FVHS doesn’t go green. It goes earth friendly.

No longer reserved for hippies and tree huggers, being environmentally friendly is encouraged for all. Fashion, celebrities, cars, and yes, even schools are joining the movement. Fountain Valley High School, as a whole, is making an effort to reduce, reuse and recycle as long as it’s cost effective.

Students are taking notice of the negative environmental effects of their actions.

“Our goal is to inform others about the environmental problems that are affecting our world today. We don’t want to just talk about making changes; we want to act on them,” says president of Greenleaf Society, Rosie Said (’10).

Greenleaf Society is an environmental club on campus that promotes awareness of environmental issues.

There is much controversy last year surrounding the abundant waste of resources during Edison Week. Mountains of paper are wasted on posters. After this immoderate behavior, a solution arose – reusable posters made of cloth. Only a limited amount of paper will still be used.

“I don’t like that we’re wasting so much paper. We’re going for quality not quantity this year and focusing more on murals,” says ASB publicity member, Jessica Hutton (’09).

Junior Taylor Milligan, also on publicity, agrees, “It’s a big tradition at our school and I just wish we could recycle the posters.”

ASB plans on cutting down on its paper usage and is hoping to start making posters on cloth by next year.

“I think that we can see all around us that students, parents and teachers are becoming more aware of the damage that’s being done to our environment,” says Principal Herzfeld.

“Awareness is up at levels that we haven’t seen since the 60\’s or 70\’s when some very big changes were made in the nation to get more environmentally conscious. It’s on everybody’s mind and it’s something that we’re taking a look at in every way that we can,” says Herzfeld.

The 400 building uses skylights and has faucets that automatically turn off. These save water and energy. Initially, they were not put in to be eco-friendly, but rather to save money and discourage vandalism.

However, administration is doing its part to save the planet – one piece of paper at a time.

LCD projectors are placed in classrooms so teaching visuals can be shown without having to print multiple copies.

Last year, ASB and a few clubs placed recycling bins around campus.  Unfortunately,  bottles and cans weren’t the only things going in them.

The addition of an all weather track is currently in discussion. By having Astroturf instead of grass, a lot of water can be saved.

 

 Please remember, trash goes in trash cans. It’s hard to recycle without your help. By throwing your bottles and cans into a recycling bin or using reusable water bottles, you can make a difference.