Addressing Sustainability

The Sustainability Leaders Program is one method that Parkway hopes to address sustainability. This program would include a staff sustainability leader appointed for each school, where each school’s sustainability leader would work together to implement sustainability initiatives throughout the district. Hannah Carter, Parkways Sustainability Coordinator, hopes that this program will increase the use of sustainable practices throughout the district.

“I think that [the Sustainability Leaders Program] will create a great pathway of communication for people to share what they’re doing, but also inspire schools who haven’t necessarily participated in the past or haven’t felt that they have that support to kind of build those support networks,” Carter said.

Parkway must work to implement sustainable practices and education on environmental issues into early childhood and elementary schools. While sustainable practices should be taught and practiced within every Parkway school, the ability of children to grow mentally as a result of their environment is at its peak during the early stages of childhood.

When schools begin teaching sustainability principles during early childhood, they nurture the possibility of these principles sticking with the child throughout their lives. The Sustainable Schools Challenge highlights means of teaching these principles, but since the guidelines are suggestions rather than requirements within schools, schools do not teach these principles equally to students.

Parkway should reshape the Sustainable Schools Challenge. Rather than making it a competition, Parkway should require schools to participate in a certain number of activities. Parkway has shown that they are successful in sustainability practices at a district level. However, the issue with Parkways sustainability remains in how each school implements those procedures. Making these practices a requirement would allow students to gain more equal knowledge and experience on sustainable practices than if implemented by individual schools.

We as a community can work to solve the sustainability issue by voting on the upcoming bond issue. The bond issue includes upgrading HVAC controls, implementing LED lighting and adding water submeters, among other building improvements. The Sustainability Department plans to work with Facilities to determine what will be included on the bond issue and how these projects can be made sustainable.

There are many ways Parkway has attempted to implement sustainable practices throughout the district but is it not enough to rely on district initiatives. Each individual school needs to find ways to reduce their waste production and work on sustainable projects. Students and staff can work together on sustainability by promoting the bond issue and projects within the Sustainable Schools Challenge and teaching a sustainable mindset. In addition, students and staff could work together with other schools across the district to discuss how each school has worked toward sustainability and how these practices can be improved. While the district has worked on sustainability initiatives, the next step in addressing sustainability is getting each school involved.