Archive: Around Town

After attending a youth empowerment workshop at Ithaca College, Lansing High School students Ally Robinson, Alex Conte, and Chelsea Tucker decided to do something about making their own school greener.  They decided to form the 'Green Team,' which would take an active role in reducing their school's carbon footprint, and thereby save the district money in waste disposal costs.  Last Monday the trio was at the Lansing Board Of Education meeting to report on their initiative.

"Some of our goals are to calculate our school's carbon footprint and make it a goal of the entire student body to reduce it to a set number in a certain amount of time," Robinson said.  "We also want to raise awareness about all the simple ways they can reduce their carbon footprint among the faculty, staff, and students."

The students are considering long and short term approaches, and have already made some progress.  30 students showed up to their first meeting, with another 15 indicating they want to be a part of the Green Team.  On November 30th the team held a 'Green Day' in which students were encouraged to wear something green to raise awareness.  That was so successful that more are planned later in the school year.


"We had a competition to see who wore the most green," Robinson said.  "The freshmen won with 89% participation, which we thought was a really good number to start us off."

The team plans to measure the current carbon footprint of the high school and set a goal to reduce it by a measurable amount within a set time frame.  School Board member Glenn Swanson noted that the energy contract capital project currently underway will go a long way toward reducing the school's energy use, including ground source heat pumps based on about 40 wells that will be installed next summer.  Board member David Dittman suggested measuring the carbon footprint before that project begins to have an impact, and again after to provide real statistics on how much energy is actually saved.  Superintendent Stephen Grimm noted that the contractor has agreed to work with students on how the project impacts energy savings.

Swanson also suggested investigating how solar panels on the high school roof are actually impacting energy usage in the school, and to collect data on how much it is actually saving the school in carbon footprint and money.

Among Green team goals are to eliminate the use of plastic silverware in the cafeteria, and to install a composting system.  The latter is a priority, because it is quickly attainable and is expected to have a significant impact on the amount of waste the school generates.

"Right now we are trying to make composting a reality," Conte said.  "Today we had two representatives from the Tompkins County Solid Waste Department do a presentation at the high school faculty meeting.  They explained their goals and what happens when you set up composting."

Conte reported that a similar composting program in Dryden reduced trash from six bags of garbage out per day to one.  She said that Tompkins County Solid Waste will provide a free waste assessment, recycling bins and posters promoting the Go Green initiative as well as covering half the cost of.

"We want to make composting a norm in this high school like recycling is," she added.

Tucker said composting is a low-cost way to reduce the cost of processing waste.

"The benefit of doing this would be to decrease the waste our school puts out and increase the amount of recycling," she said.  "Our school would get recognition online and in the local media.  This will educate students on how to help our planet and produce less garbage.  That creates responsible global citizens.  It has a very low cost, and it's a way for our school to have a huge impact helping our environment."


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