The Eco Club at Saltus, led by Ms Romatowski, comprises of a group of senior and middle-school students who care about the environment.

The group has been working hard throughout the school year to chart a thoughtful and intentional course of change.

Along with several classroom projects throughout the entire school, the Eco Club has implemented four key initiatives:

Hot lunch containers

On November 2, 2018, the Eco Club, with assistance from Keep Bermuda Beautiful and Greenrock, conducted a trash audit.

It learnt that on this day, the school produced 81 pounds of trash. Much of this generated by disposable lunch containers.

Thanks to the generosity of Saltus parents Adam and Emily Hopkin, the Eco Club is thrilled to announce the end of disposable plastic plate use throughout the school for lunches.

For one year only, all students who sign up for a hot lunch at the school will be given a “BPA-free” lunch container, which is portioned. These containers are a part of the O2GO ecological product line, and include a reusable knife, fork and spoon. Saltus is very grateful to our donor family for allowing the Eco Club to bring this wonderful initiative to the school.

Solar installation

The Eco Club and Saltus are also pleased to announce that thanks to alum and parent, Neil Stempel, and the Stempel Foundation, Saltus will be adding to our solar power. The success of the solar panels on the Senior School, has led to the development of another initiative.

Before the end of the calendar year, we will have solar panels on the roof of Upper Primary. The students will be able to see how much power is produced daily. There will also be storage batteries, which will give our students the chance to understand this developing technology.

Vegetable Gardens

The Eco Club has taken on renovating the Michelle Outerbridge Memorial Garden opposite the entrance to the Upper Primary Library, maintaining a vertical garden and developing raised-bed vegetable gardens as a joint venture with the Year 6 classes. The garden should be available for different projects in September 2019.

Marine Environments

Finally, building on the success of the Saltus beach clean-ups organised by Ms Powell and KBB, Saltus joined the French American School of Princeton for a beach clean-up at Grape Bay this week and a round-table discussion on ocean plastics.

This is an exciting opportunity for Saltus middle-school students to engage in meaningful work and discussions that build connections with other communities while benefiting the Bermuda community.

Furthermore, the Eco Club has raised funds, through Earth Week activities and cookie decorating to adopt a marine animal. The animal will be chosen by middle and upper-school students through an awareness campaign.

Each of these initiatives are designed to raise awareness and build a better future for Saltus students and the environment in which we live.