As part of our Challenge, we want to encourage networking and information sharing among Pickering schools, many of which are already making great strides towards sustainability.

• Completion of two greening projects: a large outdoor classroom and a shady tree grove with help from the Toyota Evergreen Learning Grounds Foundation; the ribbon-cutting ceremony was held June 2009
• Participation in the Adopt-a-Park program: students have adopted Bruce Handscomb Park and pick up litter there several times a year, as well as cleaning up the school grounds on Earth Day
• Using checklists of energy-saving tasks, overseen by students
• Initiating a recycling program for paper and plastic products
• Celebrating Earth Hour by turning off all unnecessary lights and appliances
• Boomerang lunches in which students and staff bring lunches in reusable containers and take non-compostable garbage home with them for disposal or recycling
• Devoting class time to environmental issues and offering field trips to conservation areas to promote environmental awareness
• Planning for a large sand installation to include a living fence, shade trees, and natural components (armour stone, wooden seating, etc.); this project is contingent upon receiving a grant from the Earth Day Canada Community Environment Fund.

• Powerless Hours, held monthly to reduce energy consumption
• Boomerang lunches (take lunch waste home) and a recycling competition, to reduce waste
• Clean-ups of the schoolyard and Rick Hall Park three times each year
• Painting of front hallway with an eco theme
• Walk-to-school week
• Maintenance of a storybook garden and a drought-tolerant garden

Altona Forest Public School
This Silver ECO School:

• Has adopted Woodsmere Community Park − students pick up litter in the park every week
• Grows water plants for use in the neighbouring Altona Forest Conservation Park
• Monitors electricity consumption and waste production
• Participates daily in a "boomerang” lunch program where students take home their lunch garbage
• Maintains a perennial garden at the front of the school, tended by students and parents and protects trees planted in the playground that provide shade for students
• Devotes class time to the discussion of environmental issues and conducts excursions to conservation areas to promote environmental awareness among students

This Gold ECO school’s highlights include:

• Participation in the Wattwize program in 2009, in which students developed and implemented a lights-off plan for newly renovated classrooms
• Installation of ten motion and sound-sensitive light switches in closets and storage rooms where the lights are typically left on all day
• Planting hardy native trees to shade buildings and pathways and provide habitat and food for birds and butterflies
• Monitoring water quality at four locations in Duffins Creek and the Rouge River, through a grant from TD Friends of the Environment
• Monitoring groundwater quality, invasive species and vandalism in Altona Forest through the Healthy Headwaters Initiative of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
• Offering co-op placements in which students undertake environmental work

• Using energy conservation checklists of energy-saving tasks (e.g., turning off lights) every day, overseen by a student monitor for each class
• Encouraging boomerang lunches, in which students and staff bring lunches in reusable containers and take non-compostable garbage home with them for disposal or recycling
• Developing a butterfly garden using native plants
• Hosting a presentation by the Earth Rangers Team that focused on the need for the conservation of wildlife habitat
• Collecting hundreds of milk bags, which are crocheted into sleeping mats for African children