For those of you who are used to reading us, you may find this post a little different. With the school year coming to an end and summer having officially begun, we wanted to create a little something for you to have some family fun while upholding one of our core values: respecting the environment.

Our green initiatives

For several years now, all of our schools have been going green. Specifically, they have been teaching students just how important our collective and individual actions and choices are, and how they affect the environment. To this end, all of our school boards have implemented eco-citizenship policies, each one incorporating activities to promote the environment, ecology and learning, in its own unique way.

At first glance, some of the changes may seem insignificant when taken alone, such as double-sided printing. However, when you consider all the changes our schools have made over the past few years, it’s impressive and makes a real difference! Here are just a few examples of the changes adopted by some or all of our schools:

• Adding recycling and composting systems
• Providing access to water bottle filling stations
• Setting heating and cooling systems at reasonable temperatures
• Reducing the amount of printing and using more digital media
• Limiting the production of promotional items
• Installing new lighting that uses LED bulbs or neon lights
• Holding educational and awareness activities such as Eco-challenges and Eco-bingo

What’s more, with all the environmental efforts our boards and schools have made, we are proud to announce that schools from six of our eight school boards have been awarded the Ontario EcoSchools certification. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the program, “EcoSchools certification represents environmental excellence for kindergarten through grade 12 schools in Canada. Participation in the program allows students, teachers, school administrators, custodians, and parents to get a clear picture of their current environmental practices and take action to reduce their environmental footprint. Each year, schools apply for certification by undertaking environmental actions, campaigns, and projects, and then recording them to earn points. At the end of the year, school applications are assessed based on a standard established over 10 years of benchmarking and are awarded a final certification level.”

Summer challenges

Now, enough about us. After all, it’s the beginning of summer vacation! This is a time to have fun and relax, in an eco-friendly way, of course. Here’s a little calendar of challenges you can try throughout the summer break. You can do these on your own or with a group of friends or family. These initiatives can only benefit our planet, and the more of us who take them on, the better!