environmental – AHS NEWSPAPER

One AHS Student Takes Unique Initiative to Educate Andover on the Future of Electric Vehicles

December 5, 2023

By Molly Borenstein
STAFF WRITER

Lizzie Koral, senior, is working with town executives to organize an electric vehicle forum in cooperation with the Old Town Hall redesign.

STAFF PHOTO / Molly Borenstein
Lizzie Koral works on the forum on her laptop in the library.

Koral is one of 17 students this year taking ESIC, AHS’s Environmental Sustainability Internship Course. This course matches each student with an outside mentor where they work on a project concerned with local environmental and sustainability-related issues. Koral’s project works with Steve Fink, mentor and local community volunteer, who is best known for his work on the green team for South Church, a group working to make the church more sustainable. The two are working together on multiple public projects related to sustainability, but their most recent is an electric vehicle forum in the newly constructed Old Town Hall back parking lot.

But this isn’t the first time this event has been held. Koral explained “Last year with the environmental club, we had a similar event but because of Covid … it was a bit of a struggle.” She continued to explain that in prior years they lacked the correct venue for the event and the resources to produce it at the level they wished. “Hopefully, with the help of Mr. Fink and a new location we can produce the event on a much larger scale.”

The next step is planning the event, Koral voicing that there will be two phases to the forum. The first section is a lecture about the pros, the cons, the cost, and everything else that comes with buying and maintaining an EV. The second is an EV parade, where EV owners drive around and display their cars for the community. “It’s going to be more educational, a learning experience for the community,” she continued. “But we’re going to plan the event through the town.”

Not everything has been a breeze, planning a town event Koral said, it’s a big challenge. “We just met with Joyce Yang, the town sustainability coordinator and we are hoping to meet with the town’s facilities managers soon.” With so many connections to important people, Koral seemed to juggle it all. “Yeah so, I’m actually planning the whole thing,” Koral voiced casually. “I’m facilitating emails, meetings, and writing the proposal. Overall, with Mr. Fink’s help, running the event and getting in contact with EV owners and local businesses.” She also stressed how much community involvement is really the main point of her work: “The event will be a space for the community to educate others that trust their opinions on not only EVs but sustainability as a whole.”

However, the biggest concern right now seems to be scoring the venue for the event. Old Town Hall, built in 1858, is being renovated, most recently the town has worked on updating the parking lot behind the building. Koral explained that this is crucial to the event, truly the perfect space for both the lecture and parade, as well as the venue having the ability to provide bathrooms and space for a large amount of the community. Koral said, “The redesign still needs a good amount of funding and other sorting of logistics,” but with the parking lot finished, it’s looking up.

Installation of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Pending at AHS

March 7, 2022

Angela Mac
STAFF WRITER

The Andover High School Environmental Club is resuming progress on electric vehicle charging stations after a year’s delay.

Over the past year, the AHS Environmental Club has been working with Andover’s sustainability coordinator, Dr. Losick-Yang, to install 100 percent renewable electric vehicle charging stations (EV charging stations) near the field house. The club was waiting for approval of a state grant called MassEVIP, which gave AHS charging stations for free. Now having that approval, things are moving forward.

The project started at the beginning of school last year. The foundations and wires were installed in the summer and early fall and ChargePoint, the company the Environmental Club is working with, will ship the chargers to AHS. Each charger is a Dual-Port Station, meaning it’s one station that charges two vehicles.

Eva Mckone, Co-President of the Environmental Club, stated that “as of early spring, they’re actually gonna start digging the ground [for the EV charging stations].”

The chargers will be powered by the energy that is used by AHS.

“The school is powered by 100% solar from western Mass,” said Mckone. “Power from the school would transfer to the chargers so it would be 100% renewable.”

STAFF PHOTO / Angela Mac
Environmental Club co-presidents Courtney Duffy (left) and Eva McKone (right) stand by the wires for AHS’ future EV charging stations

Members of the AHS Environmental Club have worked together to make this project come to life. A small group from the club negotiated and developed a pricing strategy and created a proposal for the town that was approved by the Andover School Committee. Losick-Yang wrote the grant application for the EV charging stations. Alongside Losick-Yang, the AHS Environmental Club worked closely with Janet Nicosia, director of facilities for Andover.

