Progress/Updates

Stephanie here, for the month of March. In the past seven months, we our savings rates have fallen a bit due to the cooler weather we have had this year.  In order to prevent high electric bills, we inserted lock boxes on thermostats all over the school campus. We have saved $2,297.81. We expect this to inrease when the weather gets warmer. Our Green Committee will also continue the No Power Hour initiative on Fridays from 12:30 - 1:30 and the Recycling Programs that the POD (4th and 5th graders) carry out every few weeks.  Mr. Stewart is also helping us explore power management software for the campus computers, which will help us save electricity as well as calculate our green house gas emissions. Until next time! Thank you!

My name is Stephanie Bertrand and I'm in the 8th grade and currently working on my personal project for the IB program. I am taking the initiative, along with our committee, to make Hickory Day School go "Green". With the participation of the entire school community, we have started implementing changes in our everyday lives, attempting to live up to a healthier and greener lifestyle.

Some small changes include turning off the lights when not in use, using less wasteful communication such as e-mails, and the POD has continued our recycling and composting program. We have placed small posters in each room to remind students and faculty to do their part in Going "Green". To track all of the improvements we are making, we will post paper thermometers that will track the school's use of electricity, water, paper, and other resources. Every month we will update our savings in each category to show our progress until we reach our annual savings goal of $7000. Until then, we will focus on one category each month.

Our focus for September and October is on electricity . We have already, successfully reduced our heating, cooling, and, lighting costs as compared to this time last year and we have begun replacing light bulbs throughout the school with more cost efficient and environmentally friendly bulbs. In the past three months, July, August, and September, with our work on electricity conservation alone, we have saved over $2,000. We hope to save more in the future and perhaps maybe even exceed our total $7000 goal.

In addition to our savings, we also want to do this project to teach Hickory Day Students to be good citizens. As IB learners, we strive to do the best we can and to help others to do their best. Thank you.