What is a Green School?

A Green School is a school that has taken the initiative to enhance the environment through various projects. The program encourages students to be environmentally responsible and take personal action at school and with their families. Classes undertake projects to communicate about or to enhance the environment and then log their project results and report to SEEDS. Colonel Walker School has been involved in this program for several years and is working towards our goal of 1000 projects. 

These are some of the activities and activities we are involved in to try to make our little corner of the world have an impact on our Environmental Footprint. We have an organized Environment Club that collects recycling weekly and meets once a month to plan various activities such as Playground clean-ups. This teaches the students to be mentors and ambassadors to share with others to take responsibility of looking after the Earth we live in.

Some of the Green Projects We Have Been Involved in Include:

• Paper and cardboard recycling. We have a green bin located in the parking lot that is picked up bi-weekly so these resources can be recycled. We are proud to share this initiative with Piitoayis Family School.
• We collect and recycle drinking/beverage containers from the Lunch room and classroom. This helps support the Grade 4 curriculum study of Waste in our World as we visit the Shepard Landfill and Recycling Depot (MRF)
• Going Out Lights Out. This CBE initiative has helped save the Board $1.5 million this past year.
• We have made charitable donations to various groups. The students in the Environment Club make these decisions based on information gathered throughout the year. In the past we have donated to the zoo and Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.
• This past school year we ‘adopted’ orphan ducklings at the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society to provide care and food.
• Each spring we plant a garden donated to the school through the Calgary Garden Path Society. This highlights various curriculum based studies such as how plants grow. It also teaches students to learn to work together and gives them an experience they may not otherwise have. (There’s certainly something to watch a child’s face as he pulls a carrot out of the ground, washes it and takes that first crunchy sweet bite!)
• Each fall we harvest the garden and then make soup to share with the entire school community. This is a celebration of our efforts and students participate in preparation, cooking and serving of the soup. This year we planted a “Borscht Garden” and also grew zucchini and will be baking zucchini muffins to share with the school community.
• We collect food scraps from the Lunchroom and staff room and compost it, either for the worms or compost bins outside the school.
• We have compost worms that we feed our food scraps to so they can produce 'soil’ that we use in our Garden.
• We accept empty Egg Cartons and send them to the Calgary Food Bank. Since the Food Bank receives large flats of eggs from farmers they need smaller container to pack eggs in so they can distribute to needy families.
• We collect used or dead batteries (AAA, AA, B, C, D, 9V and cell batteries) to recycle for the metal. The acid in the batteries is also drained and therefore by passing the landfill and not leaching into our water systems.
• We participate in Earth Day activities and have Alderman Ceci (Ward 9 Alderman) and Eartha join us for support, rapping and praise our involvement.
• We participate in International Walk/Bike to School days. This happens three times throughout the year where students are encouraged to walk or ride their bike to help save on fossil fuels and air pollutions.
• We organize an entire school community playground clean-up. Students do appreciate a clean area to play in. We have weighed collected garbage to see how much is thrown and littered in our playground. Last year we collected 40 pounds of garbage.
• We reuse resources when and where we can. For example, we use old muffin tins to put paint pucks in instead of buying plastic trays and we use old yogurt or margarine containers for water dishes for painting.
• We have tried to encourage litterless lunches by selling Wrap’n’Mats in the past.
• We recycle plastics, metals and glass in the Staff room and Lunch room. A staff member volunteers to recycle this at their home blue bin.