The EV charging station at AHS will be a public area for anyone to use, not just students and faculty of AHS. Along with being public, EV charging stations are much faster than the chargers some may have at home.

John Jannetti, another Environmental Club advisor, said that “[his] charger at home is very, very slow [and] it takes 6 and half hours to get a 25-mile charge. These charging stations [take] two hours.”

The rise of electric vehicle ownership is also one of the reasons AHS has decided to install these chargers.

Currently, there will only be one EV charging station installed but it is possible AHS will install more in the future.

Melanie Cutler, a club advisor of the Environmental Club, emphasized that “we have to prove first that [the EV charging station] is viable, and that the town’s not going to lose money on the deal.” Cutler stated, “we tried to come up with a dollar amount that would break even so that it pays for itself.” Those that use the EV charging station will have to pay a fee each time they use it. This money will cover the cost of the expenses that were used to install it.

Minda Reidy is a teacher that owns a Tesla and has a charger at home. Running out of battery isn’t a concern of hers since her commute to school is very short. However, Reidy knows people that “have had to use [her] charger because they didn’t have one available [at AHS], so [having one at AHS] would make things a lot easier.” Once installed, the EV charging station will benefit those that have electric vehicles but also those that plan on buying one in the future.

Editor’s note: As of March 21, 2022, the electric charging stations have been installed at AHS

Articles Community

Environmental Club Pursues Projects

May 26, 2021

By Alana MacKay-Kao

ARTS EDITOR

On a beautiful, warm, breezy Saturday afternoon April 24, about 30 volunteers worked together to plant over 300 trees in total, exceeding the initial goal of 256 trees by nearly 20 percent.

The initiative was run by the Environmental Club at AHS, headed by co-presidents senior Yashvi Gosalia and junior Eva McKone. They worked with an organization called Tree-Plenish, a platform created to help students offset the carbon footprint of their school’s paper usage. For AHS this means offsetting the use of 2.6 million sheets of paper.

This isn’t the first time the Environmental Club has tried to plant trees on an enormous scale. Last year, their goal was to plant a tree for every student at AHS. Unfortunately, while there were no shortage of saplings, the trees that were available would have needed routine maintenance, and the logistics of caring for that many trees could not be worked out. The Environmental Club tackled the task again on a smaller scale this year, and partnering with Tree-Plenish allowed them to accomplish their goal of planting a huge number of trees. Andover residents purchased either a douglas fir, river birch, or red maple tree to be planted on their private property. April 24, the volunteers drove around and planted the more-than-300-trees they ordered.

While working with Tree-Plenish to accomplish this huge project is one of the more complex undertakings the Environmental Club has pursued this year, it is far from the only one. They have also worked to get electric car charging stations implemented on the AHS campus for future use by students and other Andover residents with electric cars. The goal is to make it more convenient to have an electric vehicle in the hopes that more people will decide to use them. There are 12 buildings in Andover running entirely on solar energy sourced from a solar panel field in Palmer, including AHS. Since the charging stations will be on the AHS campus, they will be in the same electricity zone and will run on 100 percent solar energy.

STAFF PHOTO / Erin Li
A line of electric vehicles meet up at the AHS parking lot to drive down to main street to promote electric cars.

Not all of the projects the Environmental Club takes on are as monumental ones. They regularly do trail cleanups, an exercise junior Claire Dolan, a member of the club, really enjoys. “It’s always really fun after school to walk around and talk to everyone in the club and pick up some trash just to keep that area [of Baker’s Meadow] clean,” she said. “I also really like working in the garden with students from the club.”

STAFF PHOTO / Erin Li
Courtney Duffy and Sadie Rooney stand next to a poster they made for the event to promote electric vehicles. The event occurred on 4/30 and it consisted of an electric car show and educational messages.

