe and sustainable!

Need a New Sustainable Recipe This Summer?

Try making Elote Corn! This savory and refreshing dish is perfect for a summer day!

Ingredients:

4 ears of corn

1/3 cup of sour cream / Mexican crema

1/3 cup of mayonnaise (you can substitute with vegan mayonnaise)

1 teaspoon of ancho chili powder

1 teaspoon of cumin

1 tablespoons of finely minced cilantro (optional)

1/2 cup of crumbled cotija cheese (optional)

1 teaspoon of Kosher salt

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (if grilling)

1 pot of water (if boiling)

1 Lime

Instructions:

– In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, sour cream, most of the chili pepper, most of the cumin powder, and the 1 teaspoon of salt. The remaining chili powder and cumin will be used to garnish the corn at the end. Set aside.

– Prepare the crumbled cotija cheese and cilantro, these ingredients will be used to garnish the corn at the end.

Grilled Corn

– Brush grill grate with vegetable oil. Heat grill to high heat. Place corn directly on the grill. Grill corn, turning occasionally until cooked and lightly charred for about 10 minutes.

OR
Boiled Corn

– Boil your peeled corn for 10 minutes. After boiling, carefully remove and pat dry.

– Brush the corn with the mayonnaise and sour cream mixture.

– Sprinkle the cotija cheese crumbles (optional), chili powder mixture, and cilantro (optional) in that order.

– Squeeze lime over the corn and serve immediately.

Extra Tip!
You can cut the corn off the cobs and serve with spoonfuls of the mayonnaise /sour cream mixture and serve as a side-dish with other foods!

From April 22-26, students at Bryant Ranch Elementary participated in a school wide Earth Week campaign which was proudly sponsored by the school’s Green Team. Activities included a week-long trash-free lunch program, a free student-led Eco-craft focusing on paper waste reduction, and environmentally friendly participation prizes.

During the week, students were encouraged to bring in reusable water bottles, reusable lunch containers, reusable napkins, reusable forks/spoons, reusable lunch bags and other earth-friendly ideas. Supervisors were on hand to reward students who participated with special Earth Week Brag Cards. Over 300 students participated each day.

On Thursday, April 25, the Green Team explained how to re-purpose gently used paper into beautiful origami shapes. This Eco-craft was held during both lunches, so all students (1st through 5th grade) had the opportunity to participate. Students learned that re-purposing or “up-cycling” paper is a less expensive option to recycling paper. Participants re-purposed paper into origami hearts.

At the end of the week, those students who earned “brag cards” for performing environmentally friendly actions were able to redeem prizes. Prizes for Earth Week participation were donated from several local agencies including the City of Irvine, Orange County Fire Authority, Orange County Water District, and Southern California Edison.

Students at Bryant Ranch Elementary actively participated in the Earth Week activities, and enjoyed learning how to help save our planet.

Bryant Ranch Elementary School’s Green Team operates a daily waste awareness program. Green Team members assist other students sorting food waste (for compost), recycling plastic and aluminum waste, and re-using unopened items (for the Second Harvest Food bank.) To date, they have sorted waste from over 50,000 lunches.

Join The Water Campaign!

Want to make a difference like Bryant Ranch students? Join us this Fall in our Water Campaign to prevent single-use plastics from hurting our precious water sources by clicking HERE!

Craving sushi but worried about the sustainability of seafood?

Miss your favorite fish, but can’t make the dish?

Don’t fear, we have a solution for you!

Here is a sustainable fish dish to satisfy your sushi cravings. This branzino (also known as Branzini, Mediterranean seabass, European seabass) ceviche is perfect for 2 people as a dish or for 4 people as an appetizer!

Ingredients:

– 1 lb Branzino filleted (use the freshest fish possible, if it smells fishy, don’t use it!)

