Des élèves de LCC se sont unis pour rendre une beauté aux rivages du Canal Lachine

Posted on May 5, 2015 by admin

Chaque année, des milliers de Canadiens s’unissent pour lutter contre les déchets riverains, qui menacent gravement nos voies d’eau navigables, et prennent part au Grand nettoyage des rivages canadiens. Il s’agit d’une initiative de conservation de l’Aquarium de Vancouver et le WWF et du plus important programme de conservation par l’action directe au Canada.

De plus, un des piliers du Round Square est la protection et la prise de conscience de l’environnement, il est donc logique que nous soyons impliqués.

À ce jour, le Grand nettoyage des rivages a mobilisé plus de 500 000 Canadiens des quatre coins du pays pour contribuer à garder nos rivières, lacs et océans en santé pour les collectivités et les espèces sauvages qui en dépendent.

Un groupe d’élèves du Middle School de Lower Canada College a prêté main-forte à la lutte contre les déchets riverains en procédant au nettoyage du Canal Lachine entre Wellington et Charlevoix, le samedi 2 mai 2015 de 10h00 à 12h00.

Voici des exemples de ce que les élèves ont ramassé :

– Mégots de cigarettes (en grande quantité), bouchons de bouteille de bière, sacs en plastique sur les berges et dans le canal, portes manteaux, aérosols…

Voici quelques impressions des participants :

« J’ai du mal à comprendre comment, j’ai pu trouver un pot d’échappement de voiture au bord du canal! »

« C’était génial de pouvoir aider notre environnement de cette façon! The amount of trash accumulated in the canal was crazy! »

« J’étais contente d’être capable d’aider l’environnement et c’était amusant de le faire avec mes amis. »

“The Great Canadian Shoreline cleanup was a chance us to take care of the Lachine Canal’s waters and shores in the morning.”

« C’était une bonne expérience, où nous étions conscient des conséquences directes de ces déchets sur les océans. »

“I was very surprised about how much garbage was being thrown on the ground especially when the trash can was just a few feet away.”

« J’étais dégouté par tous les mégots de cigarette, de plastique et les nombreux autres déchets qui polluent la Terre. »

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Earth Week

Posted on April 21, 2015 by admin

Welcome to Earth Week at LCC!

Nine years ago LCC began a major overhaul of key elements of school operations aimed at minimizing our impact on the local environment. Significant funds were spent on new energy efficient furnaces, renewal of old ventilation systems, and the installation of energy efficient lighting. We know that those system changes have saved the school well over $1million in energy costs.

For the past several years one of our school’s strategic priorities has been a greater concentration on enhanced environmental practices. Many projects have been initiated. We now work with an outside environmental consulting company and concentrate on eight separate categories for environmental enhancement. Most are measurable and provide concrete evidence and benchmarks of how we are doing from year to year. The 8 areas are the following:

Energy Consumption
Procurement
Waste management
Water management
Emissions
Land use
Food systems
Community Outreach & Education

In each of these categories we can measure from year to year how well we are doing. For example, last year we saved 35-thousand litres of water per- student because of system enhancements, and over the year we also saved approximately 36-hundred kilowatts of power per student. We will have data for each of the categories again at the end of this school year for comparative purposes.

In 2010 our Board formally adopted a “Sustainability Commitment” to guide us institutionally and our students have become active as members of our Green Team and Junior School Recycling Squad. It is impressive to witness students teaching students on this topic that is so vital for our future in Canada and across the community of nations.

My thanks to students who are committed volunteers, especially Green Team members for their leadership, initiative and courage in the name of sustainability. Whether it’s an anti-idling campaign, “no-waste lunches”, our students are proactive and are making a difference.

We only have one planet. However large or small, let’s all find ways to protect our natural world. We need to share the mindset that we do so for our children’s children’s children and beyond. – Chris Shannon, Headmaster

The LCC Tree: Put the Right Waste in the Right Place!

Posted on November 17, 2014 by admin

Our home planet, Earth, is not in good condition. We’re in the midst of a mass extinction; our atmosphere has 400 parts carbon dioxide out of any given million particles and there are still many people who aren’t yet aware of this.

So how can we, the citizens of this world, help it?

First and foremost, it would help a lot if we focus on our day-to-day habits. You know, the little things people like to do everyday that can pass as unimportant, but after daily repetition, it can become a big deal. It is like saving a nickel every day: nothing of value is earned in the short term, but over the course of 50 years, you get to earn around $900.