The Environmental Club has truly come a long way, being revived under Gosalia and McKone’s leadership after having no clear direction in their sophomore and freshman years respectively. Gosalia recalled, “I had gone to a couple of meetings and the thing that I remember the most about that was just how empty the classroom always was. We had maybe 5 or 6 people that were coming consistently.” When she discussed this with McKone one day, the two became determined to change the way the club was run. They approached Melanie Cutler, science teacher and advisor for the club, and they have been co-presidents ever since (that’s three years running!)

Throughout experience organizing events, volunteering with various organizations, attending strikes and more, McKone said that her favorite part of advocating for the environment is “having a group of like-minded people working toward one goal. It’s really rewarding to see everything follow through and to see that we can make an impact in our community.”

Getting Involved

Senior Sophie Rainville is taking the Environmental Sustainability Internship Course this year. She has been using a grow cart with four racks in a room next to the cafeteria to grow lettuce, basil, and cilantro, which is being used in school lunches.The goal was to provide fresh organic food to the AHS cafeteria. “Working on this project is very fulfilling because the process does not take long and it is fun to see the plants grow,” Rainville said. “My favorite part is being able to bring the food into the cafeteria knowing it will be used,” she added. “It is cool to know that someone who is eating a salad at lunch is eating lettuce grown in the cafeteria.” Her hope is for more grow carts to be used in the future. She would love to get the community involved through bringing her produce to farmers markets, and her ultimate hope is that it could be used as a learning tool in science and special education classes. She said, “I was inspired by the way that growing things can help people. I think it is…a learning opportunity for people to see something they planted grow.”

McKone explained that, as Sophie demonstrated, in environmental advocacy, there are different kinds of work you can do. “There’s the political side and the classic ‘go out in nature and save the earth’ kind of thing,” she said.

On the political side, Dolan had a few tips for how you could get involved. For example, you could volunteer to phone bank for candidates who champion green legislation you support, or you could write postcards to voters. She said, “Climate change is an issue that isn’t really visible in our government. And state-wise, we have a very small percentage going towards work that centers the climate and advocating for that is really important.”

If that kind of work isn’t your thing but you still want to volunteer, there are many other organizations that you can work with. McKone is involved in an organization called the Tomorrow Project (https://www.tomorrowprojectus.org/), a program led by youth volunteers that partners with elementary schools to educate kids about the importance of being sustainable. Hands-on projects and interaction between the older students and younger students aim to make an impact that will excite kids to lead green lifestyles. Another place to volunteer is Andover WECAN (https://andoverwecan.org/), a community-based group of volunteers with all sorts of projects. Dolan helps to write the blog about ways people can help in Andover. Dolan said, “Even joining one organization can get you very far, because people have great connections and everyone’s really helpful with tips.”

On a personal level, there are a number of ways you can make the way you live more sustainable. Sustainability can easily be intimidating, but Gosalia made a fantastic point to remember when it feels this way: “The aesthetic of being sustainable is often a lot more work than it actually is to be sustainable…a lot of times, people feel like in order to be sustainable, you need to buy new things. But that’s actually the exact opposite of what you should be doing…Sustainability really comes with using what you have to the most that it can be used. So instead of buying new clothes that are ethically or sustainably made, just keep wearing the ones you have and mend them…It’s a lot easier than it looks online.”

You can also try going vegetarian one day a week. According to Kathy Freston, health and wellness activist and author in the Huffington Post, enough water to supply every home in New England for four months could be saved if everyone went vegetarian for a day. You can see the article here at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-breathtaking-effects_b_181716.

McKone emphasized that the most important aspect of doing this kind of work is not to give up even if you feel disheartened. Dolan echoed this sentiment, saying, “You can feel not very valuable in the issue of climate change because it’s very large, on a global scale. Your work matters a lot no matter how big or small it is. All people are valuable to the movement and working towards combating climate change.”

