By SYLVIE BERRY

and JOSH LADOUCEUR

Staff Writers

Paying it forward, one less plastic water bottle at a time. That's the message Richmond Street Public School (RSPD) students are conveying to the world.

The Thorold school has undergone an extreme green makeover in the past four months with the help of Niagara College Environmental Management and Assessment students Daniel Lusina, 27, Erica Dobie, 21, and Sam Ondrias, 26.

The trio introduced faculty and students to the EcoSchools status program in November 2009. Dobie was inspired one afternoon when picking up her cousin. She spotted a sustainability poster in the school describing its importance and how much it's needed.

"I saw it [the poster] and it kind of sparked something, an interest to get involved and see what they were doing, if there was something that I could contribute," says Dobie.

She later pursued the Learning Resource teacher Joe Bond, now the school's Green Team co-ordinator, and the combo got the ball rolling immediately.

The EcoSchools program is an environmental education program that demonstrates environmental learning for all students in the classroom. To achieve EcoSchools status, the students must demonstrate knowledge and improvements in all major categories of the program. 

The main focuses are on energy conservation, sustainability (the greening of school grounds), minimizing waste, ecological curriculum-based teaching and the school-wide initiatives. Points are awarded by following the guidelines provided by EcoSchools resources and the school's status will be determined in May depending on the number of points earned. A school can be awarded with a gold, silver or bronze status. 

At RSPD, students in the Green Team are responsible for monitoring the use of energy in the classrooms daily, meaning shutting off the lights and computer monitors when necessary; they try to manage where the waste goes and in what bins, and are also responsible for taking the green bins outside at the end of the day and inside in the mornings. 

As a whole, the school has already eliminated close to 90 per cent of the plastic water bottles coming into the building.

"We're trying to push Brita filters and for the kids to bring in those aluminum or plastic reusable bottles. We're also telling other schools that come in, we're a bottle-less school now," says Bond.

Keeping all the children focused and organized is no easy task. Lusina, Dobie and Ondrias can't help but express their gratitude towards Bond and other faculty for their dedication and loyalty to the project.

"Joe is just absolutely astronomical with organizing all the kids and being on top of them. If it wasn't for teachers like Joe and the custodians, none of this would be possible," says Lusina.

During the week of Feb. 22 to 26, the trio performed a formal waste audit at the school, sorting through all green bins, recycling bins and garbage bins. 

Waste is measured and then sorted into specific categories such as aluminums, plastics, cardboards and organics.

"Anything you can possibly imagine being waste, there is most likely a category for it," says Ondrias.

The formal waste audit was performed in order to measure the improvements of the school's effort to reduce their waste production.

While the project's intentions are to stimulate the students' awareness of the environment and the impact they have through their day to day activities, Bond has another perspective. 

Referring to the movie Pay It Forward, Bond has chosen to convey to the students the power of passing on the message of conservation and sustainability.

"You teach a couple of children how to do it, they get into it, they get engrossed into it and they teach two more, and two more and two more kids. Before you know it, it becomes a big idea and that's what we're trying to teach."