Taking Action On Climate Change

Students listened to engaging speakers making a difference on a local and global scale, and collaborated with other students on how they can lead change in their school and communities. Keynote speakers included Dr. Susan Deering, a family physician and co-chair of the Sunnybrook Green Task Force, which is focused on reducing the hospital’s impact on the environment, and James Alden of Canopy Planet, an NGO dedicated to eliminating the use of ancient and endangered forests in the pulp and paper industry globally.  “The summit was a great opportunity to learn about and take action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals related to climate change,” said Rita Gravina, Director of Global Learning at BSS.

Two BSS students, Anne Z ’26 and Emilie C ’30, led an insightful workshop on the environmental impact of fast fashion and practical ways to reduce it. They highlighted the school-wide BSS clothing and textile drive, which has diverted more than 2,000 pounds of material from landfill each year since its launch in 2023. Donations of gently used clothing, footwear, bedding, towels and other textiles are resold through a student-run pop-up thrift store, with proceeds supporting a local environmental organization. Remaining items are shared with clothing banks, and anything unsuitable for reuse is sent to textile-recycling programs. As part of their session, Anne and Emilie also guided participants through the behind-the-scenes considerations involved in running the initiative, from logistics and stakeholder engagement to marketing and operations.