The International School of Curitiba is pleased to announce that it is committing to actively promote environmental awareness, with a primary focus on educating its students about the virtues of sustainability and environmental citizenship. The administrators and faculty have developed a dynamic new sustainability model which will build on ongoing school improvement initiatives.  The model promises to integrate curriculum and campus practices, as well as seek interested partnerships for the purpose of educating ISC students for a lifetime of sustainable living.  At the same time, ISC is committed to improving its environmental performance and contributing environmentally to a city recognized around the world for its sustainable development; Curitiba.  ISC’s ultimate goal is that its students will develop the skills and attitudes to make informed decisions as global citizens, as well as be both environmentally and socially responsible, cornerstones of our school’s mission.   This linking of knowledge, inquiry and action will enable ISC students to build a healthy future for themselves and their communities and for our wonderful planet.

What's  New

• Green Team met to make plans for creating a "greener" International Fair and making recyclable shopping bags.

• Elementary and Middle School Student Government sponsored a successful beach clean-up trip on February 11, 2012 with approximately 70 parents and students participating.

• Green School Audit Checklist - created by ISC principal, Paul Combs.

• ISC Green Team, October 2011 - ISC has created what we are calling a Green Team, which will be made up of administrators, faculty, staff, students and parents for the purpose of identifying and then contributing to future sustainability projects within our campus and our surrounding community.  The primary goal of the new ISC Green Team will be to promote sound environmental citizenship and behaviors that display a willingness to sacrifice personal interests for a larger ecological integrity, as well as promote sound institutional practices which balance environmental concerns with the well-being of not only our school, but more importantly the long-term well-being of our students.

• ISC was honored to have Mr. Jaime Lerner visit the school and speak to students on March 22, 2011.  He took the opportunity to show his video, A Convenient Start, and expressed his gratitude to ISC for the role it played in the creation of the video.  The video was produced to raise awareness of the importance of creating a more sustainable world and won 1^st place recognition in New York for its message. The video features students from ISC.  See it on YouTube. 

• CNN's Richard Quest recently featured Curitiba and its sustainablity efforts and a CNN special.  To view this interesting video clip, click here.

• Reducing the amount of excess paper use is a simple way to reduce any organization’s carbon footprint and to increase its environmental impact.  Therefore, ISC is pleased to announce that on February 1st, 2011, our school has replaced our 12 page monthly school newsletter, “The Bulletin”, with an e-version, saving thousands of paper pages per month.  ISC is truly committed to the idea of “sustainable printing” only.

• December 9th - Evan Brandão, representing the ISC 6th grade advisory class, delivered a R$500 donation to The Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education (SPVS) for their conservation project to protect the endangered Red-Tailed Parrot. Students raised money through bake sales and t-shirts sales to help support this NGO which ISC has worked with for more than 15 years. In November the students traveled to the Atlantic rainforest  on a field trip with a biologist to see where the endangered parrots live and reproduce.
• December 2010 - ISC 9th graders create digital books on the ISC 5 R's for Sustainability for elementary students.  The Mighty Five  by Hernan Romero and Be Environmentally Friendly Too! by Carolina Feijo.
• October 27th - Representatives from the Condominio da Biodiversidade visited our campus to give recommendation on how to better preserve our natural environments. ISC is planning to join their organization.
• October 27th - SPVS made a presentation on the endangered Red-tailed Parrot project to ISC students.
• October 20th - ISC applies to represent Brazil at the Plastics Are Forever International Youth Summit, March 11 to 13, 2011, in Long Beach, CA.
• October 13th-Partnering With The Ship-2-Shore Education Program - The Ship-2-Shore Education Program links students from around the world with the plastic pollution research being performed at sea aboard research vessels. Utilizing the research vessel's satellite communication system, this program allows students to follow daily updates from the research crew, as well as to interact directly with the crew by sending questions and comments to the research vessel. Here is a link to learn more: http://www.algalita.org/ship2shore/
• September 21st- Peace Day - ISC students celebrate International Peace Day by wearing white clothing, students performing specially arranged music that promoted peace and harmony, as well as planting more than 60 trees in our school's Peace Garden.
• September 14 - ISC's efforts to educate our students about the importance of sustainability are recognized locally in Gazeta do Povo, A força verde da escola 
• September 13th- Garden Club Update - This year's expanded ISC Garden Club began its spring time planting of vegetables, herbs and spices in our school's garden.
• August - New Sustainability Course opened for Middle School students. ISC students will explore global issues related to the sustainability of our planet. Students will work on an international project called the “20/20 challenge” where they will investigate some of the top 20 environmental problems affecting the existence of life on Earth. Our students will participate virtually in international conferences with other schools around the world to work collectively towards solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones.
• May 31 - ISC Garden Club led by ISC teachers Bertille Koehler and Cesar Daniel, took a field trip to Ecogaragem Piedade in nearby Campo Largo.  The company, known as Transpiedade, has been servicing buses in Campo Largo for 35 years now and is known as one of the most modern facilities in all of Brazil. Read the about the trip. 
• May 21 - On Friday, May 21^st at 10am local time, hundreds of schools around the world took part in the simple act of planting a tree. In support of promoting global biodiversity, the ISC Garden Club took part in UNEP International Day by planting four local variety of trees; the Araucaria, Pitanga, Araça and Ipê fruit tree.  
• May 18, 19, and 20 - Curitiba hosted the Education for Sustainable Development International Conference (www.eds2010.com.br). This event gathered teachers and researchers in Brazil and all over the world. The conference is a part of the program Education for Sustainable Development Decade (2004-2015), according to the United Nation´s  decree. ISC geography teacher, Lilliam Prado, gave a presentation during the conference about approaching the subject of environmental sustainability in the classroom and showed how ISC has developed educational activities in that context. 
• May 7, 2010 - Cummunity United to Promote Sustainability (CUPS), an  ISC 7th grade student advisory driven project launches it's new website.
• April 29 - Jaime Lerner named one of Time Magazine's top 100 Thinkers for 2010
• April 28 - Created the ISC 5 R's of Sustainability.
• April 26 - Unfinished Business: Earth Day 40 years later. This year marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, with events around the globe including a massive rally in Washington, D.C. and the signing of the Declaration of Independence from plastic cups here at ISC in Curitiba. The first Earth Day was organized by a small group of activists in Dupont Circle.  This is an interesting video that explains the beginning of Earth Day by Megan Rossman of The Washington Post. 
• April 22 - ISC celebrated Earth Day by making a commitment to reduce the number of plastic cups currently used in the course of one year at ISC.  Students and faculty signed a Declaration of Independence from Plastic Cups in agreement to provide their own drinking utensils, cups and bottles, in an effort to eliminate the use of plastic cups on our campus.