by Brandi Sanchez, Programs and Operations Coordinator

Over the past few weeks, a common theme has been emerging across classrooms at Friends School: students have been digging into what sustainability looks like, not just as an idea, but in practice. This feels especially important right now, after such a dry winter and with growing concerns about water and resources in our region.

During our Middle School Immersion Week, students explored sustainability from several different angles. One group looked closely at the impact of fast fashion, including water use, pollution, and waste, and then learned to sew and upcycle their own clothing. Another focused on what sustainable gardening looks like in Colorado, designing and building garden beds that are now ready for planting at our north campus. Learn more about MS Immersion courses here.

That work is continuing through Agricultural April, where 7th and 8th graders will plant, irrigate, and care for those beds. The goal isn’t just to grow food, but to grow it for others. We’re hopeful that what students harvest can be shared through our community pantry and other local giving efforts. This is an ongoing, hands-on project that connects science, sustainability, and community in a meaningful, visible way. Learn more about Agricultural April here.

5th grade Student Government chose water usage as their focus this year and is developing a campaign aimed at creating meaningful change. They’ve already led an all-school elementary gathering where they taught younger students strategies for conserving water, installed timers at sinks, and created a guide to help families reduce water use at home. Read more about their project here, and view the 5th Grade Water Conservation Guide here.

7th graders have just wrapped up their Science Fair, which was also centered on sustainability, with kids designing experiments and models to tackle real-world environmental challenges. Projects explored innovative ideas such as growing crops underground, generating electricity from food waste, identifying uses for old tires, capturing energy from motion and gravity, and investigating urban designs that reduce carbon emissions. See examples of students’ projects here. 

Alongside all of this, we’ve been asking ourselves a pretty simple question as a school: If this is what we’re teaching, how are we living it? Because sustainability can’t just be something we talk about with students. It has to be something they see us doing, too.

That’s showing up in small, intentional ways. At community events like the Family Heritage Potluck, we ask families to bring their own dishes to reduce waste. For our Winter Market, students sourced materials from Arts Parts Creative Reuse Center, using repurposed supplies to create the items they crafted and sold. Through our upcoming Rummage Sale, we’re creating an opportunity for items to be reused rather than thrown away. Through clothing and gear swaps, we’re trying to make it easy to pass things along instead of storing them or sending them to landfills. Learn more about the Rummage Sale here.

As you’re sorting through things at home this spring, we invite you to add any winter gear or Halloween costumes your children have outgrown to your rummage sale donations. We’ll hold onto these for next year’s swaps so they can continue to be used within our community.

None of these choices are huge on their own. But together, they start to add up. More importantly, they show students that this kind of thinking isn’t just something we learn about. It’s something we practice. That connection between learning and living is where this work starts to stick. And across classrooms and grade levels, that’s the throughline right now: Small actions matter, learning can lead somewhere real, and our students are more than capable of being part of that.

We’re proud of the work they’re doing and I’m so grateful to be part of a community that’s willing to do it alongside them.