Turn down the heat!

Did you know that most of our buildings are heated using natural gas? And that, by turning down the heat by only a few degrees, we can reduce the gas we use and reduce our carbon dioxide emissions? That’s one small action we can take to contribute to supporting much larger and much needed Climate Action.

So, for the month of March, New Westminster schools are going to Turn Down the Heat!

For the two weeks leading into Spring Break, we’ve dropped the daytime temperature by a few degrees in our schools and other sites: setting an example by taking action and opening up opportunities to learn! This initiative, organized by our District’s Climate Action Committee, is providing staff the opportunity to have timely conversations about a wide range of actions that we can each take to fight the climate crisis we’re seeing around us.

Over these two weeks there will be a number of fun contests happening across all our schools, as we collectively look at various ways we can make these lessons fun, while delivering great little “teachable moments”:

• March 1 – Say NO to Single Use Plastics Day, by packing a lunch free of single use plastics like utensils or straws.
  • Did you know that some scientists estimate that we put more than 8 million metric tonnes of plastic into our oceans each year???
• March 4 – Snuggly Sweater Day: Wear a warm sweater to beat the cold without turning up the heat.
• March 7 – Meatless Monday: Bring a meat-free lunch to school or work!
  • Want to know what the environmental “savings” of reducing your meat intake could be? Check out the impact calculator at the bottom of this page: https://meatfreemondays.com/why-it-matters/
• March 9 – Skip to School Day: Leave the car at home and skip, walk, ride a bike or scooter or take a bus) to get your body moving while reducing the use of cars on the road.
• March 11 – Wacky Warm Socks Day: Wear your wackiest, warmest socks to help cut the spring chill.

We hope you’ll join us as we have some fun and learn about Climate Action over the next couple weeks.

Later in the month we’ll be sharing some photos of the classrooms full of kids who are participating in the contests … from the empty tupperware shots to the wacky socks. And we’ll be featuring some of the other exciting projects and lessons that are currently taking shape or happening at each school!

 

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Update!

Want to know how it went? Check out these photos to see what the fun activities looked like!