– 1 to 1 1/2 tspn coarse kosher non-iodized salt (Note: use less salt if using fine salt)

– 4 to 8 ounces of lime juice

– 1/2 a small red onion

– 1 ounce of cilantro or micro cilantro sprouts (optional)

Instructions:

– chop the red onion into thin slices

– Dice the branzino into bite sized cubes

– Place the red onion slices and branzino into a bowl

– Add salt into the bowl and stir the mixture with a spoon. Stir well for 10-20 seconds

– Add the lime juice into the mixture

– Adjust the salt for taste

– top with cilantro

If you want to learn more about sustainable fish options, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium guide to seafood.

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’s First Waste Campaign a Major Success

This new Campaign included 80 teams from 77 cities and 13 countries. Collectively, Grades of Green Waste Campaign teams diverted over 229,000 pounds of waste (114 tons) from the landfill and educated over 25,000 leaders and community members around the world! These numbers will continue to grow as the student teams expand on their waste reduction projects.

We are proud to announce the 2019 Spring Waste Campaign Finalist Campaign Teams, who achieved exceptional results. Please watch and share their campaign videos to get inspired by their innovative waste solutions.

Mira Costa High School (California)

Mira Costa’s team led 3 beach clean ups in their community during the month of March. They recruited volunteers by reaching out to their community through social media and local news outlets. The team educated participants about the effects of plastic and litter in our oceans and on our marine life. The result of the 3 beach clean-ups was about 250 lbs of trash; crushing their goal of 100 lbs. The team plans to continue hosting beach clean ups once per month. See their video HERE.

Human Environmental and Animal Rights Club at CAMS (California)

The HEAR Club at CAMS high school was driven by the knowledge that people, on average, throw out 70 lbs of clothes every year and that the textile industry is the second highest contributor of waste. This team hosted several used-clothing drives as well as workshops that taught others how to upcycle used garments. They exceeded their goal to collect 10 bags during the clothing drives by collecting 11 bags. Some clothes were donated and some were upcycled into new garments. See their video HERE.

Whitney High School (California)

At Whitney, the Waste Campaign Team members recognized that everyday a considerable amount of food waste was going to the landfill. By implementing a compost collection at lunchtime, the team collected about 30 lbs of food waste to put into their tumbler composter bin during the campaign. They continue to collect compostable scraps at lunchtime, educate the students and staff at their school and fundraise in order to buy a second (much needed) compost bin. See their video HERE.

Bridgeport Elementary School Green Team (California)

During the Waste Campaign, the Team working at lunch noticed the large number of good food items being thrown into the landfill bin. They were appalled, and wanted that food to go somewhere it could be eaten. The team decided they wanted to donate the food to the local Food Pantry and Homeless Shelter, and the Grades of Green mentors provided resources and guidance to help best put ideas into action. In order to raise awareness and encourage other schools in their community to start a Food Rescue program, Bridgeport shared their video and program with all the families at their school and with all the schools in their district. See their video HERE.

Daves Avenue Elementary School (California)

Daves Avenue uses approximately 12,000 crayons every school year and as the Waste Campaign students discovered, crayons do not break down well in the landfill. With a goal in mind of diverting 120 lbs of crayons from the landfill, the team joined the Crayon Initiative. The Crayon initiative recycles old crayons into new crayons and donates them to children’s hospitals. The team set up boxes to collect the crayons to send them in to get recycled. See their video HERE.

Bryant Ranch School Green Team (California)

The team of 30 students recognized their school was wasting a lot of paper. They analyzed one class per grade level to get an estimate of how much paper is used and wasted. They collected boxes that were filled up completely to sort out those that are only 1-sided to be used again. For the paper that could not be reused, they put 3 actions in place: 1. find a paper recycling agency to take the bulk paper goods 2. shred them for packaging at school and 3. turn scrap paper into art projects for classrooms, including origami, bookmarks, and paper mache. See their video HERE.

Boys and Girls Club at Towne Avenue Elementary (California)

The Boys and Girls Club at Towne Elementary estimated that 100 milk cartons are destined for the landfill from their school everyday. They learned that it takes about 5 years for a milk carton to break down in the landfill and wanted to start recycling cartons at their school. They educated all the students and staff and created a fun basketball game as a way to encourage students to recycle their cartons and have fun with it. See their video HERE.

