The Climate Action Club is currently working on many projects:
- The Climate Action Club is going to be on the Sundance Channel! We were contacted by one of their producers, and now they are coming to Maine to film the club in action. Airing date TBA.
- The Club had its first meeting on September 12, 2008! This year is off to an excellent start. We are working on three major projects at the moment: installing energy efficient software on school computers, initiating a printer-cartridge recycling campaign, and working with local merchants to reduce the use of plastic bags in our town. We are also continuing our battery recycling campaign and are working with Lincoln Academy administrators to make our school more energy efficient.
- The club received a $1,000 grant from Youth Venture! We were also one of only 5 grand prize winners of the Youth Venture's Lorax Challenge. Out of all the 150+ teams that applied for the Challenge nation wide, we were a winner. The Grand Prize was a trip to Florida for environmental boot camp. Two other club members and I wen on the trip. We learned a lot about how we could improve our venture, what other young environmentalists are doing, and how we can network better with other ventures. To see pictures from the trip, either go to the PHOTOS section of this website or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/29345953@N02/sets/72157606596693259/
- During our first year: we talked with idling car and bus drivers about the pros, cons, health hazards, and pollution factors of idling. As of this spring of 2008, 6 months after we began the project, we did not seen any buses or cars idling. We plan on continuing to monitor the amount of idling on our campus.
- During our first year: we worked with Paul Kando, a member of the MidCoast Green Collaborative, to conduct small, informal audits on different parts of our school. Through our work with Paul, we have calculated that the newly constructed science wing at Lincoln Academy has a leakage area of 4.34 square feet. (To see our audit report, click here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcss7hj4_23fdfhxhcf.)
- During our first year: we collected and around 3000 batteries from the receptacles that we circulated around the school. We recycled them at the beginning of May, 3 months after we initiated the project.