Richmond School are at the top of the Environment A-list

A group of Year 10, 11 and 12 students from Richmond School in North Yorkshire are working on raising awareness of the environment in their local area. A lot of Climate change awareness is done on a much larger scale but good things come in small packages. The group has been working together since December 2009. So far they have been working on what environmentally friendly things will be included in their new school and had talks from the Green Party, T.R.Y (Transition Richmond, Yorkshire), and a Swale dale National Park Ranger about what is being done already in their local area.
They are currently working on things to include in a window display in the Ken Warne’s in Finkle Street in Richmond. The display will be about Activism and the arts. They are asking students in their school to create things such as poems, art work, models and creative writing. The theme for the display will be “Our town in 2020”. Group leader Arlene Garnett said “The project is to use the Arts to express environmental concerns. We have been offered the TRY window at Ken Warne’s for a display on Rich in the year 2020.” They are also looking for songs, drama and dance for assemblies in school.
The group has also been doing a site audit of the school in order to get signed up to Action Aid 10:10 – Powerdown. The aim of this will be to cut the schools emissions by 10% over a year. They are now signed up to the project and are working out how they will manage to do it. If they have success with that they can get a visit from the Carbon Trust who will survey the school. They will then be given advice on how to reduce their carbon footprint even more.
A lot of environmentally friendly features are included in the new school that is being built. These should include some sort of environmentally friendly power such as solar panels and the new hall has windows that open and close according to the heat in the room. The group has been for a tour round what is currently being worked on in the new school and have put questions to the builders and planners who are working on it.
The groups work so far shows that work on environmental issues can be worked on in smaller groups and on a smaller scale than some of the deals trying to be reached on reducing CO2 levels. After all it will be our future it will effect.