By Theresa Glatstein
When presented with the opportunity to join Adamah’s Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition, Seattle Jewish Community School, a K-5 school, proudly jumped on board. This seemed to us like a great opportunity to enhance our practices. One of our core values is Makom / מקום (place), which include the statements: We acknowledge and honor that we reside on the land of the Coast Salish People; we appreciate the wonder that surrounds us, across our region; and we recognize our responsibility to steward the environment through sustainable practices.
After creating a Green Team composed of staff and parent leaders to lead our efforts, our next step was to enlist our students in our environmental efforts. Adamah’s resources helped to guide us as environmental stewards. An easy, first step for our school was improving our onsite waste management. With the funding from a grant through the State of Washington’s Department of Ecology, we were able to purchase color-coded trash cans for recycling, trash and compost. (In Seattle, we are fortunate that composting is included in garbage services.) Our fifth grade students both taught the younger students how to properly sort their refuse at the end of each day and checked the bins to ensure they were properly sorted.
