The upper school’s Green Team was today awarded a Distinguished Honorable Mention in the Bow Seat Marine Debris Creative Advocacy Competition. The annual competition, which ended this year after starting in 2016, judged advocacy campaigns created by students aged 11-18 that brought awareness and encouraged action on marine debris in their schools and communities.
Seniors Anvi Banga, Alex Shing, Anthony Shing, and juniors Sachi Bajaj and Natasha Yen created the Buy Better Boba campaign to reduce the proliferation of single-use plastics on campus, particularly those used by bubble tea drinks that have become popular in student fundraisers. The campaign provided reusable glass jars as well as materials that could be used to promote this effort at other schools. The team also engaged with local bubble tea businesses and encouraged them to incentivize the use of reusable containers by their customers.
According to the Bow Seat website, the judges were impressed that, “The Green Team identified a problem that was unique to their school, created a simple and inexpensive solution, and developed strategies to make it scalable in their broader community.”
The 2019 middle school Green Team – sixth graders Summer Adler, Natalie Liu, Genieve Malinen and Claire Zhao – has been hard at work this year advocating for the end of single-use plastics and an increase in recycling of all plastic waste. Because much of our plastic waste ends up in the ocean, the team is concerned with the effects on marine life, from sea birds filling their stomachs – and those of their babies – with indigestible plastic and dying of malnutrition, to fish who mistake tiny bits of colored microplastics as their natural food source, to sea turtles and whales becoming entangled in plastic waste. The team has worked hard to learn about and share with their friends the effects of human activity on the planet’s ecosystems.
In addition to creating inspirational posters and displaying them at the middle school campus, the team participated in the nationwide Plastic Film Recycling Challenge, collecting and recycling more than 300 pounds of plastic film during the five-month challenge. The Green Team managed to increase the middle school community’s recycling of a material difficult to process by waste haulers and recyclers, and effectively communicated the importance of recycling to their fellow students, families, faculty and staff – who all participated in the team’s plastic film collection.
With Earth Day in mind, the Green Team learned more about Earth’s marine environments and the important role that healthy coral plays in maintaining these ecosystems. With a healthy coral reef being the backbone of a thriving ocean, they further discovered the surprising impact that sunscreen has had on the planet’s oceans and that the toxic ingredients oxybenzone and octinoxate have adversely affected coral reefs by poisoning fish, sea urchins, shrimp and baby corals. Widespread coral distress and reef bleaching has been a significant global consequence.
The team shared this information about sunscreen and its effects at the 2019 Earth Day celebration on April 19. The entire student body also participated in an extended advisory meeting that focused on protecting coral reefs globally. They took part in a letter writing campaign that petitioned the FDA to ban oxybenzone and octinoxate in sunscreens nationwide. They further learned that switching to reef-safe sunscreen has a huge impact on coral reef health and were given free reef-safe clear zinc sunscreen sticks at the Green Team’s Earth Day booth, generously donated by Babo Botanicals.
The inspirational story behind Babo Botanicals’ founder is evidenced by her passion for healthy marine ecosystems, beekeeping, sustainable agriculture, nutrition and teaching. A graduate of Harvard, Kate Solomon developed Babo Botanicals with children and families in mind. We are very grateful for the company’s sunscreen donation and the opportunity has provided to share the importance of using reef-safe sunscreens with students and families.
Green Team members have shown their passion for a healthy planet and truly gotten their hands dirty by learning about and maintaining a compost bin on campus, growing vegetables from seeds and replanting the beautiful Harker “H” garden by the school entrance. Maintaining both the flower garden and vegetable patch will be the team’s focus for the remainder of the school year, while continuing to campaign against single-use plastics.
The Class of 2022 visited the Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve on Oct. 10 for this year’s Frosh Service Trip. Students spent the day clearing the preserve’s trails and maintaining its fire lines, which are used to inhibit the spread of fires. The students arrived in the morning and were divided into groups to work on different areas.
Special activities were added to this service trip to help the students deepen their understanding and respect of the natural landscape. Art teacher Pilar Agüero-Esparza organized a drawing activity inspired by Coyote Valley’s longstanding oak trees, which she preceded by having the students “consider how the Ohlone and other indigenous peoples of Northern California completely relied on the oak trees for food, shelter, warmth, medicines, cultural crafts, etc.” Biology teacher Mike Pistacchi led his students on a brief hike and had them “notice nature” in a silent observation exercise.
Students expressed happiness at being given the opportunity to help preserve the area. “Not only did I realize how much effort went into maintaining a trail, but also I am overjoyed that I improved the environment for future hikers,” said Andrea Thia. “It is comforting to know I have impacted Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve in a positive way, even if it was just a very small amount.”
“Watching the path get cleared was pretty satisfying in that we could instantly see the effects of our hard work,” added Callie Mayer. “While it was very tiring and the work load was very intimidating, it was overall a good experience and worth it so that we as a class can contribute to making the environment better and more clean.”