Will Rogers Learning Community (California)

The team at Will Rogers recognized a huge issue at lunchtime: 25 bags of landfill waste everyday. With the help of a few dedicated parents, the team set up sorting stations at lunch to separate liquids, recyclables, organic waste, landfill and trays. Since implementing the stations, over the course of the Waste Campaign, they decreased lunch time landfill waste by 85 trash bags by implementing sorting stations. They also decorated recycling boxes for all classrooms to increase paper recycling on campus.

Deep Creek Middle School (Virginia)

This innovative team created a virtual “Escape Room” to inform students about tackling waste. Specifically focused on single use plastics. Along with the Escape Room, they implemented “Plastic Free Fridays” encouraging fellow students to replace single use items with reusable items. They had the opportunity to present to their school board about the excess waste created by the food provider, including wrapping oranges in plastic wrap! See their video HERE.

PSGR Krishnammal Nursery and Primary School (India)

Students at this school took food waste VERY seriously. This team made sure that all food on campus was eaten or composted. In addition, the school made presentations and a song to show the importance of not wasting food. They involved their entire community including all students, parents, administration, school board, and government representatives. The team also had goals to limit plastic, reduce all waste going to the landfill – not just food waste, and to store food properly to reduce spoiled food.

Meadows Elementary (California)

This team made a series of “how to” videos that taught their fellow students and community how to reduce waste, pack trash free lunches, and how to properly sort their waste at lunch. They also added on the Food Finders program so that any unopened cartons of food or beverages or unpeeled fruit could be donated to local families in need of food. The students have been dedicated to educated staff, administration, and parents through their “how to” videos. See their video HERE.

Bottega Delle Arti Creative (Italy)

Like to dance? Bottega Dance School has made public performances to educate others about Rome’s environmental issues and infrastructural problems. The main issue the high schoolers focused on was overflowing garbage bins throughout the city. Along with their innovative video, they have presented the problem through conferences and art exhibitions. See their video HERE.

Hughes Green Team (California)

The Hughes team found that the use of single-use condiment packets was a big waste issue on their campus. The packets end up becoming litter and often ends up in the ocean. The students prepared a proposal for the LBUSD Nutrition Services Department to switch from single-use condiment packets to sauce dispensers. They met with their district’s Nutrition Services Manager to discuss the solution even further!

Feeling inspired?! Join Grades of Green for our 2019 Fall Water Campaign here. And stay tuned for an update on the new theme for our Campaign teams!

The Grunion Gazette featured Grades of Green and the Waste Campaign!

Communications Contractor Justin addresses the importance of environmental education in his interview with the Grunion Gazette by stating:

“When students take the lead and pursue environmentally conscious projects, it really encourages people and other students to do more projects like this.”

Students in Grades of Green’s Waste Campaign have an opportunity to not only learn about waste issues, but to do their own research to see what they can do to improve their own environment. Long Beach Grades of Green Mentor Cathy states:

“This contest isn’t just calling for students to get out and pick up trash- that’s a good thing of course, but Grades of Green is trying to get young kids to think deeper about helping the environment.”

Read the full article HERE

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!

As VERTE 2019 draws near, we are cooking up a storm in anticipation!

Gourmet Global Tasting Menu Representing Grades of Green Eco-Leaders

We will be noshing on a gourmet global tasting menu at VERTE courtesy of Chef Octavio Sabado. Chef Sabado is creating an exclusive meal experience similar to Epcot Center at Disney World where you can sample cuisines from around the world – all countries and areas representing a Grades of Green school. We’ll be dining on everything from Mediterranean cuisine representing Turkey to Texas BBQ!

LA Confidential named the Westdrift Hotel and Restaurant one of the top reasons why celebs are suddenly flocking to Manhattan Beach. “Westdrift channels beach-cum-urbane chic. Its lobby intentionally echoes the Manhattan Beach pier with massive wood pilings, while the indoor-outdoor eatery, Jute, overseen by SLS Bazaar’s Octavio Sabado, continues the city’s celeb-chef love affair,” wrote LA Confidential Lifestyle reporter Alexandria Abramian. Executive Chef Octavio Sabado’s Jute Coastal Bar and Restaurant was also named a Best New Restaurant by Tasting Table.

