Mr. James Coffey’s community service students are doing far more than just stapling papers. The two seniors Lauren Votta and Chris Levitsky are members of the Energy Action Patrol, which ensures that the high school is being energy efficient.
Energy Star, which is “a government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency” gives ratings to schools based on their use of energy. The target rating for schools across America is 75.
Upper Perkiomen High School has an Energy Star rating of 24, which is about 50 points lower than it should be. Shockingly enough, energy cost per student in the high school is $275. The goal of the Energy Action Patrol is to reduce this number by doing what they can to conserve energy.
The group is in charge of recycling and separating the plastics from paper, then placing them in different bags, so they can go to the recycling center. The group patrols the classrooms and gives teachers either a green card, which means that they are doing a good job saving energy, or a yellow card for wasting watts.
According to Votta, “More teachers are getting green cards than yellow cards."
Help the Energy Action Patrol students save energy by continuing to “reuse, renew and recycle!”