There are some exciting things we have coming up on Williston Earth Day, which is this Thursday. Tuesday was the true Earth day, but because we don’t have classes that day we decided to make Williston Earth Day this Thursday. On Thursday at 2:45 we plan to open up the garden for the first time this spring and anyone can come and help out. Also on Thursday the school store will be offering a discount on re-usable items like water bottles, re-usable shopping bags, and re-usable mugs. This Sunday Mr. Lorenzatti will take students on a hike up Mt. Tom.
These activities will encourage people to appreciate the environment that we live in. The water bottles and re-usable items will encourage the use of more re-usable items and mindfulness of the waste we create. The hike will show people ways that we can enjoy the world we live in. All of these activities will educate people about the ways that we as a community and as individuals can make a difference. Our goal for Earth Day is to create good sustainable habits and teach people how to give back to the Earth.
This weeks Ort Report measurements are the best so far! We weighed a total of 49.6 pounds of leftovers from students’ and teachers’ plates!
As always, we look forward to improving even more. Our improvements so far show that the students have become much more aware of the impact of their waste. We look forward to setting a specific goal for diners to reach!
This week Sustainable Life Club had collected and measured a total of 77.4 pounds of food waste for the Ort Report. Last week we had a startling amount of 55.8 pounds, 20 pounds less than this week. Hopefully week four measurements will help students and faculty at Williston aim to get around 55.8 pounds or less. Overall, the average of food waste for the past five weeks have averaged to 74.64 pounds. The first week had measured around 98 pounds, so the slope is continuing on a decreasing slant (see graph).
Although Ort Report is succeeding in helping students realize their impact on the environment through their food waste on Mondays, the measurements are inconsistent. The goal of the Ort Report is to help students be aware of their impact even when measurements are not taken throughout the week and try to create a consistent habits for students and faculty. Hopefully, over the last weeks of the Second Trimester, the average will continue to lower as we become more environmentally conscious, including days beyond Monday.
In celebration of the end of the Green Cup Challenge, we have asked Physical Plant to reduce the heat to 65 degrees in the Classroom buildings.
By reducing the temperature, we hope to reduce energy while celebrating the last day of the Green Cup Challenge. This temperature is warm enough so that it will not distract from the classroom atmosphere, but will be a good incentive for students to throw on a sweater in the morning for energy conservation!
We thought that the Green Cup Challenge mainly targets boarders, and does not affect day students or faculty as much. The Sustainable Life Club thought that Sweater Day is a good way to allow students in the community to come together on the idea of reducing energy. We hope that day students and teachers – not just boarding students – will find some awareness of the environment through putting on a sweater or fleece to conserve energy on Sweater Day!
