MCH Green Team Mission Statement:
Here at MCH we are environmental pioneers, dedicated to conservation. By working together, we will educate and create an awareness of how small choices can have a huge impact on our Earth. Our efforts focus on reducing garbage, litter and pollution as well as conserving natural resources.
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We are ambassadors for our Earth.

​Because MCH is surrounded by nature, protected forests, and protected wetlands and has an onsite, organic garden, the students wanted to create a group focused on the preservation of not only our serene, 5-acre campus but the community and world around us. In the Fall of 2016, the students created the MCH Green Team and recruited elementary students to join their cause.

Building off the momentum of the Green Hero Award (won in 2016 by MCH Garden Specialist, Katherine Stewart,) being named a Green Ribbon School in 2016 and winning a Whole Kids grant from the Whole Kids Foundations (sponsored by Whole Foods), the MCH Green Team is focused on making a reduced global footprint and empowering MCH students with tools and information to make a difference.

Why is the MCH Green Team important to you?
"I represent the MCH Green Team because I feel passionate about environmental awareness."
​– MCH Green Team member, age 10

"The MCH Green Team is important to our school because it will help us realize how much garbage, recycling and compost. If we don't help the Earth we will have too many landfills and pollution." - MCH Green Team member, age 9

"I represent the MCH Green Team because I care a lot about the environment and I think the Green Team is a phenomenal idea. It is an honor to be a part of it."
- MCH Green Team member, age 10

"I feel great [about representing the MCH Green Team]. Because I know this is a lot of responsibility and I like that level of responsibility."
- MCH Green Team member, age 9

"The MCH Green Team is important because it helps kids conserve energy and other important power sources. It helps reduce global warming which lead to a happy Earth." - MCH Green Team member, age 11

Why should we recycle and compost?
"So the Earth stays safe and the compost and recycle can be used again."
– MCH Green Team member, age 9 and ¾

"We should recycle and compost to help our Earth have less things on the landfill."
- MCH Green Team member, age 11

​MCH Green Team Facts & Information:

1. The United States has 4.5 percent of the world's population yet consumes over 25 percent of the world's oil.
-U.S. Energy Information Admin and Census Bureau

2. One computer left on 24 hours a day uses between $65 and $115 annually and releases 850-1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.
- University of Massachusetts Amherst

3. It takes 16 times more energy to make a new aluminum can than the energy involved in recycling one can.
- National Energy Foundation and the Albuquerque Public Schools Energy Conservation Rebate Program

Waste Free Wednesday

​We are excited to introduce Waste Free Wednesday! A fun and easy way to reduce your environmental impact by packing a zero waste lunch every Wednesday by using durable reusable containers instead of throw away items. 

​The MCH Nature Club explores our vast 5-acre campus every week. These outings help students understand our native natural systems and how they depend on each other. The outdoor exploration piece, in a very real and concrete way, creates a sense of interconnectedness and shows the active web of life found in wetland and forest ecosystems, and even with humans ourselves. The soft skills that are acquired here are an awareness and sense of accountability for our actions, instilling kindness, understanding and empathy for all creatures.
 
Our on-site garden is also a learning resource. Students, accompanied by our Gardening Specialist, learn the interdisciplinary aspect of “farm to table” and the work involved there—from putting the foods in the compost, to planting species that work well in the Pacific Northwest environment. 
 
Three years ago, we started the MCH Green Team where students applied for a spot on the team. Green Teamers have put a focus on an anti-litter campaign, targeted on plastic bags. They are studying, on their own, the interaction between climatic systems and ocean patterns, to truly understand what we do here effects the other side of the world.  They also have a weekly campus clean up, in partnership with our school maintenance team, and are making plans to expand their pick up trips to a local preserve (Evans Creek). 
 
The MCH Outdoor Explorers Club investigates the trails carefully and intentionally mapped in the forest behind our elementary building. Motion-activated trail cameras fuel our students’ interest in the animal life right in our back yard – coyotes, bobcats, rabbits and more. 

​Montessori, at its core, is the study of seeing the globe as interconnected, from biosphere to atoms. Our students are looking at our locality, with data-driven conclusion work, from collecting multiple samples over time to short term learning opportunities. 

MCH is constantly creating nature-based “wonder and awe” moments that spark a lifelong love of learning. We draw from our unique campus setting to fuel that spark -- all of our classrooms open up to an on-site pollinator garden; the school’s daily snack is grown in our garden, fruit trees are planted next to classroom windows so students can look out and see the beauty of nature.
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 “Being Green” is more than a mission at MCH; it’s who we are. And we are constantly building on that core consciousness each and everyday; in each and every classroom.