How was your partner organization founded originally?
Carlmont Green Team was initially founded with the mission to make our campus more sustainable. Schools are one of the greatest contributors to environmental footprints in a town/city, and Carlmont Green Team aims to work with our school to help lower that footprint. Our projects range from waste management, to climate literacy, to community gardens.
What is your biggest success as a partner organization?
One of our biggest successes has been our garden project. We’ve managed to plant three gardens across campus, with some even yielding produce for us to enjoy. Our garden projects have been especially successful because we’ve been able to integrate lessons about climate change and its impact on agriculture, as well as the impacts of farming on the environment as we planted them. They’ve been a really great way for our club members to get involved and learn more about our planet and sustainability.
Have you ever tried an initiative in your school and failed? How did your organization reroute?
In the past, we have attempted to start a waste management program that included an active composting site to generate compost to use for our gardens. This initiative failed because we took on too much at once and it soon became difficult to enforce proper waste sorting across a campus of over 2,000 students while simultaneously developing and managing an active composting site on campus. We ended up putting the composting program on hold and focused our efforts on bringing awareness to the garbage issues at our school and encouraging students to properly sort their waste.
How has Go Greenish supported your work, whether through funding, partnerships, orcurriculum?
Go Greenish has supported our work in developing gardens at Carlmont through funding, which allowed us to purchase the necessary materials to build garden beds and plant seeds in locations across campus.
What are some future plans for your organization? How do you plan to use your partnership with Go Greenish in these future plans?
Carlmont Green Team’s future plans include expanding our garden project to include more cycles of seasonal planting and produce gardens. We’re also planning to potentially start a composting program on campus. We hope to use our partnership with Go Greenish to further expand our garden projects and create more green spaces at Carlmont!