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!

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!

Is It That Big of a Problem?

Grades of Green students have been making efforts to reduce waste in their communities during this year’s Waste Campaign. Students are cleaning up litter, reducing their plastic emissions, and diverting food waste. But what’s the big deal with waste?

Waste Affects Us All!

Pollution from single-use plastics, micro-plastics, landfill dumped food, and litter all go in our environment. This pollution can have harmful and unintended side-effects on a variety of things. Animals can choke on larger plastic pieces. Microplastics can be found in many fish and in sea salts used to season food in virtually every ocean. Landfill dumped food can leak nitrogen and phosphates into nearby water ways- damaging wildlife and creating oxygen depriving algae blooms.

In addition, the emissions created by creating many of these unnecessary materials can harm the world as well. Increased carbon emissions are reducing the nutritiousness of rice around the world, a staple crop that feeds much of the world’s developing populations.

What Can We Do?

Grades of Green’s students have been brave enough to start by addressing waste issues within their communities. By reducing plastic usage, cleaning up litter, and diverting food waste towards composting bins, students are not only helping themselves, but helping their communities learn about easy ways to reduce the harmful habits that ultimately harm us. In addition to taking direct action, students have also contacted their legislators to bring this to the attention of decision makers!

Know a brave student who can make a difference too? Have them join us in our next Campaign!

Annual Report

Every year, Grades of Green conducts an audit to track where the dollars donated to Grades of Green go. We strive to build trust with our donors by holding ourselves accountable with our finances. We are always to happy to share our findings, but we are particularly enthusiastic about this year’s report. The 2018 annual report shows that for every 1 dollar donated to Grades of Green, 86 cents goes directly into student programs.

What Does That Mean?

This means that 86% of all donations go DIRECTLY into programs that teach students- this includes the expansion of programs like our ongoing Waste Campaign. You can feel good about donating to our students as we help them fight environmental issues together. Click here to donate!

Banning Straws!

In the past few weeks, we have kept you all updated on Daves Ave Elementary’s Grades of Green Team and their efforts to ban straws and single-use plastics in the Los Gatos School District! And…

We’re happy to announce that Daves Ave Elementary has SUCCESSFULLY banned straws in their entire school district! After creating and reciting skits and presentations on plastics throughout the semester, the school continued to mobilize to improve waste reduction. They collected signatures for their petition to ban straws in the school district and to support measures in California to reduce straw usage. The team sent over 160 letters agreeing to their petition to both their school district and to their local assemblyman. After receiving the letters and hearing these concerns, the Team was invited to present their case to their school district. They were given 5 minutes to convince the district to reduce straw usage. The students argued that straws were not necessary for their milk cartons nor were they needed for water- the two served drinks in their cafeteria. In addition, they used the facts that they presented to their schools earlier in the year and educated the school board about the dangers of plastic pollution. They argued that plastic pollution was especially dangerous to marine health and certain plastics, like the plastic from straws and plastic utensils, were especially difficult to recycle. After a passionate display of knowledge and environmental advocacy, the Grades of Green Team waited in anticipation to hear back from the school district.

Last week, the Los Gatos School District agreed to ban straws in the entire district and are in works to replace utensils with biodegradable options and compostable napkins. Previously, utensils, straws, and napkins would be provided in plastic packets that would be handed to all students- essentially forcing students to create waste. However, with this new measure, the school will greatly reduce their plastic waste output! In addition, in honor of their cafeteria’s Trash-Free Tuesdays, their school lunches will now be completely waste free on Tuesdays. The cafeterias agreed to opt for meals that can be eaten without utensils, like sandwiches and burritos!

Join Us!

Green Teams, like the one at Daves Ave Elementary, have achieved success through education, spreading awareness, and keeping up pressure on officials. If you want to join an amazing network of Grades of Green schools who are advocating for the environment, sign up here!

Hey Everyone!

As many of you already know, April is Earth Month! This is the perfect time to get your friends and family to partake in a month-long resolution to help out the Earth!

So how do we start?

Simplify and Organize

In order to engage others in an environmental resolution, check out some tips from our “Spread the Word” webinar. These tips should be able to help you “simplify” your message and “organize” your activities and message!

First, focus on one thing that you and your friends can do to help out for Earth Month. You can aim to reduce water usage, plastic waste, compost more, or think of your own solution! If your resolution and activity can be simplified, it will be easier to engage people in one task for an entire month!

Second, share your activity with your community and tell them why you care! Earth Month is a time for everyone to act, from eco-leaders to people who are less environmentally active. Remember, every environmentalist started somewhere! By sharing why you care, you can inspire others to care with you!

Earth Month Resolutions!

This month, Grades of Green Advisors are engaging in their own resolutions!

– Jordan cares about food and the water wasted from food. This month, he is banning all red meats from his diet!

