Homework. Prom. AP tests. Finals. Graduation. Summer.

For many students at AVHS, Earth Day is not at the forefront of their minds. Trash and energy efficient bulbs probably don’t occupy a large percentage of thoughts in an average student’s day.

However, for a man like Mark O’Brien, it’s part of the job.

At AVHS, a few steps are taken to reduce energy use, even some that most may not realize. “We have a single-sort dumpster that’s a compactor,” said O’Brien. “Cardboard, paper from classrooms–anything that’s recyclable goes into that dumpster. That’s the only recycling program that we have.”

However, what recycling the school does seems to go largely unnoticed by student and teachers alike. “To be honest, I haven’t really noticed recycling or anything like that, but there could be some that I’m not aware of,” said senior Silas Anderson.

Rose Jagim, a teacher here, wants to recycle but was unaware that it was available. “I think we are energy efficient. I wish we recycled though. I’m not sure why we don’t with how big we are and the amount of paper that we use.”

In addition to recycling some paper products, which students can observe in the computer labs, the air conditioning and heating systems play a part in reducing our environmental impact. “The air handlers are our biggest source of energy use,” said O’Brien.  “I have the chillers and air conditioners on a schedule. I try to make sure when there’s nobody in the building that those are off.”

Although keeping the heat and AC on a yearly schedule conserves the largest amount of energy at AVHS, O’Brien sees the motive behind it. “The chiller is basically a really big unit that turns warm water to cold water. It uses an immense amount of power. So when that turns on, the electric company says, ‘They’re using it!’ and they change our rate…It’s not saving energy so much as it is saving district money.”

As far as rumors of an official heat/AC schedule go, what most students believe is true. “May 1st is when the chiller goes on. And typically I don’t turn on the boilers until about October 15th. That only uses natural gas, it doesn’t use electricity as much, so we don’t have the same restrictions on that. If we’ve got a really cold streak, I’d probably turn them on a little bit earlier.”

A recent change in the lighting at AVHS seems to be the beginning of a larger project to come. “Some of our lights now are on a motion sensor. When you walk into the classroom, they turn on and then they turn off after a time. I’d love to see that happen in a few more classrooms. The Fab Lab has that and the science lab upstairs has that. You don’t have to worry about somebody forgetting to turn the switch off.”

As far as student-led projects, one AVHS club has been working hard to promote Earth Day. “AVRM is helping clean up around the school, which is important especially as we start to thaw out and the snow’s all gone,” said senior officer Morgan Meyer.  “There’s a lot of trash and litter that is left on the school grounds.”

Posters around school that remind students and teachers about energy use are also of Apple Valley Role Models’ making. “We made the signs that are seen in the classrooms and bathrooms, and they help spread awareness about the importance of Earth Day and taking care of our earth,” said Meyer.

Although these are great steps towards becoming more environmentally friendly, there is still much to be done at AVHS. “When it comes to refuse from the lunchroom, there’s no sorting done right now,” said O’Brien.  “It could happen someday. Lunch trays are recyclable material. When they get food waste on them, they become compostable and there are schools that have compostable dumpsters. AVHS is different from them because we don’t have a lot of space…We would be fighting trying to find a place to put that dumpster.”

O’Brien also has ideas of his own to implement energy saving systems at AVHS. “No matter what we do in that regard, it’s a lot of money. I think it would be cool if we could start doing solar. I think that would be a great program with the STEM. Maybe augment that into the lighting. Even if we only do a few panels, have a kids make a few panels a year and pretty soon we’d have a full set. Then, we’re not actually using fossil energy.”

He jokingly added, “To me, that’s the way of the future. We should be able to do it–we got a lot of roof up there!”

O’Brien also suggests a behind-the-scenes solution. “There’s a lot of building automation that we can add to this school that many schools have, which will automatically save energy because they monitor temperatures in the background without me telling it to.”

It’s not just staff members and other adults that can make a difference. Senior Nikhil Shahi says, “Helping the earth is an important job that everyone on the planet should undertake because we need to preserve the planet for ourselves and those in the future.”

Anderson adds, “It’s very important that people recognize that we need to start protecting the earth and make efforts to reverse the changes we have made on the environment.”

It is clear that we understand the importance of Earth Day and that we need to take care of the planet we live on. The hard part is taking action.

So, what’s next for AVHS? Share your ideas for how AVHS can take its energy efficiency to a new level in the comments.