May 2019 Featured School
Our Green Teams got a final chance to make an education push during Earth week, and now it's time to start collecting data to see if their hard work has paid off. End of Year waste audits are being conducted and students are wrapping up their campaigns and setting next steps for August of next year. Check out some of our end of year highlights below!
While we are thinking of next year, we'd love to pause and make an annoncement:
Ball Corporation has awarded us a significant grant to help our Green Team students continue their work in 2019/20!
A huge thank you to Ball Corporation's philanthropic arm for continuing to support our students and the environmental impacts their schools achieve.
STEM Lab Elementary
Adams 12, Colorado
The beginning of year waste audit at STEM Lab was nothing spectacular, but certainly gave them a solid baseline to work with. Their diversion rate was 17%. The Green Team students worked hard to educate their peers and were anxious to conduct the end of the year waste audit. The students were well organized and had the Adams 12 Energy and Sustainably Manager (Shannon Oliver) with them to kick each classroom's sorting session off right.
Each class sorted through their landfill bound waste baskets, and one class even had a song to sing - Save the Earth! (Too bad we didn't catch that on video!). While sorting, the class with the most waste was one that had recently had a birthday party celebration. The garbage was full of plates, cutlery, and cups. We suspect zero waste party kits will be a future step at STEM Lab ;]
The exciting news - STEM Lab's diversion rate went from 17% to 45% in one year!
We love seeing sustainability ripple from our Green Team students to the rest of the student body, and one of our favorite moments was when a 4th grader corrected her classmate that diverting plastic in land locked states DOES matter for ocean life, because it can still be carried down stream to the oceans.
Great job to all the students, staff, and Green Team leaders who worked hard to achieve this diversion rate! You're rock stars!