During the week of April 22, Leadership celebrated Earth Week with a variety of activities aimed at incentivizing sustainability across the community. The activities included creating oreo dirt cups, chalk paintings in the quad, making smoothies during lunch, and Swap Day which was held on Friday. Commissioner of Sustainability, senior Marcus Han explained that the goal was to “promote a fun culture around sustainability,” a theme that he has employed throughout his year in office. Sustainability board member, senior Arjun Krishan added that “bringing a sense of spirit to sustainability so that it doesn’t have to be such a mundane concept” has been another goal throughout the school year.
In addition to the themed activities held throughout the week, Leadership also created a series of daily videos on the Campo Sustainability social media accounts to give students bite-sized ways they can reduce their carbon footprint. They included everything from ways to cook Spaghetti sustainably to ways at reducing paper waste when washing your hands. “I think it just shows that little things can go a long way. Even just using your dishwasher. It’s super easy, most people already do it, and you save so much water,” said Han. Sophomore Thatcher Grenby added that the videos helped “give students ways at incorporating sustainable values into their everyday lives as well as ideas of how they can make the world more sustainable.”
Coinciding with the Earth Week Celebration, the Eco Club hosted a meeting on Wednesday April 14th at lunch to promote sustainability with a presentation by a guest speaker from Wagner Ranch. Eco Club president, junior Vivian Tolajian explained:“Toris Jaeger, a member of the Friends of Orinda Nature Area board, came to speak to us about volunteering to support the nature area in Orinda.” For those who are unaware about the area, Tolajian explained: “[the land] is about 18 acres or so right next to Wagner elementary school where we are dedicated to growing sustainable species and maintaining the nearby garden and trails. [Jaeger] mostly spoke to us about the importance of keeping the area open for volunteer work and the value of practicing sustainability.”
Going forward with the upcoming school year, members of the Leadership Sustainability Board also reflected on what they’ve been most proud of during the year. Grenby said: “Being able to instill sustainable habits and creating a consciousness around how we need to collectively work on making the world more sustainable” has been one of the biggest successes this year. Krishan added that successes with sustainability awareness have also been one of the biggest achievements with examples like the E-waste drive.
Looking ahead to next year, Han, a departing senior, gave advice to the next group of sustainability leaders. “I hope the future board heads branch out and find other projects that are more unique to them. For instance, Arjun and I both like fashion so a lot of our projects have involved clothing. But if the future heads have something different in mind, go ahead because you don’t want to be confined to what the previous year did.”
