"I think it's good that the children learn what to do at home," said Nicole Roy-Vaillancourt, a French teacher at Blessed Kateri. "When they grow up, it's going to be part of their routine. When they're adults, they'll be able to be environmentally conscious."
To become certified, a school must demonstrate achievement in at least four key areas: energy conservation, waste minimization, ecological literacy and school ground greening for shade and energy conservation. To begin, students along with other members of the school community form an EcoTeam. The EcoTeam reviews the energy and waste practices of the school, creates and implements an action plan for improvement, and then reassesses the energy and waste practices again near the end of the school year.
Roy-Vaillancourt is part of the committee that ensures the school is taking steps to be green. She says that environmental practices are already worked into the science and social studies lesson plans but that hands on application makes it more fun for the kids. "It becomes more than just a curriculum and it looks good for the school. Children like it and we've been recognized by the board more than once."
Lorrie Maw, a grade two teacher at Chapel Hill Catholic and head of the environmental club at the school, agrees.
"We already had an education program in place for the environment so we thought we should apply to let everyone know what we're doing."
Chapel Hill's environmental club tries to make protecting the environment, fun by making weekly announcements where they refer to themselves as "Envirobusters" to the Ghostbusters theme song. "The kids love that," she laughs.
Both schools have held garbage audits and have made new initiatives like planting trees, holding monthly earth hours, participating in earth day and using artwork to promote environmental consciousness.
Blessed Kateri and Chapel Hill started applying to be recognized as an Eco-School a few years ago, starting out with Silver certification before realizing their goal of obtaining Gold.
"It is so important these days that kids learn all about the environment," said Maw. "It's something to be proud of."