Students also said they would like to return to Coyote Valley in the spring to continue their effort and also to see how the preserve looks during a different time of year. “I think getting to volunteer with friends made the experience more enjoyable and seeing it in the spring with that same group would be cool,” said Nageena Singh.
Environmental activist Jackie Nunez visited the upper school today for a special assembly on the use of plastic and how disposable plastic products – straws, in particular – are discarded in the ocean, where they cause harm to aquatic life and enter the food chain after being consumed by animals. Students watched a pair of films about the dangers of plastic waste and learned how they can help reduce consumption and harmful disposal of plastic, including using fewer straws and requesting not to have drinks served with them at restaurants.
Later, Nunez toured the upper school lunchroom and discussed with students various ways ways in which single-use plastics could be reduced on campus, such as proposing a plastic-free day for the school and carrying their own utensils. She also left them with cards they could use to convince local establishments to only provide straws on request, as well as 100 stainless steel straws to share with their fellow students.
On Wednesday, a group of Harker students attended a special listening session held in San Francisco by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan. Last year, the EPA under the Trump administration began the process of ending the Obama-era policy meant to combat climate change.
Accompanied by science teacher Kate Schafer and Spanish teacher Diana Moss, members of Harker’s Green committee – senior Satchi Thockchom, sophomores Jai Bahri, Anvi Banga, Avi Gulati, Alex Shing and Anthony Shing, and freshman Akshay Manglik – all voiced their opposition to the repeal. The concerns voiced by the students included declining air quality, higher occurrence of national disasters and a lower quality of life for future generations.
“I think that attending and speaking at events such as these is supremely important,” Manglik said. “Making your voice heard at all levels of government, regardless of its import, is crucial for inculcating civic activism in a very civically apathetic (although that is quickly changing!) American electorate.”
In addition to giving students the opportunity to voice their concerns to government officials, the event also offered them new insight and perspective on climate change. “Not only did this event give students like us, who otherwise have next to no voice when it comes to national affairs, [a chance to speak] … but it also allowed us to hear personal stories of those directly affected by climate change,” said Bahri.
Students also mentioned that learning about climate change and the Clean Power Plan in their classes and activities at Harker helped them craft more powerful statements for the meeting. “In Green Team and AP government, I’ve learned a lot about renewable energy policy, specifically SB 100, a bill that would require CA to source 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030,” Thockchom said. “Because of my engagement with this bill, I could include it in my argument that there are growing factions between federal and state law.”
Despite their busy schedules, regional EPA officials spent time talking to the students. “Directly after the last piece of testimony was given, two of the three EPA listeners came up to us and congratulated us on our speeches,” said Bahri. “To know that what we said actually struck and impacted these people, who had heard hundreds of other pieces of testimony, was an amazing feeling.”
This past Saturday, 35 Harker upper school students, along with biology teacher Anita Chetty and Mandarin teacher Shaun Jahshan, visited the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge on an environmental service trip. Located in Alviso on the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay, the refuge is surrounded by uplands, marshes, salt ponds and a freshwater tidal slough. Students took a short walk along the trails and boardwalk and learned that Santa Clara Valley would flood without the refuge’s dikes and wetlands. They also learned about the animals and plants that make their homes in the bay wetlands, and saw a beautiful American kestrel up close, along with three huge white pelicans, other waterbirds and some very assertive Canada geese. Then the group worked in the upland garden area, removing invasive plants, building wire plant cages and planting and watering native plants.
“We are very fortunate in the Bay Area to have many groups and individuals who are passionate about preserving our beautiful natural open spaces,” said Spanish teacher Diana Moss, a member of Harker’s Green Committee. “The springtime is the perfect time to get out and explore them by hiking, biking or volunteering to help in their maintenance.”
This story was submitted by Harker upper school Spanish teacher and Green Committee member Diana Moss.
Members of the upper school’s Harker Green Team – club co-presidents and seniors Anika Banga and Satchi Thockchom, vice president and sophomore Anvi Banga, members Anthony Shing and Alex Shing, grade 10, and Natasha Yen, grade 9, and faculty advisors Kate Shafer and Diana Moss – attended the Students for Green High Schools conference at the Google campus in Mountain View on Saturday, Jan. 26.
The event, sponsored by the Los Altos High School Green Team, was attended by 85 students from 15 high schools, both public and private, from throughout the Bay Area. Each school gave a five-minute presentation about initiatives their clubs have undertaken, what inspires them and specific environmental projects they hope to work on in the future.
Harker’s team gave a great presentation about our Environmental Community Service trips, Green Tips of the Week project, 2016 Harker Green Challenge using the SJ Environment phone app and 2017 Meatless Mondays proposal. Attendees also heard from Stanford student Sierra Rose García, who spoke about the initiatives that Students for a Sustainable Stanford are working on, and got a pep talk on continuing to promote sustainability on their campuses.
