Environmental Stewardship

Environmental Action Clubs

Each of our divisions has an Environmental Action Club with faculty and students working together towards the goal of sustainability.  The following is a sampling of what they do.

Lower School - Earth Day…every day!

Fourth Grade EAC:

Fourth graders are invited to join the Environmental Action Club for 10 weeks in the Spring. The club meets after school one day each week. Each year the students brainstorm different ways to reduce our carbon footprint and then implement one or more plans using the Earth Force paradigm. This program encourages students to research and direct their own ideas and to report back to the community.

In addition to their Earth Force Project that resulted in a certification from the National Wildlife Federation, last year fourth graders hosted two guest speakers from the Nature Conservatory and the TTF Watershed Partnership who shared their own careers in environmental education. The children also learned about rattlesnake rescue.  The killing of these snakes lead to an overabundance of rodents in our environment.

Fifth Grade EAC:

Interested fifth graders are invited to apply to join the Environmental Action Club, which meets weekly every Monday afternoon from the end of September through the end of the school year. The EAC is affiliated with the national organization Earth Force, and strives to nurture and develop environmentally responsible citizens who:

• Understand environmental issues
• Know how to identify problems
• Know how to research solutions and create a plan to solve problems using skills such as:
• Public speaking (and speech writing)
• Designing effective posters
• On-line advocacy
• Fund raising
• Talking to people in power

Club size is limited to 20 students, there is a $30.00/year snack fee, and there is a mandatory parent volunteer component (two Mondays of the year).

Fifth Grade Environmental Action Club does the following:

• maintains the Lower School butterfly garden
• has built and maintains the Lower School pond
• is working to restore the Lower School  woods to a native plant habitat, by removing invasive species and planting more and more shrubs, trees and ferns that are native to PA.
• is installing an outdoor benched classroom in the woods that will hold an entire class of students from any division. (gorgeous teak benches!!)
• tends the school's gardens by weeding, pruning and watering
• picks up trash all year
• manages the school's own composting efforts.  They've had built and take care of all the cafeteria's vegetable and fruit wastes, as well as Lower School classroom compostables, and use the compost on school flower beds.
• presents an assembly each year and often organizes some kind of campaign for the Lower School on some kind of relevant environmental topic:  No Waste Lunches, Composting, Recycling etc etc.
• works with an area organization, Earth Force, and attends their Youth Summit each year (see link at left) where they perform some kind of stewardship serivce.

Middle School

The Middle School EAC meets once a week during lunch time activity period. Even within this limited time frame, the EAC members accomplish a lot.  In the past few years the students have:

• watched clips of environmental documentaries and films
• held a used battery collection drive
  
• made a video about eutrophication to create awareness about the proper disposal of pet waste
  
• held a T-shirt drive  and used the shirts to create reusable bags donated to Browsers
  
• planned and participated in the Lexus Eco Challenge.
  

Upper School

The Upper school EAC has been working hard over the past two years to increase environmental awareness at GFS. Here are some of the events they have organized and held:

• Partial Screenings of the films Kilowatt Ours and Food Inc, to increase awareness of the environmental issues involved in generating electricity and producing food.
• Sales of healthy banana whips, and CFL light bulbs at the annual Fun Day.
• Two Saturday mornings volunteering for trail maintenance and clean-up in the Wissahickon.
• Running Awareness Campaigns about what is recyclable and what is not.
• Creating a push for large scale composting at GFS and an awareness campaign about that
•  Creating "Bike and Car Pool to School" weeks
•  Initiating a "These Came From Trees" sticker campaign on paper towel dispensers, toilet paper dispensers, and printers to help raise additional awareness.

Recycling and Composting:  

For many years the GFS community has recycled paper, cardboard, aluminum and plastics with ample containers distributed around campus and in classrooms. Last year thanks to the efforts of our stewardship committee, EAC clubs,  Williams Hospitality, our food service, GFS began a composting program in the cafeteria.  Students in all three divisions assumed the responsibility for educating each other by making signs, performing skits, etc.  Now the trash bins in the cafeteria do not need to be emptied nearly as often as the majority of our leftovers are recycled or composted.

Granola Wrappers:

The GFS Lower School has been collecting granola bar wrappers and sending them to a company called TerraCycle. This company "upcycles" the old wrappers into items such as pencil pouches. For each wrapper, GFS receives 2 cents. Eventually, the money will be put toward the purchase of new outdoor recycling receptacles to be positioned next to each outdoor trashcan. The collection box for the wrappers lives in the lobby of the Cary Building and everyone is welcome to contribute.  Students from the Hess class count wrappers and every week or so they are sent to TerraCycle in batches of 200.

Nalgene Water Bottles: 

Every "new September 2011 student" is entitled to a one time offer to purchase one blue Nalgene water bottle at the very special reduced cost of $3. This offer is made possible by the Parents Association in support of the student “green” initiative to eliminate disposable water bottles.

Food Change and Sustainable Practices in the GFS Kitchen

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