New School Year

The 2009-2010 school year has had a wonderful start and Eco-Team activities have already resumed.

At Froshientation (held on the 2nd of September), Grade 10 students were shown the following video:

Created by our new executives, it serves to promote awareness about the Eco-Team and sends a message about the importance of recycling, and keeping the school litter-free.

As well, for its first fundraiser, the Eco-Team will be selling ice cream in front of the conference room. To emphasize environmentally friendly alternatives, cloth napkins will be provided in the place of paper napkins.

YM gets eco-certified. We start with bronze.

 

Four months after being estabished as an Eco-team, we sent in our application to the Board to get eco-certified. See The Ontario EcoSchools Certification Process for more information on this procedure. In late May, we got a visit from a Board eco-auditor who talked to the Principal, caretakers, staff advisors and students as well as touring the school. The outcome was the award of bronze certification. The comment from the audit team was as follows: 

*Please click on the image for a bigger view. 

Next year, we’ll be working towards silver, possibly gold. And if you want to see what a platinum eco-school looks like, here’s a power point  from one of the two TDSB High Schools to have achieved that distinction, Norman Bethune

For details of TDSB Eco-Certification, go to: Certification Toolkit 

 

 

End of Year Message

The first year of operations for the YMCI Eco-Team officially ended on the 5th of June, but the team will be brainstorming new ideas to promote environmental awareness next year and work over the summer to create a video for Froshientation.

Our executives for the 2008-2009 school year, Clair and Bethany, will be leaving for university next year. They had this to say about their experience:

“This was a fantastic start to York Mills’ eco-awareness initiatives. Here’s hoping that York Mills becomes a certified EcoSchool and continues on its path towards sustainability in its years to come!”

Our staff advisors, Ms. Gluskin and Mr. Heffernan, wish to thank Bethany, Clair and Asfia for all their work this year:

“You gave us a great start. You pushed us. You pushed the staff, in a polite and friendly way. Please keep in touch with us and tell us what’s happening in environmental awareness at universities in Ontario.

We hope that we can continue the tradition you started.”

Our new executives, Wendy and Simone, express their thanks and look forward to heading new initatives for next year. Here is their message:

“We can’t believe the end of the school year is already here. It’s been an amazing semester for Eco-Team. Although we are a small club, our dedicated members helped us get one step closer of being a TDSB certified Eco-School. Thank you, everyone!

To our graduating members: thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend weekly meetings. Thank you to our executives, Bethany and Clair, as well as our secretary Asfia. You’ve all been great! We wish you best of luck on your journey after York Mills.

To all grade 10s and 11s: thank you for the continuous support you’ve shown to the school’s Eco-Team. We look forward to seeing you all next year!

A big thank you to our staff advisors, Ms. Gluskin and Mr. Heffernan, for guiding us and helping us towards our goal. We couldn’t have done it without you.

We look forward to being your new Eco-Team executives for the year 2009 – 2010. We hope to bring new ideas and concept to the club to make York Mills a greener place for everyone!”

The Eco-Team has been very successful over the course of five months. Our accomplishments include implementing a one-sided paper box system in most homeforms and organizing litterless lunches. We hope to expand on what we have been able to accomplish and interest the newest arrivals at York Mills (the Grade 10s from feeder schools) in promoting environmental awareness as well.

The club’s meetings will resume in the earlier months of the next school year. Please stay tuned for meeting times; we look forward to starting operations again (our first event will most likely be a fundraiser).

Stay green and have a wonderful summer!

Hello YM! Hello World!

Welcome to the York Mills ECO News.  The purpose of this blog is to educate, inform and organize students, staff and the broader York Mills community around environmental issues. In December 2008, the YM ECO team was launched after a couple of YM teachers, Mr. Heffernan and Ms. Gluskin, came back from a professional development day, having been inspired by activities taking place in other TDSB schools and wanting to  see similar things happen here. Ms. Williams, Ms. Couch (office administrator) and Head Caretaker, Mr. Belley quickly came on board to talk about short and long  term goals and how to engage staff and students in promoting ecological awareness. In January, ECO-team was formally established as a school club with close to 30 students attending the first meeting. Officers of the club were elected: Claire Arrowsmith and Bethany Zack as co-chairs and Asfia Abbas as secretary. In the last five months, we have been involved in the following:

• Major presentation to staff meeting with regular monthly follow ups.
• Trying to reduce school paper consumption through encouraging collection of used one-sided paper and then having teachers reuse this paper for their handouts.
• Meeting with a speaker from the group Wattwise re using energy meters to monitor electricity usage of different appliances.
• Campaign (display case) on use of bottled water.
• Discontinuing the use of paper plates for refreshments at staff meetings and replacing them with regular plates (financed through Staff social fund).
• Strong presence at the Fashion for a Cause Assembly with its environmental theme.  The whole student body viewed these videos:
  The Big Ask
  White Gold – The True Cost of Cotton
  and the following powerpoint; Sustainable Cotton
• Effective intervention for Earth Hour (library computers shut down all day).
• Organized for Earth Week- litterless lunches, going round the cafeteria every day with green/blue bins to educate on recycling matters.
• Joint meeting with Greenpaw (another school club with a focus on animal rights/the environment) with an organic farmer as the guest speaker.
• Provided the co-ordination for Grade 10 science teachers/students to get involved in a local tree planting activity (friends of the Don). See tree planting page on this site