St. Ignatius

Sustainability

A.M.D.G.

The SI community acknowledges that we benefit from lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone people whose independent tribe, the Yelamu, originally inhabited the City and County of San Francisco. 

SI teaches students to be with and for other people by committing to acts of service and cultivating empathy. From these teachings, many students see the most vital part of caring for living beings is through a commitment to sustainability. 

For the past years, the school’s environmentally-focused service club has brought awareness of the most pressing issues of our planet and invited the community to come together to work toward solutions. 

This club, now called the St. Ignatius Green Team, works in affiliation with the Bay Area Youth Climate Summit, a youth lead organization leading the next generations into a greener future. 

Green Team

In the past few years, the Green Team has been focusing on changes on and surrounding our campus. Some things we accomplished are:

  • Non-Lenten Mondays students are served a meatless lunch to bring more awareness that eating less animal products is not so difficult
  • Hosted cleanups on Sunset Blvd. outside of our school and on various spots on Ocean Beach
  • Hosted documentary screenings that were approved as GOYBs (Required assignments for junior Religious Studies Students)

Fun Facts

  • The Father Sauer Academy, the on-campus middle school, has created two garden plots to learn about the importance of plants.
  • Our graduation gowns are biodegradable.
  • The junior ethics class has a unit dedicated to ecological justice.

Student Statements

In order to create a more equitable society, we need to implement sustainability into each aspect of our lives. Fighting for a better future is the best way to use our gifts. –Nerissa Liu ’23

The effects of climate change, pollution, deforestation, and our lifestyles have had negative impacts on humanity, the planet, and global ecosystems. Together, we can work together to find solutions that have lasting impacts and work for everyone! –Daniel Mejia ’23

Student Resources

Bay Area Youth Climate Summit—A teen led initiative featuring workshops, volunteer opportunities, and an annual summit encouraging students to work towards a sustainable future. Applications for positions are accepted once a year. Visit their website https://www.baycs.org/ for more information. 

Netflix Documentaries:

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret—Covering the effects of livestock on our planet.

Game Changers—The benefits of plant-based eating on athleticism.

Seaspiracy—Effects of human activity on our oceans.

Story of Plastic—How people’s lives are damaged by plastic production and disposal.

Links

The environment is very important to our school. Here at SI, we are proud to show our commitment to protecting the planet. We have many passionate students who are a part of Green Team, our school’s eco club, that have shared their stories below

 We have successfully eliminated plastic bottles and food wrap from our cafeteria, switched from paper to online report cards and schedules, and are stirring up ideas. 

Follow us on Instagram: @greenteamsi


Sustainability Resources

Educational Documentaries to watch:

  • Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (on Netflix) ~ “It shocked me to see how much water it takes to raise a cow” -Kylie Slevin ‘21
  • The Game Changers (on Netflix) ~ “I had no idea how much a plant based diet impacted athletic ability” - Dory Miller ‘22
  • Just Eat It (on Youtube) ~ “It really opened my eyes to see how big a problem food waste is” - Natalie Tam ‘21
  • Our Planet (Netflix) ~ “Absolutely amazing to see how nature changes and how humans impact the Earth” - Tom Murphy

Hear Our Stories

Dory Miller

Hi! My name is Dory Miller, and I’m a junior here at SI. I have always found myself  happiest in nature, and for that reason, I want to do everything in my ability to combat the dangers of climate change that our planet faces. I have followed a vegetarian and vegan diet since the eighth grade, so I make it a priority to promote the importance of how a plant-based diet can make a huge difference on our carbon footprints. As a member of Green Team for the past year, I love the opportunity to educate others on how to make a more sustainable community, both locally and globally. This summer, I was a member of the Youth Advisory Council for the Bay Area Youth Climate as a part of the social media team. With an amazing group of other high school students, I helped plan and promote a nationwide Climate Summit discussing climate activism through sustainability, policy change, entrepreneurship, scientific research, and more. I hope this page can help others create a more sustainable lifestyle. We are all in this fight for climate justice together!


Nerissa Liu

Hi I’m Nerissa, a sophomore at SI. Climate change is slowly and painfully killing the organisms globally. Wallows of oil and pieces of plastic throw ecosystems out of balance. Do my words burn the depths of your lungs? Environmental issues affect all of us no matter what part of the world we live in or what we believe or do not. People in “utopian” cities can pretend the elephant in the room does not exist. Some think they are going extinct anyway. We cannot let them weigh us down. We cannot drown with them. That is why I plan on dedicating my life to use fiction and poetry to write about the environmental crises which affect all living beings. In order to take the first steps of my trek, I feel my way around in the ambiguous black oil of language and educate myself on the uniqueness and interconnectedness of environmental problems.


Natalie Tam

Hi! I’m Natalie Tam and I love this wonderful planet! I just want to create a clean and sustainable environment so future generations can enjoy the things I love about nature too. I hope to one day make positive changes in government and educate others on how to live a green life. Some of the steps I have taken to help the earth: I am a vegetarian, my family composts, I try to bike places, and I limit my use of plastic. I love to bike, hike, swim, and garden! I am committed to protecting this amazing planet that is the only home we have.

 


Kylie Slevin

My name is Kylie Slevin and I’m a senior at SI. One of the main reasons our species fails to face the reality of climate change is because we have disconnected ourselves from the natural world. We continue to damage the natural balance and at this rate will soon kill off ourselves along with every other species. Life is so much more beautiful when intertwined with nature and the way to achieve real sustainable progress is to admire the beauty of nature and recognize it in ourselves. I love the planet because of the impressive balance it contains, every being proposers from one another. It pains me to know I am part of a species that disrupts that balance so I work to identify my natural connection and change the harmful way we live.