Unfortunately, the same is very true for an issue such as waste. A person throws away a plastic cup that could have been recycled in the trash. No biggie, right? Except instead of one person, it’s three quarters of a nation (let’s say, roughly 26 million people), and instead of once in their entire lifetimes, it’s once a day. Even now, it’s not entirely unconceivable that everyone throws away more than one cup a day. Rather, it’s around two or three cups. Running quickly through the numbers for a period of one year, all of a sudden, we have around 1,898,000,000 plastic cups ending up in our dumps when they should be recycled. That’s 1.9 BILLION cups!

To illustrate, take the image of this number line, where the left end represents 0, and the right end, 1 billion:

0——————————————————————————————————— 1 B

To visualize just 1000, here’s 1000 dollar signs:

That same 1000, however, will only be around where the asterisk is:

0 *————————————————————————————————————1 B

(Keep in mind 1 million thousands = 1 billion)

So what happens?

To manage this preventable crisis, this imaginary nation will now have to spend a lot more energy than necessary to deal with this trash.

What can we do then?

The solution is actually super simple and easy to do: Put the right waste in the right place!

It honestly and literally takes you one calorie and two seconds a day just to move yourself to a different bin to get rid of your waste, and because of that, congrats! You just saved yourself the money it takes to deal with 1.9 billion cups!

You’re already seeing this in action: the lights are off during bright days on Senior School lunches in the dining room. Although people hardly notice this, it can add up to a great deal, just like the plastic cup plight I described earlier, but with good things.

Also, there will soon be people regularly stationed around the bins in the dining room to remind you where everything should go. Expect, in the long term, for the three bins to also change a bit. – Andrew Zhang ’17

Media Archives:

A love letter to food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5i-dCv7O8o

More information on the 400 parts per million issue: http://400.350.org/

First Edition of The LCC Tree: Treetober!

Posted on October 20, 2014 by admin

Hello Lions! Welcome to the first post of The LCC Tree, a blog that discusses one environmental topic once a month. This blog will also include really easy tips on what you can do as a person to help, and will also contain initiatives that the SS Green Team will be organizing so you know what you can do to help out at LCC. Finally, to keep things interesting, at the end of each blog, there will be a variety of media links, including informational sites, fact sheets and other web blogs, you can look into if you want to know more.

As our trees are just finishing their spectacular firework of the different tones of red, yellow and orange, what better topic is there to discuss this month other than those very things: trees.

Trees are a catalyst for life in many aspects. Obviously, their most important role is to consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and return the precious oxygen that all life forms on earth require, however, did you know there are over a dozen other ways that trees can contribute to our overall life quality?

Let’s start with a few other oftentimes-unseen uses. First of all, trees provide a basis for life for many animal species and foster ecosystems necessary for the survival of many individuals. In fact, coming from the World Wild Life organization, 80% of all land biodiversity exists in and depends on forests and wooded areas. This means that without trees, most of the animals and plants we have come to know and love will never be able to exist.

Not to mention, we ourselves also depend on forests in our lives. Wood is used in many of our buildings (just look at our LCC dining room!) as well as the making of many commodities. What is a pencil made of? What type of material is your desk, in school and in your home, made from? Where did we get the paper in our notebooks, and in our annual LCC Reads, The Alchemist? Furthermore, I should mention that trees contribute about $24 billion dollars to our economy in Canada, generates more than 190 000 jobs in the forest industry and is the reason why Canada is the primary newsprint producer. So you can see here how we as humans depend on this resource.

Trees also take part in improving our mood as they add color and vigour to our regular, and sometimes repetitive, lives, especially during the fall season. Every morning, when you arrive to school by bus, car, bike or other means, if you have stopped for a moment and looked at our LCC campus or the trees planted along Monkland, you will know what I mean. The vibrant and picturesque colours of those trees have a certain calming effect on the street and our campus.

Sadly, because 80% of all land biodiversity depends on wooded areas, this makes deforestation a pretty effective method of exterminating life on our planet. However, what can we as the population do?

Ways you can help

The easiest and most efficient of all methods is probably to reuse paper and recycle it properly. Reusing paper will not only save you money but lets you make the most of each tree which was put into the composition of the paper. Got a used piece of paper that’s still blank on one side? Keep it in a separate box as scrap paper, so whenever you want to write calculations for a math assignment or plan out an outline for an english essay, you can reuse the paper. Teachers also keep a special box for scrap paper as well, so if you have any paper that’s still blank on one side during class, don’t be afraid to give it to your teacher as spare paper!

