Photo by Stephanie Ezcurra

SERVING ICE CREAM, Alex Fox, Chris Fox and Theron Hawley promote sustainability at an event in the small gym. The day also included an assembly with a speaker from the organization Alliance for Climate Change.

This year’s Fourth Annual Sustainability Week included new and inventive ways for students to be green and learn about environmental issues.

With the help of Ecology teacher Joe Stewart, the Environmental Action Club coordinated a jam-packed week that included in-class workshops, the Sustainability Festival at lunch last Thursday, and for the first time ever, a school wide assembly about global climate change. 

According to club President Elli Pearson, instead of awarding individual prizes to students who rode their bikes to school, this year the Environmental Action Club tried something new.

“For Bike and Walk to School Week we partnered with the Marin Bicycle Coalition and are doing a team challenge,” Pearson said. “The whole team element encourages more of your friends to bike or walk to school.”

For the two-week-long competition, students could make groups of three to five students in which they all carpooled, walked or biked to school. At the end of the two weeks the club raffled off $100 cash as well as $50 gift cards for those who participated.

In addition, students who rode their bikes to lunch last Friday could get free burritos from Burritoville.

According to Stewart, driving out to lunch is the biggest challenge for most teens when it comes to sustainability. 

“Students are excited about getting their  licenses, and during lunch it is hard to tell them not to drive,” he said.

According to a recent Bark survey, 76 percent of students have never biked or walked to school,  and over half of students go out to lunch at least once or twice a week.

“A lot of people don’t want to bike to school by themselves, but when you do it with a friend the problem is solved,” Pearson said. “Because the competition lasts for two weeks it will give more kids a chance to get involved.”

Alliance for Climate Education, the program that presented at the school-wide assembly last Thursday, is a national nonprofit focused on educating high school students about climate change.

This year, the club planned for 27 workshops to come to classes last Tuesday. Teachers were able to sign up for different workshops to teach students about sustainability, conservation, and global warming run by organizations such as Marin Trolleys, Teens Turning Green, and Marin Energy Authority. According to Stewart, teachers signed up for every one of the workshops.

Students from Environmental Action Club organized 26 tables at the Sustainability Fair during lunch last Thursday, ranging from North Bay Conservation Corps to Strauss Ice Cream.

“For lunch on Thursday we went out into the community and asked businesses to come in and set up booths,” Pearson said. “This year we’re having a do-it-yourself booth where you can make your own t-shirt.”

According to Pearson, while Sustainability Week might not change every student’s lifestyle, it will certainly raise awareness of important issues.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily making people have epiphanies, but it’s definitely opening up conversation and getting people talking, which is the first step of making change in your life,” Pearson said.