Nicholas Goodman ’22

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Strake Jesuit should make efforts to become a more sustainable and environmentally friendly school. There are Catholic schools all over the nation that have taken the first steps towards becoming “greener.” Examples of these schools would be Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C. and Duchesne Academy of The Sacred Heart in Omaha. These two schools have gathered their students and brought them together to come up with ideas about how to become more sustainable to create a community that strives for excellence.

One of the first things that Strake Jesuit can do is join the Ignatian Carbon Challenge, created in 2015 to respond to the global climate crisis. It has created a large network of Catholics devoted to leading more sustainable lives. The program offers a monthly challenge for the school to come up with solutions implement. This would not only educate our student body but also help to improve our campus at the same time.

There are thousands of public schools taking steps to become environmentally friendly as well. The Green Schools Alliance has brought schools all across the country together to educate the youth about environmental challenges and ways to approach them. They create leadership opportunities for students to learn and solve problems around schools, creating a better future for everyone.

Even without joining either of these movements, Strake Jesuit can still make progress on its own. We can educate our student body to become aware of the environmental impact of what they do on campus and of ways to act more responsibly. There are already separated trash and recycling bins around the school, but that doesn’t mean that all of the students pay attention to the correct one to put their trash into. By changing the habits of our students little by little we can start to make a change and influence future generations to make better choices.