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.

Senator Ed Markey discusses the Green New Deal with the Ipswich Green Team

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

Environment - Ipswich environmental programs include the Recycling Program, Open Space Program, Conservation Commission, Electric Light Department, Climate Action Plan, Great Marsh Coastal Adaptation Plan, the Ipswich River Watershed Association and the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plan.