By Mandy Moraes, NLPS staff
Students in Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools stepped up to this year’s district challenge to help reduce their environmental impact.
Building on this momentum, the Sustainability Cup ran from early November to mid-March and looked beyond just saving energy. It also focused on cutting waste, raising climate awareness, and encouraging daily habits that help lower the district’s carbon footprint.
All NLPS schools could join the Sustainability Cup, a points-based competition where student teams, with help from teachers and resources, represented their schools. Schools earned points by doing things like energy and waste audits, hosting sweater days, using less paper, and promoting reusable lunch containers. Simple daily actions, such as closing blinds or turning off lights, also counted. Students took the lead by coming up with their own ideas and getting others involved.
By taking part in the challenge, students learned about saving energy and climate change, built leadership skills, and helped shift attitudes in their schools. At the same time, the district is still working toward its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 4.5 percent each year.
All these efforts came together at a celebration banquet on April 16 at Nanaimo District Secondary, where students’ creativity and commitment during the Cup were recognized.
Seaview Elementary’s Green Team showed how sustainability can become part of a school’s culture. With 35 active student leaders and support from the whole school, caring for the environment became part of their daily routine.
Wellington Secondary students also showed their creativity with an Earth Day art and writing contest focused on themes like “Our Power, Our Planet” and cutting down on plastic use. The winning design will appear on canvas tote bags.
In the main competition, Fairview Elementary took first place among elementary schools, with Syuw’en’ct and Seaview coming in second and third, respectively. At the secondary level, Wellington Secondary finished first, followed by Nanaimo District Secondary School and John Barsby Secondary School.
“At the end of the day, they all did some really cool stuff,” said Mary Zuccaro, NLPS Energy Manager. “The challenge really reinforced repetition… The importance of the cup is to help make the world a better place to live. And at the banquets, elementary school kids are so excited to come and sit with the high school kids, especially having that recognition from their high school peers.”
There was also a “mini” Sustainability Cup just for elementary schools, where doing just one activity was enough to take part.