Eco-School Work

Island Co-op is an Eco-School. To quote their website (http://www.nwf.org/Eco-Schools-USA):

"The Eco-Schools program was started in 1994 by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) with support by the European Commission. It was identified by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) as a model initiative for Education for Sustainable Development in 2003. Currently, there are over 59 countries around the world participating in the program.

The Eco-Schools program strives to model environmentally sound practices, provide support for greening the curriculum and enhance science and academic achievement. Additionally, it works to foster a greater sense of environmental stewardship among youth."

Each quarter we have a different focus. The Winter quarter focus was Consumption and Waste. We did a variety of activities, from counting how many pieces of packaging our snacks used, to saving our garbage for a week and seeing how much we create.

We brought our garbage to school, and combined it with the school garbage. We had a large pile.

Then we sorted it by garbage,

compostables,

and recyclables. We had the most recyclables! Yay! We continue to save snack scraps for our compost bin, and sort garbage from recyclables. Spring quarter we will be working on Healthy Living by increasing our time outdoors.