Going GREEN is more than just a trend and Issaquah Middle Schooler’s have paved the way to an environmentally hopeful future by owning their part of cause and effect. John McCartney, District Resource Conservation Manager, has spearheaded the King County Green Schools Program, attending many site council meetings and delivering powerful presentations on the cause and effect of waste and how much our environment and economy need conservation practices.

Some of categories of conservation he presented were; waste reduction and recycling, litter reduction, addressing environmental issues in the classroom, water conservation, energy conservation, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, environmental purchasing, and hazardous materials management and reduction.

Issaquah Middle School is a pilot for King County Green Schools Program and it has definitely been a school-community effort. Anna Loftis, 6th grade humanities and Michelle Pickard, 8th grade science, ASB advisor, were the passion behind the effort and it took many to make this happen. Kitchen staff, custodial staff, leadership students, and media production students were at the center of this ripple effect. A surge of education through the “Morning Quah,” a live media broadcast, was implemented to get the student body engaged. Composting and recycling were the target strategies for their conservation plan.

As a result, Issaquah Middle School reduced their waste by 60% and was awarded “Earth Heros at School” by King County. One of the unforeseen benefit is that our middle schoolers actively learned a valuable life-skill. School curriculum and field trips have been built around this conservation concept, not that our middle schoolers would come home and tell us about it, but the word is out now!

In our homes and our communities we can ride the wave of this ripple and prepare for the summer-time mantra of unemployed minds, “I’m bored,” with lots of opportunities to volunteer. Volunteering is a way to pay-it-forward and keeps the state of the economy from being a state of mind.

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