Northwest Academy Going Green

A new club called the Green Team is starting up, focusing on making Northwest Academy more environmentally friendly.

The goal of the Green Team, started by sophomores Ryan Richter and Bernard Cohen, is to reduce the waste of Northwest Academy and eventually get the school certified by an environmental organization.

The first step is to find a group of students interested in joining the Green Team.

“[I hope to have a team] within the next couple weeks,” Cohen said. “It doesn’t have to be a clear team of people, just people who are interested in helping.”

The first meeting was held in late October, with about six or seven students present. Many ideas on how to make the school more green were suggested, from worm bins to raising general awareness.

Science teacher Molly Sultany is helping Cohen and Richter with the team.

“Ryan and Bernard came to me and asked if I would serve as the advisor for the Green Team and I immediately said yes because I want to work on greening our school, making it more sustainable,” Sultany said. “I was so pleased that the students came to me and they invited me to become part of this project.”

The first trash audit took place last Monday.

“We’re gonna collect all the trash in the main street building, and then sort it in categories and then we’re gonna look at what part of our waste is food, and what part is materials that should be recycled to really enhance our recycling program,” Sultany said. “If our percentage of compostable food scraps is high enough were gonna see if the school would like to do physical composting.”

The Green Team is in communication with Oregon Green Schools, an organization formed to help schools in Oregon become more green and get their environmental programs recognized.

“Oregon Green Schools is a nonprofit organization founded in 1997,” Sultany said. “Their mission is really to energize and engage students through student driven activities that enhance their understanding and ownership of sustainability.”

Oregon Green Schools is capable of certifying institutes as environmentally friendly.

“They have 300 schools that are certified in Oregon,” Sultany said. “We want to be one of those schools.”

The Green Team is also looking for certification through a second organization: Eco-schools USA.

“Eco-schools USA is part of the national wildlife federation so its a national certification,” Sultany said.