Our mission is to engage students, teachers, schools, and staff throughout our district in sustainability learning initiatives to enhance environmental awareness and improve operational efficiencies.
DCSD Sustainability
Our mission is to engage students, teachers and schools throughout our district in sustainability learning initiatives. Our goal is to provide the opportunity for every student in our district to receive environmental education as part of their learning experience in DCSD.
Engage
Sustainability initiatives provide authentic student-led learning experiences that are inclusive of all learning abilities. Students have opportunities to develop and enhance their teamwork and collaboration skills.
Empower
The Office of Sustainability provides ongoing professional development opportunities throughout the year.
Educate
CAS aligned school-wide sustainability initiatives such as school gardens, recycling programs and energy reduction competitions bring students together through collaborative learning and celebrations.
Sustainability Initiatives
Energy and Water Conservation
Indoor and Outdoor Garden
Outdoor Learning Spaces
Waste Diversion Programs
Climate and Ecosystems
Chicken Coop Programs
Energy Conservation
Enhance Energy Awareness
Schools show collaborative ways to educate their fellow students and staff on how to reduce energy at their school. Students will conduct energy experiments, calculate heat loss, create energy awareness campaigns and work together as a whole school to reduce electricity.
Indoor and Outdoor school gardens are a wonderful way to use the schoolyard as a classroom, reconnect students with the natural world and the true source of their food, and teach them valuable gardening and agriculture concepts and skills that integrate with several subjects, such as math, science, art, health and physical education, and social studies, as well as several educational goals, including personal and social responsibility.
Outdoor spaces will reduce the burden on indoor classrooms while providing fresh air, hands-on learning opportunities, and the health benefits associated with increased access to nature. Studies show that spending time outdoors is critical to student academic, physical, and mental wellbeing.
Recycling programs start by understanding what items can be reused again. Teachers help kids to analyze the types of trash the school is producing. Both teachers and students identify what materials can be recycled instead of being thrown away. Recycling Programs have many engaging activities that teach students about human impact.
Composting efforts are good for the earth and the school. Composting is a great way for students to learn about food, resource recovery, and closed-loop systems. It can also be a way to bring the school together since it requires participation from the entire learning community. Students will see the impact of their actions and better understand the importance of diverting food scraps and organic material from the landfill.
Creating and implementing a composting program provides learning opportunities across all subjects, creates opportunities to develop leadership, problem solving and communication skills. Curriculum can be built around the composting program and individual courses can connect compost to other content subjects.
Chickens are an exciting part of the school curriculum. Schoolyard flocks are used in active learning programs where students receive a hands-on education. In addition to being fun for the classroom, backyard chickens help educate students on responsibility, biology, animal care, economics, marketing, and of course, where their food comes from.
District wide programs for student wide energy management. Best practices for energy conservation used district wide.
Recycling
All locations in DCSD have access to regular scheduled recycling. DCSD recycles glass, aluminum, paper, cardboard, plastics and tin with Waste Managements single stream recycle program.
e-recycle
Electronic recycle is an ongoing effort at DCSD. All expired electronics sent to our warehouse go to a reputable recycling company.
Metal Recycling
Unwanted or unused metal parts get recycled through Rocky Mountain Metal Recycling.
Onsite Composting
School throughout the district perform on-site composting at their school. The scraps from the cafeteria get turned into compost and used in School Gardens
Textile Recycle
26 schools have textile recycling available at their school
