D65 Sustainability Update: Dec 25

3rd Grade students at Oakton Elementary worked with visiting artist Holly Greenberg to make bird sculptures and raise awareness about how to make windows safer for birds. Students used upcycled cloth to hand craft life sized birds, connecting students with real birds that lost their life in window collisions in Chicago. Learn more about the Bird Collisions in the Anthropocene project.

We hope to continue partnering with Holly Greenberg and roll this out to more D65 schools.

Interested in planting new trees on our D65 school grounds this Spring? Make sure to use our refreshed D65 collaboration & approval process and submit your request by Dec 31.

NEW :

School maps to identify viable spaces for new tree plantings, in partnership with Natural Habitat Evanston and our D65 Team.
Approved Tree and Shrubs for D65 School Grounds to use when planning your tree planting requests.

In partnership with our Purchasing team and aligned with our D65 Sustainable Operations Purchasing Goal, we recently updated our district-wide amazon account to prefer sustainable certifications and products when our staff is purchasing items. Learn more about Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly Certifications.

Please update your school's contact information for the 25-26 school year, including:

Climate Action Team Chair(s)
School Garden Team Chair(s)
Climate Club
School PTA and Newsletter emails

Climate Action and School Garden Contact List

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSersW8dISrMk9RKXolzlRdNMivwPUiTg4ZAY1S4HtlClNxEvw/viewform

The City of Evanston's annual holiday light recycling program will run from Monday, December 1 through Friday, January 30, in conjunction with Elgin Recycling.

Community members are encouraged to take advantage of this free program to help reduce waste during the holiday season. All holiday string lighting is accepted. Garlands, live greens, and wreaths are not accepted.

Unwanted holiday lights can be dropped off at the following Evanston locations during their operating hours:

Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave.
Robert Crown Community Center, 1801 Main St.
Evanston Ecology Center, 2024 N McCormick Blvd.

For more information, please visit elginrecycling.com or call/text 847-448-4311. For convenience, residents may simply dial 3-1-1 in Evanston.

The Evanston Community Fridges are looking for community members to help shop for, clean, and deliver food for the three community fridges in Evanston. Evanston’s three community fridges provide free food and toiletries to any community member, anytime. To read about the donation guidelines and fridge locations, please visit https://www.evanstoncommunityfridges.com. To learn how to get more involved, please email evanstoncommunityfridge@gmail.com.

ESCCA, the Evanston School Children’s Clothing Association, is hard at work fulfilling its historic mission - to make sure no Evanston child misses school for lack of warm clothing or shoes. ESCCA opened its doors to District 65 children just before the start of the school year so they could visit our store and choose warm clothing, coats, shoes, boots, socks, undergarments, and more. ESCCA has received over 150 referrals so far this school year.

There are many ways to get involved with ESCCA:

Consider purchasing something from our Amazon Wishlist which we continue to update with the items we need most. Click HERE!
Contribute financially to ESCCA to help us purchase clothing for the shop. Click HERE!
Drop off warm clothing in The Clothing Bin - located at 1500 McDaniel Drive (behind the D65 Building)
Volunteer with ESCCA!

Calling all SWANCC member communities....Schools, Libraries, and now, Nonprofits are all available to apply for a $500 Waste Reduction Grant!

Do you have an idea for Waste Reduction and need a bit of financial support? Don't wait, apply for a grant today! Need more time to be creative and think through your initiative? No problem. Based on funding availability, applications are now accepted all year!

Waste Grant Announcement

Waste Grant Application

Motivate your students, club, or other group and light a spark of enthusiasm through action!

Low stress, fully funded, and materials are delivered to you. Apply for a $200 Clean Up Grant open year round.

Bird Making with Oakton 3rd Graders and Holly Greenburg Bird Making with Oakton 3rd Graders and Holly Greenburg

Spring Tree Planting Requests 🌳 due Dec 31 Spring Tree Planting Requests 🌳 due Dec 31

Sustainable Purchasing Sustainable Purchasing

Save the Date: D65 Sustainability Community Meetings Save the Date: D65 Sustainability Community Meetings

Climate Action & School Garden Contacts for 25-26 School Year Climate Action & School Garden Contacts for 25-26 School Year

Holiday Light Recycling through Jan 30 Holiday Light Recycling through Jan 30

EcoVoice Project: Winter Solstice Celebration on Dec 21 EcoVoice Project: Winter Solstice Celebration on Dec 21

Support our Evanston Community Fridges Support our Evanston Community Fridges

ESCCA helps D65 students have warm clothes for winter ESCCA helps D65 students have warm clothes for winter

GroMoreGoods Grassroots Grant - submission due Jan 30 2026 GroMoreGoods Grassroots Grant - submission due Jan 30 2026

SWANCC Waste Reduction Grant: Now Open Year-Round SWANCC Waste Reduction Grant: Now Open Year-Round

SWANCC Grant Opportunity for Clean Ups SWANCC Grant Opportunity for Clean Ups

D65 Sustainability Key Resources D65 Sustainability Key Resources