In December 2020, students from the Northwest School Environmental Interest Group (EIG), noting the urgency of the climate crisis, proposed to the Northwest School Board Facilities Committee that The Northwest School adopt a goal to become carbon neutral (reach net-zero emissions) by 2030.
In January 2021, with approval from the Board Facilities Committee, EIG submitted a proposal to the head of school to create a Task Force of students, faculty, and parents/guardians who would assess the feasibility of going carbon neutral by 2030, develop a set of strategies to achieve carbon neutrality, determine a method to track progress, and create a detailed timeline for milestones.
The Northwest School Carbon Neutrality Task Force worked from March 2021 to January 2022 researching GHG emissions reductions strategies, analyzing the school’s current emissions, and developing a GHG reduction target, in order to create the recommendations and analysis described in the December 2021 report. The report outlines recommendations, strategies, and actions that would enable The Northwest School to meaningfully achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, in a manner that focuses on emissions reduction and limits or avoids use of carbon offsets. These include, but are absolutely not limited to, investing in electric buses, solar panels, an updated building envelope, and electric boilers. It also includes budget estimations, a detailed funding proposal, and an accountability structure, among many other things.
The Task Force also sent out a survey in late November 2021 to students, parents/guardians, and faculty to gauge the sentiments of the wider NWS community around climate action at Northwest. The results were heavily in favor of action with 88% of the 117 respondents indicating support for the school taking action on climate change (55% students, 30% faculty, 15% parents). Respondents support incorporating climate action into budgeting, strategic planning, and curriculum, with over 75% support for each. The respondents were most enthusiastic about zero waste in the Dining Hall, solar panels, and sustainable transportation initiatives. They also implored everyone to take action on a state level.
In winter 2021-2022, students from the Task Force, presented the report to the Northwest School Facilities Committee of the Board, the full Board, and the Senior Leadership Team, receiving positive feedback after thoughtfully responding to difficult questions, especially regarding funding, and reminding Board members of their responsibility to the next generation.
In February 2022, students from the Task Force presented this project at the Washington-Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference.
In March 2022, students and faculty from the Task Force launched a Northwest Climate Action Team to continue the work of the Task Force (including implementation and accountability of the carbon neutrality goal) while expanding the group’s momentum to broader climate justice work and welcoming new members to maximize student and intergenerational organizing capacity.
In March 2022, members of the Task Force submitted an inquiry to receive funding from the Bullitt Foundation to fund a consultant to effectively launch the benchmarking process this fall, equitably compensate members of the Task Force for their time, and expand our communications to maximize the impact of our project on the landscape of school sustainability.
In September 2022, Northwest became the first primary or secondary school in the nation to publicly commit to a 2030 carbon neutrality goal that doesn't rely primarily on offsets!
The group’s current goals are to continue providing student feedback to the school administration and hold Northwest accountable to implementation of emissions-reduction milestones, to form a K-12 Climate Coalition through which we will share a detailed account of our process and support the development of similar goals at other schools, and share our goal and process through press and professional networks to showcase this important step in school sustainability and the importance of intergenerational collaboration.