Saving the Earth one flip of a switch at a time
The art room’s light switch displays a “Save Energy LIGHTS OFF” sticker, among many other switches in the building. Photo by Rukhshona Islamova.
By Rukhshona Islamova – LHS News –
LHS Principal Mark Larson nominated Special Education teacher Bryan Mack to be Lincoln High’s Sustainability Champion. And he takes his responsibility seriously.
There is one person at every high school in Lincoln, [normally a staff member] who is given this role. The person that holds the “Sustainability Champion” title is given the task of pushing energy saving initiatives to the students and staff.
Mack’s current initiative is the Save Energy Stickers Project. He is sent bright green stickers from the district office, which he sticks on light switches after receiving. So far Mack has covered all of south building and the first floor of main building. He is single-handedly placing the stickers in every classroom, with occasional help from students.
“The stickers are there to remind people, mostly staff members, to turn off the lights when they aren’t in the room,” Mack said.
The stickers were put on the tops of the main light switches of classrooms. Mack is just trying to keep people aware of how much energy they can save by just flipping a switch. Most classrooms have motion detector lights, so teachers use those as a reason for not turning off the lights.
“Those motion detectors are only activated after there’s been no movement in the room for the past fifteen or twenty minutes, but the lights still stay on until then,” said Mack.
The lights aren’t only on all day, but some of them stay on all night. Mack has occasionally come to the school in the evening to work and noticed that a lot of the lights are turned on and never turned off.
“The lights are on when I come and are still on after I leave,” Mack said. “It’s understandable, because some lights need to be on for the security cameras and other things, but not that many, need to be on.”
Mack just wants everyone, students and staff alike to save energy, instead of wasting it.
“I have faith that humankind wants to change, to better the Earth, but some people just need a little help and that’s what I’m here for,” Mack said.
