The Green School program has had some unexpected benefits for teachers at Takhini Elementary School in Whitehorse.

One of the projects the school undertook in an effort to become more environmentally friendly was energy conservation through turning off unnecessary lights.

"Many of the teachers found that their power bills at home dropped as their environmental awareness grew at school," says principal Heather Thompson.

Last spring Takhini Elementary School was named an Earth School, one of fewer than 50 in all of Canada. The designation means that Takhini students have completed and recorded 1000 separate environmental action projects.

"Learners in Action" -- the Green School program -- is sponsored by the national, non-profit SEEDS Canada Foundation (Society, Environment and Energy Development Studies). Earth School status is the highest level of achievement in the program.

Getting there wasn't easy, says Thompson. It took more than four years and a lot of ingenuity.

"When you start out, there's a lot of flexibility in what you can count as a project," she says. "For example, Grade One children might have a bulletin board display on autumn leaves. But as we moved on, it got a lot more complicated."

The children have built 60 to 70 bird houses and bird feeders over the years, says Thompson. They have set up bins of compost worms to recycle the lunch scraps, established a system of energy monitors who make sure unnecessary lights are turned off, and learned to pick up garbage from the school yard instead of ignoring it.

The school is filled with flowers and potted plants. The children have grown plants from seeds and cuttings, sold them, and contributed the money to a number of environmental projects. They have also researched and written reports on a variety of animals, from salmon to tigers.

"The little guys love tigers, so that was one we chose," says Thompson.

The biggest project and the one with the widest impact was the development of a recycling depot for the whole community, the principal says. The Takhini Recyclers project is the work of students in Grades Five, Six and Seven in Mrs. Ratcliffe's room.

Every day students check and sort the materials brought in for recycling and deposited in big green bins outside the school. Periodically, Raven Recycling comes to the school to collect the sorted materials.

Now that the drive to achieve Earth School status is finished, Takhini Elementary has shifted into maintenance mode, Thompson says.

"We don't talk about it as much, but it's now part of daily life. For example, you don't throw out anything without looking at it to see how it can be re-used."

As the days get shorter, the energy monitors will soon start patrolling the halls to turn off unnecessary lights, children are encouraged to bring litterless lunches, and the compost worms are still feasting happily on the leftovers.

In the playground, a protected area has been set aside and natural ground cover is being encouraged to return to soil trampled bare by hundreds of small feet.

There are less tangible effects too. When discussing the state of the world with children, says Thompson, you have to be careful that they don't feel overwhelmed by the size and seriousness of the problems. Through the Green School program, students at Takhini Elementary have learned that their actions can make a difference.

"It has helped the children feel empowered," the principal says. "What we're looking at is having thinkers down the line."

"Our children have been called upon to act as resource people for other schools."

For more information about Green Schools and the Learners in Action program, contact the Yukon Department of Education or SEEDS Canada Foundation, Suite 440, 10169-104 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1A5.