– Emily Stewart was worried about the plastic that came with her lunches from the delicious restaurants nearby. Her resolution is to make trash-free lunches for this entire month!

– Emily Gee wants to reduce our energy output! She is going to talk to her landlord about switching to energy efficient LED lightbulbs.

Share your resolutions with us on social media! Tag us @gradesofgreen on Instagram or Facebook!

Have a happy Earth Month everyone!

Across the world, Grades of Green Schools are completing a variety of environmental activities!

A few schools have been tackling plastic waste, like Daves Ave Elementary. Other schools have been preoccupied with water conservation and water quality, like St. Roza. In Florida, one ambitious Grades of Green Team is preparing to promote environmental awareness for Earth Week! Saint Mary Magdalen Catholic School’s Grades of Green Team is currently ramping up their efforts to engage their school!

Throughout the semester, the team worked on a presentation on plastic waste and ocean contamination. They hope to distribute the presentation throughout the school’s televisions to educate students about waste and environmental issues during lunch and passing periods. Their Grades of Green Team is also working on placing posters or “Recycling Rovers” near recycling bins so that students can easily see what waste is able to recycle. Lastly, the team has introduced a raffle to provide incentives for school members to engage in the “Recycled Art” activity! Participants who complete the activity are entered for a chance to win a prize!

Commitment and Beyond

Saint Mary Magdalen Catholic School isn’t just committed to the environment during Earth Week- their highly organized team has made plans to keep their momentum going for next year. Next semester, the team plans to host a field trip to educate and inspire new members in their team. Although the planning is still in its early phases, the team is sure that the trip can instill an appreciation for Earth’s beauty and the need to engage in environmental action!

In addition, the school will collaborate with Clean the World during the Fall semester to reduce waste created from soap bars remains. By recycling used soap bars, the school can help create create and provide clean shampoos and other hygienic materials for those in need around the world.

We can’t wait to see how Earth Week turns out for this ambitious team!

Want to join an awesome network schools fighting to improve the environment? Click here to become a Grades of Green school!

Manhattan Beach Middle School shared some great news with us lately! In a recent e-newsletter, MBMS celebrated the installation of a couple of water refill stations. Several passionate students organized the fundraising efforts, including Youth Corps student Sydney H. She ran 3 separate e-waste drives, where the e-waste collection company paid for the e-waste Sydney collected to be recycled properly. Thanks to the newly installed hydration stations, MBMS will do their part to forgo using single-use plastic water bottles, which contributes to 8 million tons of plastic waste that ends up polluting our oceans.

Do you want your school to cut back on single-use plastic water bottles? Taking on Grades of Green’s Water Refill Station activity will surely help your cause! A water refill station can be as simple and low-cost as an insulated water jug! To access downloadable resources (such as our hydration station signage that you can print out for your own station) and more, please register here.

Plastic in our oceans is threatening the marine ecosystem: marine animals get stuck in the plastic or, even worse, they are ingesting plastic because it looks similar to their food.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. This blog gives 8 easy steps to help cut down on plastics that could end up in the ocean and contribute to the pollution problem. It can be as easy as cutting down on plastic consumption (step 1) and choosing reusables such as cloth shopping bags and steel/glass bottles instead of plastic bags and single-use plastic water bottles (step 7). Check out these and other ways to be a part of the solution here.

Thinking of taking on a Grades of Green activity to cut down on plastics? Consider a Water Refill Station or Trash Free Lunches! To access the downloadable resources for all 40+ of our activities, register here. ​

Oceanic Trash Vortex? You don’t have to imagine it because it already exists: a large area of ocean with bits of plastic, chemical sludge, and other slow-to-biodegrade debris in suspension. The Great Pacific garbage patch is a gyre, or large system of circulating ocean currents, made up of plastic debris accumulated over the past few decades. Frustratingly so, it is not visible in satellite photography or to anyone swimming directly in it because the patch covers a large expense of ocean and the debris is very low density.

A lot of scientific and media attention has been focused on the North Pacific Gyre, but there isn’t sufficient data to confirm the presence of floating plastic debris in the Southern Hemisphere’s gyres. That’s where Algalita comes in! Starting in November 2016, Algalita will embark on an expedition to the Southern Hemisphere to investigate the pollution within the South Pacific Gyre.

Interested students and teachers can interact with the researchers through Algalita’s Ship2Shore Blog. The program also includes weekly updates from the crew, interaction with other classrooms around the world, and access to additional classroom resources. For more information about Algalita, click here.

Concerned about the amount of waste you create? Learn about your trash through a Waste Audit or cut out disposables with Trash Free Lunches. Learn more about the environment by taking on Eco Lessons, such as the Ocean Pollution Solution lesson. If you haven’t already, register here to gain access to all the step by step implementation instructions and resources Grades of Green has to offer.