It’s Environment/Earth Week at LCC. Although we have taken a lot of steps in recent years to be a more sustainable school, we can always do more. We have diminished our impact on our environment by changing a lot of our buildings’ systems and infrastructure: we installed high efficiency furnaces and new generation fluorescent lighting, upgraded ventilation systems, limited water waste, planted trees and added an urban tree garden. In addition, student learning now has a more pronounced focus on sustainability.

Last fall our Board of Governors published a Sustainability Commitment. Our student Green Team promotes sustainable practices at school and in our homes, and faculty and staff sit on a sustainability committee. This is all in an effort to raise awareness and find ways to make LCC a greener school.
As a large and complex organization, LCC seems to be on solid footing when it comes to diminishing its impact on our precious environment. Perhaps the biggest challenge to changing wasteful and harmful habits is not institutional, but personal. David Suzuki publishes a Top Ten list of ways to make a positive impact on our shared environment. However, expecting people to make ten changes is probably too many. So how about just three? Anyone can do these:

1. Walk, bike or take public transit more often.
2. Manage your trash better and recycle more efficiently.
3. Eat more locally grown foods.

If enough people made just these three changes, our environment would surely benefit.

As they say, ”Rome wasn’t built in a day” and “climbing any mountain begins with a single step.” So however minor, decide what you can really handle. Commit to making some positive changes and before you know it, you will likely want to do more. –Chris Shannon, Headmaster