Sustainability Spotlight: Pound Green Team is leading the way

Pound Middle school has an active Green Team that has implemented rewarding sustainability practices within their school. They are succeeding in creating environmentally friendly practices and attitudes every day. Anica Brown, a Pound Middle School teacher, oversees the club. Yet, it was her students that showed the initial interest in making their school more sustainable. Brown shared, “Pound’s Green team began from a group of students in science class who wondered why Pound wasn’t composting our lunches.  They had researched environmental sustainability issues for science class, and found LPS had a few schools composting lunches, and thought Pound should start doing that, too. They wrote a letter to our principal, Dr. Deibler, asking if they could meet with him about Pound being on the list to compost.” This initiative by the students led to a full composting program, which included a video that the Green Team put together explaining how the composting program works.

The Green Team has been together for three years and has accomplished many efforts to help the environment. First, they created a composting video every year since 2016 to help students and staff compost at lunch. They have participated in the Green Schools Recognition Program, Recycle Bowl, and the Trex School Challenge. They have won the Keep America Beautiful Award, and they were also recognized by the City of Lincoln with the Leadership Gold Level for diverting 75% of their garbage from the landfill. Students also participated in the NatGeo Challenge “Pollution Solutions.” Ten of the projects were picked to go to regionals in Kansas, and two teams reached second and third place for the entire competition! 

Now, Pound staff are looking to implement a school garden on their site, which will provide an outdoor space to teach curriculum in new and exciting ways. When asked what advice Brown would give to other schools to ignite a passion for sustainability in students she said, “It is important to look at what other schools have implemented and share ideas through the Sustainability meetings we have at LPS.  That is where I found out about school gardens and visited one this summer at Mickle to get ideas to move forward on our Pound garden process.” 

Pound Middle School, The Green Team, and Anica Brown are working together for the sustainability of their school and fostering positive environmental behaviors in the next generation. They are great example for our district and our community!

 

Updated October 15, 2019