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Sustainability and Green Team

The Green Team’s mission is to initiate waste reduction and school-wide sorting; enhance our garden learning program; and advocate for sustainability for both school and PFC functions.

Our Goals

• Promote environmental responsibility and healthy living with the school community.
• Encourage best practices in sustainability.
• Challenge students, staff, and the community to consider their ecological impact and provide education to support a positive impact on the environment and healthy living.
• Foster a learning environment where students can experience the connections between their actions, their health, their community, their environment, and their food.

Our Initiatives

• Garden Program: Several organic, edible, and ornamental garden areas at Thornhill provide an outdoor classroom for​hands-on science instruction. The program is currently volunteer-led and is offered to TK through 2nd Grade classes. Garden instruction is integrated with science curriculum and supports our sustainability goals of making the school greener, healthier, and more aware of the natural environment and life processes.
• ColorCycle: recycling all spent markers. In our inaugural year, we collected an astounding 86 LBS of dried markers from our collection bins. The markers will be shipped to a facility to where they will be converted into clean fuel. This fuel can be used to power vehicles, heat homes, and cook meals--all while keeping tons of plastic out of landfills each year. 
• Healthy Bodies, Healthy Lives: honoring the importance of including healthy food options at all school-wide events.
• School Grounds: litter elimination, landscaping/beautifying, supporting responsibility and accountability, and a positive sense of community collaboration.
• Student Education: tricks and tips around environmental best practices (reuse, recycle, reduce, re-purpose).
• Waste Reduction & Sorting: Providing resources to optimize compost and recycling in classrooms, cafeteria, and at-school events; shifting to compostable and reusable products at school-wide events.

Resources

• https://mightynest.com/shop/lunch-gear
• https://ecolunchboxes.com/pages/why-plastic-free
• https://myplasticfreelife.com/plasticfreeguide/
• https://www.ousd.org/greengloves

Get Involved

Our Clean & Green team would love new adult and young members! Love gardening? Have awesome sustainable ideas? Want to just connect with folks with similar values? Have an hour a week to dedicate to a key cause? There are many ways to support our efforts—please consider volunteering to:
-Decrease single-use plastics/wrapper use in our students’ snacks and lunches
-Assist with garden maintenance
-Encourage student sustainability leadership, and student-led sustainability initiatives
-Track waste at school events
-Take a shift at Fall Sweep & Spring Clean workdays
-Support increased sustainability consciousness & concepts in our daily lives

Anyone in the Thornhill and local community is invited to join the Green Team, provide ideas, and initiate projects!​ Contact our Sustainability Chair, Elyse Bart to learn more.

Team Contacts

• Elyse SG Bart, PFC Sustainability Chair
• Alexis Lavine, Garden Program Teaching Volunteer 
• ​Bonnie Forbes, Kindergarten Teacher & Green Gloves Representative