Sustainability Plan
In 2021, our club began drafting a sustainability plan. A sustainability plan is a detailed document creating goals for the district on how to reduce our carbon emissions, limit waste, increase climate education, and overall become more sustainable and efficient.
Sustainability Committee
Penfield's Sustainability Committee is a coalition of parents, teachers, district staff, and environmental club student members. The committee's ultimate goal is to create and enforce a new Sustainability Plan for the PCSD. Student members organize and lead meetings, set committee agendas, and help communicate with Wendel, a private company working with the Sustainability Committee to benchmark for the Sustainability Plan. The PHS Environmental Club highlighted the importance of a Sustainability Committee in their 2021 presentation to the school board. You can check out the slides below.
Benchmarking
In order to create a lasting and effective Sustainability Plan, the Sustainability Committee must benchmark to determine how much the district is actually wasting. Through a NYSERDA grant program, our committee worked with Wendel, a private company, to evaluate our district's carbon emissions. Our club had three private Zoom meetings with two Wendel team members, and then toured Harris Hill Elementary School and Penfield High School with a Wendel engineer. You can view Wendel's energy audit report by clicking the link below.
Food Waste Audit
While Wendl did help our club benchmark our district's energy usage, they could not help track our waste. The environmental club conducted a food waste audit in March 2022 to uncover the amount of food waste in Penfield Highschool. We collected all the trash from the Cafeteria and Commons during two lunch periods and calculated the percentage of waste from each food group. The results were astounding. You can view the results from Wendl's energy audit AND our club's food waste audit with the link below.
Community Outreach
The PHS Environmental Club organizes the Penfield Highschool student body to celebrate the Earth, while also rallying with local community organizations. All of this information is shared with the public on our website and through our Instagram. You can click on the icon to visit our Instagram page.
Green Week
The PHS Environmental Club organizes a school-wide celebration on the week of Earth Day called "Green Week". We have daily themes, challenges, and use our platform to promote sustainability. In 2021 we encouraged the student body to sign their name in support of sustainability. The support document is linked below- feel free to sign your name!
New York Youth Climate Leaders
Our club partners with the New York Youth Climate Leaders, a youth coalition fighting for climate legislation in New York State. We have helped NYYCL in their efforts by participating in Call-a-Thons and rallies. You can discover more about the amazing things they do on their website linked below.
Color Penfield Green
We work alongside Color Penfield Green, a collaborative organization of Penfield community members dedicated to making Penfield a more sustainable town. We have a section in their monthly newsletter so the community can hear about our efforts in the school district. You can learn more about our work with Color Penfield Green by visiting our page on their website below.