Who We Are
Green Our Planet was founded by filmmakers and entrepreneurs Ciara Byrne and Kim McQuarrie. They believe that every student deserves the opportunity to learn science outside in a school garden and/or in a hydroponics laboratory, to have the opportunity to learn how to eat and live a healthy life and to be able to connect with the planet and nature in a meaningful way. Alongside their team they are on a mission to increase joy and equity in communities across America and around the world by empowering people to grow food and connecting them to the magic and majesty of the Universe.
Awards and Recognition
The wonders of the universe start with a seed
'It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago Kim and I sat at our kitchen table across from each other, messy piles of paperwork between us, chatting about the teachers and principals who were reaching out to us to see if we could help them get gardens built in Las Vegas. We were fascinated that so many teachers were clamoring for gardens. It felt like a need that was bigger than just one garden at a school and more like a simmering song beneath the earth. Ah, yes a movement was stirring. And that’s what Green Our Planet is a part of. We are a part of a movement of passionate teachers, principals, students, parents, community members who yearn to put their hands in the dirt, to pull a ripe tomato from a vine, who deeply need a connection to the planet. Deep down we all know that connecting ourselves and our children to the planet is a way for us to become whole, to return home.'
Ciara Byrne, Co-Founder Green Our Planet
Our History
2013 - Green Our Planet Beginnings
During time spent in Africa filming, Ciara and Kim’s paleoanthropologist-conservationist friend, Dr. Richard Leakey, asked them a simple question: “How can you use filmmaking, the internet and fundraising to help conservation?” Kim and Ciara came up with the idea of creating a crowdfunding platform for green projects, created a nonprofit called “Green Our Planet,” and launched both in 2013.
2014
November: John S. Park Elementary School held the first ever student-run farmers market by Clark County School District students.
2015
Los Vaqueros asks Green Our Planet to team up to help Los Ranchos High School and Walter Bracken STEAM Academy students utilize the hydroponic units that Los Ranchos students designed and built in a leadership course with Los Vaqueros.
2016
Green Our Planet begins developing the Hydroponics program while working with Los Vaqueros.
2020
Virtual Academy was created.
2022
From 2019 to 2022 the hydroponics program spread nationally to include more than 100 schools in 15 states, including Alaska, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New York, Idaho, Missouri, Michigan, and Nevada.
2023
Record breaking Giant Student Farmers Market - over 500 students and 60 schools raised $22,000 for their school gardens, doubling the amount raised from the previous market.
2024
Plans are in place to expand to 1200 schools and to take Green Our Planet’s Giant Student Farmers Market national.