Harker Green Team members had the chance to meet and exchange ideas with many students and came back inspired to take on new projects. They are currently making plans for Earth Week this spring, April 16-22.
On Feb. 7, the new athletic center earned the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification! Harker’s Nichols Hall science and technology center already received LEED Gold Certification and the brand new Rothschild Performing Arts Center (RPAC), which just opened last Friday, is on track for certification. The athletic facility opened in August.
The LEED system, created and maintained by the U.S. Green Building Council, is administered by Green Certification Inc., The athletic center was awarded all 72 points applied for, including five out of five points for development density and community connectivity, six of of six points for alternative transportation—public transportation access, 19 out of 19 points for optimized energy performance and seven out of seven points for on-site renewable energy. The solar array on the roof of the athletic center will supply up to 25 percent of the energy needed for the two new buildings.
Many other features contributed to the rating including many materials, such as paints and coatings that emit minimal vapor when installed; building materials with recycled content; water use reduction; and water efficient landscaping.
Harker’s Nichols Hall, opened in 2007, was the first school building in Santa Clara County to receive a Gold rating from LEED. Read more, here.
Here are some of the other features that helped the athletic center achieve LEED Gold Certification.
White reflective paint on roof
Bioswales to filter runoff water
Photovoltaic cells (supplying 25 percent of the electricity needed for the athletic center and RPAC)
Plumbing fixtures are designed for 40 percent reduced water use from baseline
Dedicated parking for high-efficiency vehicles
Exterior lights with photometric layout to reduce light pollution
95 percent of construction debris diverted from landfill
No volatile organic compounds emissions from carpet or paint
No volatile organic compounds emissions from wood
Occupancy sensors on interior lighting
Glazing on windows that minimizes solar heat transfer
Concurrent with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Greg Lawson, assistant head of school, student affairs, was named Harker’s first sustainability coordinator.
Lawson’s new responsibilities include assessing and coordinating support for environmental initiatives generated by the Harker Sustainability Committee, as well as those suggested by the Harker community, including faculty, staff, students and parents.
“Greg will ensure that all ideas regarding Harker’s ecological footprint see due consideration,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school. “He will facilitate a handshake between operations and the rest of the school on important green efforts.”
The appointment “is the pinnacle of the green timeline,” according to Jeff Sutton, Sustainability Committee co-chair and upper school science teacher. “We have been hoping for the creation of such a position.”
Sutton adds that Harker’s recognition as a Certified Green Business by the Bay Area Green Business Program in June 2016 helped lay the groundwork for the new appointment. “Becoming certified provided concrete actions that Harker can achieve to reduce its impact on the environment while saving money,” he said.
Harker’s environmental efforts thus far have resulted in significant savings. According to the California Green Business Program, Harker’s efforts have diverted more than a million pounds of solid waste from landfills since 2012, representing a savings of more than $73,000. Similarly, the Harker community has saved nearly 680,000 kilowatt hours of energy over the same period, banking an additional $68,000. Further coordination is predicted to result in even greater savings.
The appointment demonstrates that environmentally responsible behavior “is not simply the topic-of-the-month,” said Lawson. “We are serious about being a sustainable and green organization to the degree that we can within our operating parameters, and want to have a support system that reflects and finds ways to achieve that.”
“We are on the cusp of some very exciting advances in California, regarding the possibilities for living and working in an environmentally sustainable way,” said Kate Schafer, co-chair of the Sustainability Committee, which includes 18 faculty and staff from all four Harker campuses. “With this new position and the faculty committee working in parallel, we have the opportunity here at Harker to not just teach about sustainability but to truly model what an exemplary institution can accomplish,” she said.
Coordinating efforts will not always be easy, said Lawson, “but … the bigger the challenge, the bigger the potential reward!” As part of his duties, Lawson will attend bimonthly meetings of the Sustainability Committee, and he is currently working with the committee to create an online site in Harker’s portal to record green suggestions from the community and provide information regarding the status of these suggestions.
On Sept. 28, upper school science teachers Jeff Sutton and Kate Schafer, facility coordinator Janet Rohrer and Office of Communication Director Pam Dickinson attended an event hosted by the County of Santa Clara Green Business Program, which recognized organizations certified as Green Businesses by the Bay Area Green Business Program. About half of the nearly 100 businesses recognized were newly certified; the remainder had their certifications renewed.
Harker was certified as a Green Business in July, following a multiyear effort that included all four campuses. The many initiatives included expanding the use of recycled paper, altering the use and acquisition of food products, and using recycled oil in Harker transportation vehicles.
At the event, Dickinson and Schafer spoke about how the program factored into Harker’s long-term sustainability goals and the process of coordinating the efforts of many different departments.
“There were many possible directions we could have gone, but the certified Green Business Program provided a crucial framework for how we could best proceed,” said Schafer. “It let us set reasonable benchmarks for ourselves across a wide range of topics, some of which we knew little about.”