Update: Green Dream Contest Winners Make Haste to Reduce Waste

The winners of our Green Dream Contest -- King Chavez Academy in San Diego and Berkeley High School (BHS) in Berkeley -- have made exciting progress in just a few months.

Berkeley High School’s Green Team undertook a school-wide garbage audit as one of its first actions towards reducing its waste. BHS is a large, urban high school with 3,400 students, so getting everyone to practice the 4Rs is a challenge.

Three AP Environmental Science Classes divided up the audit work, partnered with Earth Team and Green Schools Initiative, and are writing up a report to give to the administration with their recommendations for how to start off the next school year with an improved system in place. The results show that food waste and paper are the primary elements of the wastestream. Luckily, Berkeley has a foodscrap compost program. But the majority of compost bins are contaminated with trash.

So next year the BHS Eco Community Club will be using some of their Green Dream Contest prize money to 1) make clear signs as part of an educational campaign to get students on board with doing “the Rot Thing,” and 2) sponsor a raffle contest to reward students that are reducing waste and recycling at school.

The end-of-year locker clean-up has a “Reuse It” theme and students are collecting reusable school supplies to give away during Fall registration – together with the Green Dream Contest prizes of New Leaf Paper/Top Flight recycled paper notebooks.

King Chavez Preparatory Academy is taking their waste reduction efforts to the next level, recycling more types of materials. They will use some of their Green Dream Contest prize funds to buy reusable water bottles imprinted with the school logo.

Staff at all 6 charter schools in their network will receive training on how to green their schools in August 2011 so they can kickstart their efforts right at the beginning of the school year.

---

Want to get a Green Team started at your school and bring your green dreams to life? Use our Green Schools Parent Toolkit to establish a Green Team that includes parents, teachers, students, and administrators. Then work with your Green Team to develop your "green dream" for your school -- it could be a big dream that may take a few years to achieve, or it could be a small one achievable in this school year. The key is to get started!