You will not want to miss all that he has prepared for VERTE 2019!

Chef Sabado

Chef Sabado honed his skills under Chef Jose Andres, the Michelin starred Spanish chef known for his international cooking style and philanthropic food efforts, at The Bazaar and the luxury SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. With some serious international cooking experience under his belt, Chef Sabado is the right chef for this task.

We look forward to celebrating with you, on April 20th at the Westdrift Hotel. Table Sponsorships are still available. You can purchase tickets to VERTE 2019 here.

Vegan Chili (composed of Veracruz Sauce, Tomato sauce, and toppings together)

How to read this recipe:

– Look at all ingredients for Veracruz Sauce, Tomato Sauce, and prepare them all as dictated before starting.

– Ensure that you have 1 large stock pot, a blender or a hand-blender, and one sauce pan.

– Follow the order as written.

– If you need more salt, add more miso, soy sauce, or salt before serving.

Veracruz Sauce

Needs: Stovetop burner

8 Roma tomatoes (optional) sliced in half with cores removed

2 Red Bell peppers – Deseed and cut into large halves

2-3 Jalapenos – Deseed if you don’t want this too be too spicy

1 large yellow onion (or 2 small ones) – Cut in half

Instructions

– On your stove top burners, place the jalapenos, tomatoes (optional), onions, and red bell peppers over the flame.

– Place until relatively charred and blistered then rotate. Repeat until there is decent blistering over each ingredient.

– Reserve the veggies on the side

– Gentle note: Please open your windows and allow the air ventilation to prevent your home from becoming too smoky.

Tomato Sauce
Needs: One large stock pot for chili, one sautee pan for garlic

– 1 large can of crushed tomatoes/whole peeled tomatoes/diced tomatoes

– 1 spoonful of tomato puree

– 6 – 8 cloves of garlic crushed and minced

– 3 – 5 tablespoons of olive oil (enough to coat the bottom but not drown ingredients in 2 pots)

3 – 5 large spoonfuls of miso paste

2-3 Bay leaves

Instructions: Stockpot

– Pour some of the olive oil into a stockpot.

– Pour in the reserved ingredients from the Veracruz sauce into your stockpot.

– Add a spoonful of tomato puree

– Cook for 5 – 10 minutes on high heat. Mix the veggies

– Add the large can of tomatoes. Then place a lid on top of the stockpot.

– When it starts to bubble, mix and lower to medium heat

– Add your 3-5 spoonfuls of miso (Remember, if you want more salt, you can always add more miso later)

– Set aside your pot off the burner onto a stable platform. Place a mitten to prevent the hot pot from damaging your surface. Please be careful with your pot.

Instructions: Sautee pan (Do this while waiting for those 5 – 10 minutes)

– Add some olive oil into a pan and place on medium heat

– Add your garlic

– Wait until the garlic is browned (1-3 minutes

– Pour the olive oil and browned garlic into the stock pot

Blend the soup
Instructions:

Needs: hand blender or blender

– When the sauce is HOT, move the entire pot onto a stable surface.

– Use a hand blender to blend the ingredients in the pot (you can pour the ingredients into a blender too). Please hold onto the handle of the stock pot to prevent the pot from flying out

– Return the pot to the stovetop and heat on medium heat.

– Add your bay leaves.

Toppings:

– 1-2 small cans of black beans (washed with cold water until it runs clear)

– 1-2 small cans of pinto beans (washed and dried)
–
Optional: 4 Diced dried tofu (dou gan) blocks

Instructions:

– Add all ingredients into Pot One. Then place on medium high heat. When bubbly, reduce to low to medium-low.

– Stir and scrape the bottom to prevent burning.

– Cook and reduce for about 30 minutes to 1 ½ hours.

– Taste repeatedly to see if the salt levels are correct. If it needs more
– salt, add salt or miso. If it needs less salt, add a touch of water.

– Serve