NAEC – a whole school approach to environmental awareness

Valerie Allan | May 19, 2011

Photo: The EcoTeam, supervised by Ms. Randle, is made up of senior students Gordie Grewal, Brittany McQuigge, Racheal Kellar and Katelyn Ronfeld.Once more, NAEC has been certified as an EcoSchool. Inspectors visited the school on May 6 to do an audit of NAEC’s Eco-practices and determine their level of participation.

One of the initiatives the EcoTeam took this year was to buy water bottles for all the students in the school. This was done in order to discourage students from purchasing plastic bottles of water. Plastic water bottles are made from oil-based products, and the extraction of oil can be damaging to the environment. In addition, the waste plastic produced is very hard to break down and adds a large amount of material to the waste stream.

NAEC’s EcoTeam was awarded two grants this year, which enabled them to turn this plan into reality. The first grant was an elementary outreach grant from Limestone District School Board ($500). The second grant was a Green Apple Grant from Metro ($1000).

The EcoTeam produced educational videos about water issues and presented them to the school on May 4, before giving out the water bottles. Both videos and bottles were well received by elementary and secondary students alike.

Students are encouraged to write their names on the bottles and to continue to use them at school and home. Some students have already used the school engraver to put their names on their water bottles, and students can be seen carrying their water bottles in the halls.

Principal Angela Salmond remarked, “The EcoTeam has worked hard to promote awareness of water issues. Our local geography is closely tied to water, so we must be mindful of our water use. The videos the team produced were very educational.”