SRHS Green Team Aims to Cut School's Energy Costs

students will conducting an energy audit on the campus to evaluate ways to cut down on energy and cost.

The audit is one tier of an energy and waste reducing plan brought forward by the school’s Green Team --a team of staff and students. The team’s goal is not only to reduce waste, but also to make the campus more energy efficient and sustainable, according to the team’s leader, applied physics teach Steve Temple.

The students, , will be using a kill-a-watt energy meter to measure how much energy each classroom’s appliances use and a thermal camera to evaluate the heating in each classroom.

“We’re not looking to change the current electrical system,” Temple said at a recent school board meeting. “There could be very simple measures taken to reduce the need for heating or the need for cooling.”

Due to budget constraints, the audit will focus on a behavior approach, like plugging appliances into power strips instead of the wall to avoid a phantom charge or opening windows in certain rooms to increase ventilation instead using the air conditioning.

One experiment that the students are already conducting is determining whether paper towels or hand driers are more energy efficient. Students calculated that their class spends $3,330 for a yearly average of 720 paper towels.

Currently, they are measuring the energy impacts of a hand drier as an alternative.

“We don’t want to swap one means of waste for another,” Temple said.

The funding for the Green Team will mostly come from a $10,000 from the Marin Community Foundation, according to district’s Chief Business Official Christine Thomas.

solar thermal heating systems for the swimming pools at and San Rafael high schools in order to provide for the district’s electricity.

The students’ plan also includes educating their peers about recycling and composting. The North Bay Conservation Corps will be donating new recycle bins for the campus.

“We’re really committed to the educational component and addressing behavioral change,” Principal Kit Pappenheimer said.

After the recycling efforts, the Green Team will work with the campus garden club regarding composting.

Around 15 percent of the school’s waste is uneaten food. With vegetables from five different salad bars, and items like discarded peels, the students thought, this would be great for worm composting.

“That’s the great thing about working with students, they are always coming up with ideas,” Temple said.