Every year April 22nd marks Earth Day; the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement; a day set aside to honor, celebrate and take action for our one precious Earth.

The 4J Climate Action team has put together a small collection of  resources for you use with your students to bring awareness to Earth Day and small shifts we can all take to make a big impact for our planet. 

You will find elementary, middle and high school resource pages, as well as Earth Week Actions to challenge yourself and your students to make small habit shifts to make a big difference. 

The Short Story of 4J Climate Action Shifts

In the Eugene area we have all witnessed the devastation of the global climate crisis, with forest fire smoke choking our air, drought leaving many communities in need of water and crazy weather phenomena all over the world. All hope is not lost. 

Over the past several years Eugene 4J has made some small strides toward climate action in accordance with our part of the Eugene Climate Collaborative and some actions stated in the City of Eugene CAP 2.0. In May of 2019, the 4J School board unanimously passed a Climate Resolution stating the importance of this issue for our students and our community,  a list of goals and ways we will accomplish them.  A 4J Climate Justice Team was formed in 2020 working toward meeting our district climate action goals and integrating climate change education across PK-12 in all subject areas. 4J students are calling us adults to get involved  and they need our allyship in action. 

Since the return to buildings after covid, our district has been quietly working away on our goal areas, making some decent strides to meeting many of them. This year our district has decided to become more intentional with our climate resolution and a five year climate action plan was approved by the Executive Leadership team on January 21st. A Climate Task Force is being formed at the district level and our website will soon have information about what we have been doing and what is to come. Stay tuned for more info!

As a kick off, Earth month will be a big district wide extravaganza with learning opportunities for all staff and students utilizing the SHiFT campaign. There will be an Eco Challenge to set personal goals to make small shifts that lead to big differences. A resource guide is in it's final stages and will be shared by district leadership. This ensures all sites will receive a cohesive message and we can all move forward together on the same page.

Being one of the largest employers in the area, we have an ethical responsibility to our community to shift our collective practices toward sustainability and carbon emissions reduction strategies. We already have many things to celebrate yet miles to go to walk our walk as an entity. I am excited to help shepherd the way so our district may become a model for sustainability and climate action across our community, the state and the nation. It takes a village to green a school district and I have faith we can work together to do this thing!

Small shifts make a big difference in helping our community with climate action goals! Let's do this!