April 22 is Earth Day, which takes place during Earth Month each year. On this day, and every day, students and staff across VSB create new and innovative ways to support a greener school district. 

In 2010, VSB approved the District’s first Sustainability Framework. In 2018, VSB’s first Environmental Sustainability Plan was born. Building on the 2018 plan, the Environmental Sustainability Plan was updated this year to reflect our current goals around environmental stewardship and student learning. 

To celebrate all the wonderful ways #OurVSB community actively works to support our goals, we’re sharing a few examples of how sustainability is supported across our district. 

Teaching in action at schools 

Many educators across VSB support students’ environmental stewardship and land-based learning through innovative, hands-on learning opportunities. This includes field trips to recycling centres and outdoor nature spaces, creating outdoor classrooms, tying sustainability into science and art projects and so much more! 

On April 7, VSB’s sustainability coordinator, Ashley Bangsund, visited Mount Pleasant Elementary. She spoke with a Grade 1 class about recycling and waste management and brought the learning to life with a fast-paced, hands-on activity using clean recycling items. Students learned to be material detectives when determining which bin their waste should go into – organics, mixed recycling or garbage. Students shared about additional sustainability actions they take at home such as flexible plastic recycling and contributing to neighbourhood “sharing shelves” to pass along and give new life to unwanted items. 

Eco-focused field trips 

Many teachers across VSB take students on field trips that help bring sustainability and climate-action to life! From nature parks to waste management centres and everything in-between, students are exposed to real-world environments all year round! In one example, students from Nightingale Elementary visited the Seymour River Hatchery, where they toured the hatchery to learn about the lifecycle of salmon and habitat restoration. 

Cutting carbon with “sugar sheet” 

Several schools and offices have started making the switch from regular paper to a new paper option known as “sugar sheet.” Made from agricultural waste from sugar cane farms, this paper is indistinguishable from standard printing paper but has a much smaller carbon impact. The idea came from a small group of students two years ago. Using the student leadership fund, students ran a trial with the new paper to ensure compatibility with printers and usability for staff and students. Feedback was positive, and now schools across VSB are able to choose sugar sheet when ordering their supplies. 

Participation in the Learning by Nature initiative 

Thanks to the generosity of the BC Parks Foundation, VSB is proud to be one of six inaugural school districts to take part in the Learning by Nature program. The program helps schools transform their grounds into outdoor learning environments where students can track and enhance biodiversity, improve health and learning outcomes and build meaningful connections to nature right in their schoolyards. VSB’s first schools to take part in the program were Grenfell Elementary and David Lloyd George Elementary. Students, together with project architects, representatives from the BC Parks Foundation, the City of Vancouver and VSB staff, gathered to co-design and provide input for the outdoor learning spaces. 

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These initiatives represent only a small sample of all the wonderful ways sustainability thrives across VSB! Keep an eye on our social media channels for more sustainability stories and tune into After the Bell at the end of the month for a special episode in honour of Earth Month. In the episode, we speak with educators and students about how climate literacy can grow in the classroom and beyond!