To the Media Specialist and Science Department,

Thanks to funds from the General Nonprofit Grant Program at the Town of Cary, Toward Zero Waste is excited to gift your school with a copy of two impactful books, Drawdown and its follow-up, Regeneration, as well as a third book geared to mid to late elementary  and early middle school called Zero Waste Kids which has hands on projects.  We feel access to these books through school media centers is crucial to inspiring hope and youth engagement on climate issues as the books offer real, substantive and achievable solutions.

Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, released in 2017 and edited by Paul Hawken, is a hopeful look at climate change solutions. It was a project that hundreds of scientists and researchers continue to work on. A former science teacher at East Cary Middle School expressed that she had been teaching Climate Change for years, but it wasn’t until she began teaching out of Drawdown that she started seeing hope and action in her students. It is the book that prompted the town’s Environmental Advisory Board to draw up its Carbon Recommendations a few years ago and it is still helping guide the town’s climate plan, which is beginning to see real movement.  Drawdown has an accompanying website. 

Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation is Paul Hawken’s latest project. It is a new release and has a website that is intended to be a constantly updating extension of the book. It too focuses on solutions and showcases solutions that are happening now and can be recreated in the reader’s spaces and places. 

Zero Waste Kids: Author and activist, Rob Greenfeild believes that the zero waste movement is an excellent opportunity to help youth understand the world they live in and inspire them to start living in a more sustainable way. Of all the environmental problems we face, “trash” is one that is easiest to grasp because it is visual, whereas many other problems are more abstract. Zero-waste isn’t the solution to the world’s problems, but a very good place to start.

TZW also offers a mini-grant to 7th through 12th graders wishing to do a local environmental project. We invite you to contact us for more information on the grant and/or ideas for engaging with these books.

Please see this short video for an inspiring message about action from Will Grant.

Sincerely,
Toward Zero Waste Cary, Cary Community Directors

Megan Holler  
megan@towardzerowaste.org

Leigh Williams
leigh@towardzerowaste.org