Sustainability

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. 

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)

• 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.

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

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.

• https://www.sfheritage.org/land-acknowledgement/