If it’s not possible to do the above, you can also opt to recycle the paper. Recycling is a great alternative, albeit not as good as reusing before recycling. When recycling, however, be conscious about other things you are putting into the recycling bin. Paper can be recycled with other paper products so long as it doesn’t have any sort of paint or glue on the paper. This is because the process of recycling paper uses a lot of water, so paint or glue will affect the final outcome after recycling. Moreover, if a paper recycling bin contains something else that’s not a paper product, that entire bin cannot be recycled unless that object is removed, so if you are recycling, you must be careful with what you put into your recycling bin.

IMPORTANT!

As a reminder, LCC’s green, plastic recycling boxes only recycle clean products. This means if you plan to recycle carton, plastic, paper, juice boxes or others, be sure they don’t have anything inside or on the product. For paper, watch for paint and glue as they disrupt their recycling process. For juice boxes and other fluid containers, be sure that they don’t have any juice, milk, etc. in them before putting them in the recycling bins. This goes for the metallic recycling bins as well.

Finally, if you would like to extend your support again at LCC, you can always participate in the SS Green Team’s Treetober Campaign. Starting from October 22 until Halloween, during the advisory periods, we will be accepting donations for the organization we are supporting: One Tree Planted. If you make a donation of $15 or more, you will also be given a free Tree Hugger t-shirt!

For all of Senior School, there will also be a bake sale during the lunch period on October 22. Last but not least, there will also be t-shirt raffles happening in the house office and in and around locker rooms for a chance to win another free Tree Hugger t-shirt! One ticket costs $2 but three tickets will cost $5, and along with the purchase of each ticket, you will also obtain some candy along with it. – Andrew Zhang ’17

Media Archives

Learn more about the organization supported by Treetober! http://onetreeplanted.org/

If you would like to support One Tree Planted and its cause via online donations, you may also donate here.

Another way you can help the environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iIkOi3srLo

Know how to properly recycle not only paper, metal and plastic, but also books, old computers, bottle caps, old furniture, and more. In short, visiting this site basically makes you a recycling master: http://www.earth911.com

If you’re interested in reading some more, here’s another blog about the environment written by Hannah Alper, a young person passionate about the environment: http://www.callmehannah.ca/

Le Grand Nettoyage Des Rivages Canadiens

Posted on April 29, 2014 by admin

Dans le cadre du Le Grand Nettoyage des élèves de LCC se sont unis pour rendre une beauté aux rivages du Canal Lachine.

________________________________________________________________________

Voici les impressions des participants :

C’était génial de pouvoir aider notre environnement de cette façon! The amount of trash accumulated on the shorelines of the canal was crazy! – Paul Virally ’17

J’ai trouvé que cette expérience était vraiment intéressante et enrichissante. I have Learned that we can have a big impact on our environment, positive or negative starting with what we decide to through into the garbage our into our environment. – Michael Fedele ’17

J’étais contente d’être capable d’aider l’environnement et c’était amusant de le faire avec mes amis. Once I got to the Lachine Canal, it was surprising to see how much garbage was scattered along the shoreline. – Alyssa Howard ’17

The Great Canadian Shoreline cleanup was a chance for me and 8 others to take care of the Lachine Canal’s waters and shores in the morning. C’était une bonne expérience, où nous étions conscient des effets de ces déchets sur les océans du monde. – Andrew Zhang ’17

Le grand nettoyage était une expérience différente qui m’a beaucoup surpris. This trip was full of surprises but the thing that surprised me the most was the large quantity of litter, I expected much less. – Erika Kaperonis ’17

I was very surprised about how much garbage was being thrown on the ground especially when the trash can was just a few feet away. Je suis vraiment fière d’avoir aidé l’environnement en ramassant ces déchets. Même s’il pleuvait, c’était très amusant particulièrement parce que j’étais avec mes amis. – Lucia Huang ’17

J’étais dégouté par tous les mégots de cigarette, de plastique et les nombreux autres déchets qui polluent la Terre. I thought that people cared more about our Earth, and I hope that now, people can see how much we really pollute. – Eli Samuel ’17

Ma participation au Grand Nettoyage fut une expérience étonnante. I didn’t realize just how polluted our waters were and how much work needs to be done in order to resolve the crisis that is global warming. – Adam Vandenbussche ’17

It is shocking to realize how eight students were able to fill over four bags of garbage in less than two hours. L’expérience fut si agréable que je compte recommencer l’année prochaine. – Abigail Shine ’17

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