Green Team at Blessed Sacrament
A team of students and two dedicated teachers have started a Green Team at Blessed Sacrament.
The first meeting was held in January 2009 and ideas are being generated to help our school become "green".
Due to the work of the Green Team, Blessed Sacrament School became a certified Ontario EcoSchool (Silver designation) in May 2009! Congratulations to all the Green Team members, students, administration and teachers who made this possible. The goal this year is to obtain Gold designation in our ecoSchool certification!
Our school continues to move toward being environmentally aware:
- sending paper-based letters to only 1 child in a family
- transition communication to parents from paper-based documents to email
Read the ideas that the Green Team has compiled to help us become more green:
What can you do to become environmentally aware?
Here are just a few suggestions:
School
- send a litterless lunch with your child (pack all food items in reusable containers and send drinks in reusable bottles)
- say NO to bottled water
- if you are currently receiving paper communication from the school, please contact the school and provide your current email address
- try to walk or bike to and from school as much as possible and leave the car at home
Home
- turn off lights when they are not needed or when it is bright outside; use motion detection lights when possible instead of leaving lights on
- don't let the water run constantly while you brush your teeth or wash/rinse dishes
- repair leaking faucets
- take shorter showers
- turn off the TV, computer and other electrical items when not in use (especially at the end of the day)
- donate gently used clothes, furniture, toys and other items to charity organizations (such as Pass It On)
- replace your current batteries with rechargeable batteries
- replace incandescent light bulbs with more more energy-efficient, longer-lasting high efficiency fluorescent bulbs
- take your name off unwanted mailing lists to reduce the amount of junk mail
- ensure that windows and door frames are sealed properly to avoid heat or cool air from escapting
- turn the temperature on your water heater down
- use power bars to minimize standby power losses on entertainment systems and computers; turn off computers when not in use
- use electricity when it costs less during non-peak times (i.e., after 8pm)
Shopping
- purchase products and supplies with less or reusable packaging
- use cloth, reusable bags for shopping
- purchase products and services from companies that are environmentally conscious
and
- reduce, reuse or recycle as many items as possible to save energy and raw materials!
Interesting Links
- Do What You Can website helps you find places to drop-off household hazardous and special wastes and unwanted electronics that cannot be put in your Blue Box and should not go in the garbage. You can search for places by municipality, postal code or material
- Every Kilowatt Counts website has Residential programs, efficiency tools and tips and a Kids Corner to learn about how to save electricity and the environment
- Earth Hour is taking place on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30pm. Earth Hour has made an impact:
in 2007, 2.2 million people participated and in 2008, 50 million people in 35 countries switched off their lights for Earth Hour!
- The City of Toronto Environment website has ideas and lists what the city has done to contribute to a greener city
- Environment Canada has ideas that you can take to reduce waste, save resources and prevent pollution.
- Live Green Toronto website offers residents with information to help them live green and provides expert advice to help neighbourhood and community groups get organized and take action.
- Register to have your name and address removed from marketing lists through the
Canadian Marketing Association "Do Not Contact Service" which is offered free of charge to consumers to reduce the number of marketing offers they receive by mail.
You can also register with the "National Do Not Call List"
- Toronto Recycles - a useful guide to what can and cannot be recycled in the City of Toronto
If you have any other interesting links, please email the Website Administrator.
