School District: Private
School Location: Kirkland
Began participating in the Green Schools Program: September 2009

Level One of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2011
Level Two of the Green Schools Program: Achieved in May 2012

Waste reduction and recycling (level one)

• Eastside Prep maintains a recycling rate of 52 percent.
• Students and faculty collected food scraps and coffee grounds to be composted in a worm bin. Compost from the worm bin is used to fertilize the school’s garden beds.
  • Organic gardening beds were expanded in 2011, allowing for more food to be produced for the school cafeteria.
• Paper use is minimized by use of laptops by upper school students, who all bring laptops to class.
• Electronic dissemination of readings and assignments greatly reduces the school’s need to produce paper copies.

• Eastside Prep installed a five-step recycling system in the lunchroom which facilitates the recycling and composting collection of nearly all lunch waste.

Energy conservation (level two)

• Eighth grade students designed a model “energy island” that must produce all the energy it consumes and deal with the consequences of the energy production industries they choose. In order to reduce environmental impacts, students learned about many ways to reduce energy consumption.  As part of this assignment, each eighth grade student also completes a personal energy audit.
• Seventh grade students visited the Elwha River restoration and dam removal project in May 2012 and constructed a display of all the impacts that dams have on the environment in Washington.
• During 2011-12, the school expanded and renovated its facilities to improve energy conservation and efficiency. In addition to expansion-related conservation efforts, the school continued its commitment to reduction of environmental impact.
• The school installed new roofs on four buildings in 2011-12. White roofing with an extra six inches of insulation was installed to minimize air conditioning.
• Seven new HVAC units on four buildings replaced eight 30-year-old units.
• New energy efficient doors and windows were installed on two buildings.
• New motion sensors on four buildings replaced the old light switches.
• The finished cement floors used in two new buildings replaced the use of vinyl composite floors.
• Energy efficient shades were installed on all windows in four new buildings.
• High efficiency fluorescent tubes replaced less-efficient lighting in two buildings.
• Energy was also saved by installing motion detectors in classrooms and light timers in bathrooms.

Water conservation

• No-flush urinals were installed in several bathrooms, saving approximately 100,000 gallons of water annually.
• A rain catchment barrel was installed in May 2011 to irrigate a vegetable garden and native plant beds.

Comments

“The Green Schools Program has been a great help to us in our efforts to reduce our impact and increase our efficiency. Thank you for your guidance throughout this process.”
– Tobias Tillemans, teacher

For more information about the school’s conservation achievements and participation in the Green Schools Program, contact:

Tobias Tillemans, teacher
TTillemans@eastsideprep.org

Theron Cross, teacher
tcross@eastsideprep.org