Earth Week at Greenwood

Greenwood is working hard to become more environmentally friendly and promote more sustainable practices here at school. Part of that process aligns with Greenwood’s five-year strategic plan and, with the efforts of Cassandra Della Mora, Coordinator, Green Initiatives and the Environmental Committee, Greenwood is now one step closer to achieving EcoSchools certification after Earth Week. 

In order for Greenwood to receive EcoSchools certification, the Environmental Committee and Ms. Della Mora must perform an audit of Greenwood’s community involvement in “Greenwood Goes Greener” initiatives. Fortunately, Greenwood proved to be ‘all-in’ from the start and that same enthusiasm translated to last week’s Earth Week programming. In total, 312 House points were given to staff and students over the course of the week for participating in various Earth Week initiatives. Way to go green, Greenwood!

To start off Earth Week, Meatless Monday asked the Greenwood community to consider their meat consumption and go meatless for the day. The Café assisted with the initiative by providing only meatless hot meal options during lunch.

On Trashless Tuesday, Greenwood students earned House points by bringing or buying a lunch with reusable cutlery, containers or serveware. The aim of this day was to not produce any garbage from your meal.

In Community Time on World Wednesday, students wrote pledges to minimize their environmental impact. Meanwhile, the Café prepared tips and tricks to reduce food waste around the home, like fertilizing gardens with used coffee grounds.Greenwood families were also asked to participate by writing a family pledge and to abstain from using electricity during Earth Hour. 

Thirsty Thursday continued the trend of reducing and eliminating waste by challenging the school community to use reusable bottles, mugs and cups instead of disposable ones. The Environmental Committee also organized a community clean-up after school to pick up trash around the school community. 

Finally, to finish off the week, staff and students were challenged to walk to school and to  dress down in slow fashion. Slow fashion, as opposed to fast fashion, is about the mindful consideration of the material, production and labour that goes into clothing production before buying or discarding clothing.

Thank you Greenwood for keeping it green!