It is the opinion of the editorial board of The Omniscient that Northwood as a community, as a system and as an organization is not doing everything in its power to positively impact the global environment. The problem is simple: Northwood is not as earth-friendly as it has the potential to become. The school uses styrofoam plates like they’re going out of style, has difficulty consistently composting food from the cafeteria and uses up an inexplicably large amount of paper given that each student and faculty member is bequeathed their own MacBook Air each August.
Of course, strides have been made. The Green Club placed compost bins in the cafeteria for uneaten food, many textbooks are available in PDF form on student laptops and each classroom has a space for recycling paper and plastic. But if Northwood was an adult in our lives, most of us would wag a finger at its obvious disrespect for the environment, hand them a copy of The Lorax and implore that it “reduce, reuse, recycle” with extra ardor in the future. There is simply more that needs to be done, and efforts toward taking these extra actions have been slow and laborious at best.
The solutions are simple and numerous. Our school can begin using recycled paper trays or plates in the cafeteria instead of styrofoam. Teachers could be more encouraged to use their technological resources instead of printing packet after stapled packet. And the implementation of compost bins in the cafeteria was well-meaning but received little support or recognition from Northwood administration. Let’s try that again, but this time place recycling, compost and trash bins in key places in the cafeteria so that caring for the environment becomes more of the norm than a political statement.
Northwood’s vision statement includes the line, “Our vision is to empower technologically literate, life long learners who will make valuable contributions to society.” It goes on to propose that students who have completed a tenure at Northwood “will be prepared for the demands of the 21st century.” Needless to say, an aspect of living on Earth in the 21st century is caring for the earth, and “contributions to society” indubitably includes caring for our home planet, our little third rock from the sun.
It’s time that Northwood, which is so exceptional in so many other ways, broadens its scope of stewardship. Instead of simply caring for the students under their charge, administrators should work to ensure that our school cares for the earth as well. It’s too late to take back the thousands upon thousands of styrofoam cafeteria trays dumped in the landfill over the years or the mounds of wasted food products shuttled far away from any location where they could be of use. But let us use past mistakes to guide us toward a more sustainable future. The changes Northwood must make are simple, but any change inherently is a challenge. The editorial board thus challenges our own school to do its part. Figuratively, we wag our earth-loving fingers at you. We hand you our own dog-eared copies of The Lorax. And we stand by with support as our beloved school transitions into a school that leaves an even greater lasting impact on the earth and—by extension—the lives of its students.