How one northern Ont. school board is reducing its environmental footprint

The Rainbow District School Board is the largest school board in the Sudbury area and it's doing its part to make a large change for the better.

"This year, if all of our schools were to carry on with their plans to be EcoSchools certified, we know that we would be saving 916 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions," said Central Manitoulin Public School Principal David Wiwchar.

Two years ago, the school board declared a climate change emergency and since then have really focused on making little daily changes to help reduce its carbon footprint.

"The most recent example was on Monday," Wiwchar said. "We turned down the heat Friday before the weekend, so on Monday students got to enjoy seeing themselves and their teachers in ugly sweaters as a means of reducing the amount of carbon inputs that it takes to heat our schools."

Superintendent Judy Noble said a lot of the initiatives are student-led.

"Turning down the heat and turning off the lights and unplugging before leaving for the day, so the reduction of energy consumption," Noble said.

"We’ve also been trying to reduce plastic use in our schools, so watching liter-less lunches, for example. We’re also watching our water consumption. We’ve moved away from our traditional water fountains and we have water bottle filling stations."

There are also no-idle zones in parking lots, encouraging parents to also get involved, she added.

Officials said that the board actually started working with EcoSchools Canada back in 2011, but now it is on track to have all 42 schools certified by 2022.

"I think the experience is the best thing that comes from EcoSchools," Wiwchar said.

Officials said that not only does it help teach all students to care for the earth, but it does it with an Indigenous component and an Anishinaabe perspective.

"When I visit the classroom, I bring in the teachings of the medicine wheel. I reflect on being their age. I bring in my own picture -- of when I was a 6-year-old child -- to share my experience, what I remember, how good life was," said Hazel Fox-Recollet, an Indigenous education support worker with the Rainbow board.

"For example, traditional sugar canes and how it brought families together and how clean the air was at that time."

The students seem to enjoy it when she visits the classroom, Fox-Recollet said.

"For me, after sharing and when you hear the little ones saying 'thank you,' and they’re engaged in the conversation of what life means to them, then I think that will go a long way when it comes to being responsible and respective," she said.

Wiwchar said that the hands-on experience really does help students stop and think about their actions.

"Some of our classes actually have worms in the class in a bin digesting the compost that comes from our students and they get to see that part of that cycle,” he said.

"I think it would have them pause and take a moment if they were ever to dump some gasoline on the ground. They would probably feel for the organisms, for the worms and the things that would live in that patch of earth that they might harm by that choice in that moment and re-think it."

There are several eco challenges planned for the 2021-2022 school year, including World Rivers Day, Waste Reduction Week and many more.