A Bieber isn’t a species of songbird indigenous to the Pacific Northwest.

Checking out local fauna

News to me, but definitely not to the pop-culture conscious middle and high school students who teamed up with member company TREW Gear in Washington and non-profit partner Envirolution in Nevada for recent events.

Chris, John and Tripp from TREW spent the morning last Thursday with a class of 7th graders from The Dalles Middle School exploring a piece of protected land outside of Dallesport, WA.  Their “bioblitz” was run by the folks at the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute, the recipient of TREW’s 1% donation.

30 students joined several volunteers from Columbia Gorge and TREW to catalogue the incredibly diverse ecosystem they found just outside town. They discovered water beetles, a scorpion, sparrows and turkey vultures, various kinds of indigenous vegetation, and checked out a pond formed more than 13,000 years ago. As TREW front man Tripp pointed out, “realizing that in just this small area there is so much variety of life can help these young kids to appreciate the even more monstrous diversity of our planet.”

After the Blitz the TREW Crew headed north to ski a recent dump of spring powder and we turned our attention to Nevada.

A few states south, Envirolution organized a fantastic Earth Day event in cooperation with three non-profit Partners, Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) and Sierra Nevada Journeys, along with help from Urban Roots Garden Classrooms, GreenPower and Black Rock Solar.

The coalition, known as GREENevada (Growing Resources for Environmental Education in Nevada) launched a High School Sustainability Plan competition in November and held final presentations on Earth Day. Nevada Governor Bryan Sandoval was on hand, along with experts from the renewable energy industry and academia.

Students from nine high schools competed for $28,000 that they could use to implement sustainability plans they entered in the contest. The money, awarded as part of a $50,000 Pepsi REFRESH grant, will allow students to address environmental challenges they identified at their schools through energy audits and consumption analysis.

Events like this are empowering the next generation to be proactive about addressing climate change. At 1% we’re thrilled to see member companies and non-profit partners teaming up with youth to create positive change. Us old folks might even learn what a Bieber is in the process.

Reed High takes home the first place prize