School Daze

“Originally we were going to follow the
renovation process around from school to school,” said Steve Lloyd,
SU’s chief sustainability officer, “and explain what the improvements
would be in each case. We wanted to talk about indoor air quality,
reduced energy usage, energy-efficient buildings and lower greenhouse
gas emissions—all the ways in which having a green school makes a
difference. Now with the delay we are going forward, but it’s too bad
the turnout isn’t better. These are tough economic times.”

Those tough economic times were on the
mind of Carole Horan, a longtime West Side resident who attended the
session. She was also disappointed at the low turnout, but believes the
project holds promise. “The residents here are concerned about basic
needs: food, clothing and shelter. Sometimes to look beyond that is
challenging. I don’t know if right now our neighborhood will be able to
grasp what the Sustainability Academy is offering them, but I hope they
would.”

The Sustainability Academy has been
promoted by a consortium of local businesses, government agencies and
schools. It is sponsored by the Onondaga County Resource Recovery
Agency, Nojaim’s Supermarket and the Gifford Foundation in
collaboration with the school district, Naef Recycling and Cornell
Cooperative Extension. The academy is seeking to make sustainable and
environmentally friendly practices relevant to the lives of people in
city neighborhoods. 

The orange go green: Syracuse University’s latest foray into city issues began Oct. 16 with a Sustainability Academy forum, held at Blodgett School. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

Jennifer Spoor is the lead organizer
with the Go Green Initiative, founded in 2002 as an educational program
designed to promote greater environmental awareness. “In 2005, Ed Smith
School became the first Go Green School in New York state,” said Spoor.
“Today 30 of the 38 city schools have ‘Green Teams’ promoting
sustainable practices in their building and community. The school
district assembled sustainability teams to work on the school
renovation project, and the Sustainability Academy was born.”

The school district adopted the Go Green
Initiative last year, according to Spoor, a 22-year-old Onondaga
Community College student, who has been hired by Naef Recycling to
promote Go Green in the schools.

The initiative is getting help from both
SU and ESF, long a leader in spreading environmental awareness. In
recent years SU has undertaken a whole series of initiatives under the
umbrella of sustainability: flexible scheduling for some employees, and
expanded use of telecommuting; rewards for carpooling, ridesharing, and
use of mass transit; enhanced recycling; the purchase of 20 percent of
SU’s electrical needs from wind and low-impact hydropower.

When the school district announced plans
to renovate eight of its school buildings, sustainability advocates
from the Hill wanted to be involved from the get-go, so they created
the academy. Now that cost overruns have delayed the school
renovations, the Sustainability Academy idea is moving forward, but on
a smaller scale.

The next session, Thursday, Oct. 23,
from 4 to 6 p.m., is on the subject of home energy efficiency. On Nov.
6, the topic will be green jobs. The final session, on “Food: Green and
on the Cheap,” will be held on Nov. 13. Blodgett School is located at
312 Oswego St. For more information, call

463-7266.

—Ed Griffin-Nolan