The Ipswich Middle/High School Green Team is a green-fueled group of 35 bright individuals ready to take on the big fights like climate change. They aim to engage the community in taking a stand with nature, and inspiring by example. GreenTeam is headed by the eco-rooted Amy Borgman and Nicole Whitten.
They started as a 6th grade team, but that quickly evolved. As the posse of change makers moved up the ranks, they kept expanding, understanding that more people equals a bigger impact. Now, the Green Team is both middle and high school like-minded kids looking to shake the world out of its complacency.
The Ipswich Middle/High School Green Team was one of 10 national winners of the 2018 US Environmental Protection Agency’s President’s Environmental Youth Awards. Presented since 1971, the annual award recognizes outstanding environmental stewardship projects undertaken by kindergarten to 12th grade students, honoring young people for protecting the nation’s air, water, and land. The Ipswich Green Team had a vision to develop a partnership between Ipswich schools and the greater community that would enrich the lives of people through local agriculture. The effort, called “Generation Growers,” brought elderly adults and other community members together with youth to create green space on a quarter-acre public fruit and vegetable garden.

The Ipswich Green Team planting the school garden. Photo courtesy Boston Globe
The primary goals for the Ipswich Green Team were to increase community knowledge, exposure, and access to healthy food. They accomplished their goals by learning about and teaching every aspect of food production, including sustainable practices such as water barrel conservation and solar energy, concepts of pollination, and soil science for planting. With this initiative, the Ipswich Green Team increased community participation by encouraging people to go outside, working side by side, and harvesting and eating the fruits and vegetables that were planted and harvested together. The garden continues to be used as an educational resource for teachers and community groups.
- Green Team site
- Mission
- Up Next
- Change Makers
- Green Team in the classroom
- Green Team in the community
- Green Cafeteria
- Ipswich Sustainable Education
- Bad News / Good News
- Join the Plastics Free Challenge
- Shop to Support Events
- Contact: sustainable.ipswich@gmail.com

Categories: Environment
I live in Texas, but I have visited Ipswich twice and am in love with every aspect of your town! I know that Ipswichians are very involved with protecting their marshes, as well as all of nature, and now this group of young people underscores that love for Ipswich, on both local and global levels. Wow. So impressed.
These young people and their tireless involvement prove that there’s hope for our world yet!