Over the last year, School District 47 officials estimate that close to $20,000 has been saved because of the implementation of green initiatives.
Destination Conservation is an Elements Society (previously known as Pacific Resource Conservation Society) program offered in more than 140 schools in BC and Alberta which helps schools make changes to become more aware of sustainability issues. The school district has been involved with the program for four years.
“It’s designed for kids’ ideas to percolate up to administration,” said Destination Conservation coordinator Karin Westland. “It’s fundamentally about culture change, collaboration and creating new norms in the schools around how we interact with the energy and water we consume, the food we eat and waste we produce.”
In each school there is a destination conservation team leader, who is usually a teacher. The groups can look different at each school.
“In some it’s a club or a class and some it’s a leadership initiative for grade six and sevens,” said Westland.
Students identify a problem in the school, do an energy audit on the problem and come up with a culture-changing campaign that they can implement school-wide, she said. After the campaign is complete, the students do an evaluation to see how effective they were and then they plan a celebration, she added.
In the past, some of Powell River’s schools have tried to champion energy conservation by holding Dine-in-the-Dark lunches, ugly sweater contests and producing advertising campaigns to highlight the energy saved by turning out lights at home.
The teams at each school are comprised of one administrative representative, a teacher, a parent, a custodian and students.
“It’s one of the few initiatives that exists that intentionally tries to bring everyone together on an equal footing to make a difference in their school community,” said Westland.
In addition to the work the students do, there is also a building operator’s component that includes professional development workshops for custodial staff.
A large part of the savings generated by the program was realized though upgrading aging school heating systems with grant money and also adjusting the heating schedules to make sure that empty buildings are not being heated. Westland said that custodial staff also looked at what impact reducing room temperatures by one degree would have on energy consumption.
This year’s theme is around food and related environment issues. Groups from each school will gather together three times over the year for development workshops led by Destination Conservation facilitators. The first one is scheduled for Thursday, October 17.
“All the schools are addressing the same theme in their own unique way,” said Westland. “It’s very grassroots and student-led.”
