This winter, an environment club was started at my school, Templeton secondary school, in East Vancouver. Many felt that there was a void that needed to be filled in the schools student leadership when it came to sustainability and the support at the first meeting was tremendous: 30 students and five teachers came forward to take part, I being one of the students. Since we formed, our club has connected with resources across Vancouver as we strive to educate ourselves about how we can make our school more sustainable, and we were amazed by how many great resources exist in Vancouver.
The first event the Templeton Environment Club attended was the inaugural Vancouver School Board Sustainability Conference, which was held at Magee secondary in January. The conference brought together secondary school students and teachers from across the district, as well as members of city council, respected environmental officials and local environmental organizations.
Keynote speakers at the conference included Dr. John Robinson, who spoke about his innovative work at the UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS), Dr. Kai Chen, who had just testified before the Joint Review Panel on the Enbridge Pipeline Proposal, and Dr. Vanessa Timmer, co-founder of the Environmental Youth Alliance and the One Earth initiative.
Its the goal of the Vancouver School Board to become the greenest school district in North America, and it was announced at the conference that schools across Vancouver would have a weekly compost pick-up program implemented early next school year. This was especially exciting for schools like Templeton, as we dont have the resources to compost waste. The conference was a big success, allowing school groups to connect with other eco-minded students and gain a different perspective on how to help create sustainability at their schools.
Intrigued by Dr. Robinsons speech, the Templeton Environment Club recently visited the UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability for a tour. The cutting-edge building is serving as a living laboratory to test the latest technology and concepts for urban green buildings, from using wood instead of steel for the four-story buildings framework to using all of the rainwater that falls on the building. It is also net-positive, taking in more carbon than it emits, partly through capitalizing on the poor energy efficiency of surrounding buildings. Thinking to the future, many components of CIRS can be disassembled, reducing waste when the buildings life is over. It took $37 million and 10 years for CIRS to come together, but it has been fully operational for more than two years and it was eye-opening to visit.
Other secondary schools with environment clubs have also been an excellent and welcoming resource for us. The president of our environment club, Brandon Hong, has attended ECHO meetings each month. ECHO is a VSB student network focused on sustainability, and its helping our environment club at Templeton learn from more experienced groups. Additionally, representatives from Youth for Climate Justice Now have recently given a presentation at our school, as part of their third annual Earth Day celebration, march and festival on Commercial Drive.
It has been an amazing experience for our environment club to have so many resources to inspire and guide us. The Templeton Environment Club has many ideas on initiatives for the future, such as new composting and recycling systems, awareness campaigns, a school garden and orchard, and new water stations to encourage people to bring reusable water bottles to school. Its a really exciting time to be starting up an environment club in Vancouver, and we cant wait to start implementing our ideas next year.
