Each year, one school district in the U.S. is recognized for being the most environmentally friendly by The Center for Green Schools at the United States Green Building Council and the Green Schools National Network, through the Best of Green Schools – School System award.

This year, the award for being the greenest school in the United States was awarded to the Oak Park Unified School District on May 4.

In order to get the award, districts or schools must base their foundational cores of becoming eco-friendly around three main “pillars.”

According to the website for The Center for Green Schools, this includes “Reduced environmental impact, increased health and well-being [and] increased environmental and sustainability literacy for all graduates.”

To make their schools more environmentally friendly, the district recently installed solar panels. The panels are meant to provide shade for students during lunch, while also providing the district clean energy to power the electricity in classrooms and in facilities all around the schools. The school also eliminated the use of pesticides against animals and has been enforcing full-lid trash cans.  

“[With full lids] crows and squirrels can’t poke their head in the trash cans and end up spreading out all the trash that was thrown away,” Oak Park High School Principal Kevin Buchanan said.

The solar panels have played a huge role in the district’s goals, as have their net-zero I-buildings. These buildings, including the furniture and carpeting, are all eco-friendly because they are all made of recycled material.

“Oak Park High School was actually one of the first schools is the United States to install net-zero buildings,” Superintendent Tony Knight said.

The award also emphasizes the health and food choices of the school.

“The food we eat has a bigger impact on the environment than the number of miles or the type of cars we drive. We have high standards that we aim to meet when sourcing ingredients for our food,” Director of Student Nutrition Carole Ly wrote to the Talon.

Ly said she supports the use of local fruits and vegetables, using family farms and free-range meat, eating vegetarian, and cooking food from scratch. Although the school cafeterias continue serving meat, Ly writes about the initial push back from students was centered around homemade food.

“It took time for taste buds to change,” Ly wrote. “Now, more and more students are realizing that real food just tastes so much better.”

The last aspect of the award highlights the importance of including environmental science in through the district’s curriculum.

“We have analyzed the EP’s and C’s (California’s Environmental Principles and Concepts) and we bring them in to the appropriate class, whether it be in Chemistry and talking about the acidification of the ocean, or even in Foundations of Science or in Biology,” science department chair Winnie Litten said.  

Litten described the methods by which the science department includes preservation in student’s science learning.

“We talk about different ways to go about conservation by understanding the way other organisms have done it as they have evolved over millions of years,” Litten said. “Ken Jones, David Sloan and myself are part of a committee that has an emphasis on how we could bring together all the science teachers in the district to promote the EP and Cs.”

Litten also mentioned the importance of learning about the environment.

“I find students, when given the education, understand the impact we have on our environment and want to act on that.”   

According to Knight, Oak Park’s efforts to aid the environment are continuously under development.  

“We are always working on something,” Knight said. “At the middle school, we are working on installing a machine called the ORCA, which turns all food waste into safe, fresh water within 24 hours.”

According to the website, the machine can “digest up to 2,400 pounds of food waste per day.”

“Despite the fact that we have done all these things to help improve the greenness of our school, I don’t believe we got the award because of everything we have done, but rather because of who we are and where our heart is,” Buchanan said.