Dunbarton High School: “The Greenest School on Earth”

Dunbarton High School is a secondary school located in Durham District School Board and has certified for nine years as an Ontario EcoSchool. Just last week Dunbarton was recognized as “The Greenest School on Earth.”

The annual award is presented by the Centre for Green Schools, and Dunbarton was chosen as number one from 40 nominees across 20 countries. Following in the eco-footprints of schools based in Bali, Hong Kong, and Kenya, Dunbarton is the first school in the Western Hemisphere to win the award. A very significant reason for the selection of Dunbarton, “… was the student involvement. The judges were very impressed with how dedicated the students are in bettering Dunbarton and their overall community and what a leadership role they have taken to green the school.”

In reflecting on the award, student leaders at the school acknowledged it was less about a state-of-the-art building and more about the efforts of the people involved. As Sanwal in grade 11 explains: “It’s mostly about having a sense of community. We are always involved with our neighbours, and we learn a lot about how to tackle issues. For instance, compost: we have worked out a system so we can use municipal composting by putting our bins at neighbouring homes. It works very well.”

The dedicated EcoTeam and lead teacher David Gordon have worked hard in their EcoSchools program, building a solid foundation in Energy Conservation and Waste Minimization, alongside innovations like their hand-built ‘bee condominiums’. One grade twelve student, Kabir, notes that the diversity of sections in the program allows students to: “Focus in one area, honing in on school energy, or say tree planting, and then later focus on something else. This builds a more balanced school in terms of environmental options.”

Claire, also in grade twelve, expands on this idea: “We put into the curriculum stuff we were doing in our own time, mix it in. So we learn about native species in the classroom and then put knowledge into practice by planting around the school.”

Clearly it was this level of concerted, collective effort that made Dunbarton “The Greenest School on Earth!”