2.6 million sheets of paper

Used by AHS collectively, all offset by trees planted in a project run by the Environmental Club

1,800+

Streetlights that are energy-efficient LED lights throughout Andover

1.2 million tons of CO₂

Greenhouse gas emissions prevented in the US if everyone went vegetarian for one day

12 buildings

Running entirely on solar power from Palmer

Andover Happenings

May 26, 2021

By Alana MacKay-Kao

ARTS EDITOR

The Andover Green Advisory Board: unseen superheroes working tirelessly to make Andover a greener place, they are a group of volunteers appointed by the town manager. Their role is “to advise the town on how to make projects more environmentally sustainable,” according to Melanie Cutler, science teacher at AHS and member of the Andover Green Advisory Board. Cutler and Janet Nicosia, director of Facilities of the Town of Andover, shared some of the green victories in Andover, which can be seen summarized below.

Municipal Preparedness Program

The largest threats due to climate change have been identified and there are plans in place to reduce these threats.

First Ever LEED Neighborhood Certification for the new Town Yard Parcel Development

LEED stands for “Leader in Energy Efficiency Design,” and the LEED certification is awarded by the Green Building Council, a “coalition spanning the entire building industry.” (https://www.usgbc.org/about/brand) As its name suggests, this certification means that the recipient is energy efficient. But for a whole neighborhood, it means that it has mixed development (in part, this means that there is lots of open space, and it is easy to walk or bike through the area).The town is currently waiting for developers to submit proposals for what they would do with the Old Town Yard Parcel. All of these proposals must fulfill certain requirements in order to keep the area a LEED certified neighborhood.

100% LED Streetlights

Originally replaced to lower costs and to allow streetlights that had been turned off, an attempt from a few years ago to save on electricity costs), to be relit. Every single street light in Andover had to be mapped, lights had to be bought from National Grid, and the entire town was redesigned with which wattages should go where. The result is better walkability, less glare for drivers, lights without any hazardous materials, and over $100K every year saved in costs compared to the old cost of street lighting.

Green Communities Energy Efficiency Awards

Andover was one of the first communities, in 2010, to be designated a Green Community. Nicosia explained, “In order to obtain this designation the Town had to pass some legislation to zone for renewable energy, to track energy data and commit to energy reduction, to agree to purchase more efficient vehicles, and we have to report every year what we are doing, and our annual usage by building for all utilities, electric, natural gas, oil, and gasoline.” Being designated

12 Buildings Powered Entirely by Solar Power from Palmer, MA

Andover High School, High Plain/Wood Hill, Doherty Middle, West Elementary, West Middle, Shawsheen Elementary, Public Safety Center, Memorial Hall Library, Cormier Youth Center, West Andover Fire Station, Red Spring Road Shop, and the Town House are all in the electricity zone solar credits are applied to. In other words, these 12 buildings receive electricity solely from a solar panel field in Palmer.

Energy Star Rating

AHS has Energy Star certification. This means that it is running above the 75th percentile of similar buildings in the area. “This involved hiring an engineer to perform a peer review of all systems, invoices for energy, and best practices. We are extremely proud that a quite old school building could out-perform 75% of all high schools in our region,” Nicosia said.

400 Discounted Earth Machine Bins for Backyard Composting

The Town of Andover’s Department of Public Works offered Earth Machine compost bins to Andover residents at a reduced price to promote composting. When food waste products wind up in landfills, they produce methane because they do not have access to enough oxygen when they get buried. This causes the food waste to perform anaerobic decomposition which results in the methane gas, a greenhouse gas which contributes to climate change. Andover’s waste goes to an incinerator in Haverhill which releases CO₂ as it disposes of the waste, another greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Composting can result in healthier soil and fewer of these greenhouse gases.

Passage of the First Solar Bylaw

There are now rules for how solar panels can be installed — location, size, number, etc. The zoning bylaw amendment, written by Harry Voorhees, was passed in April 2020 (Article P38) and encourages solar power while protecting the aesthetics of Andover.

Energy Efficient Plans for New West El

West Elementary and Shawsheen preschool are being combined into a new building. Said building is being designed to be net-zero-ready (net zero carbon emissions, energy, etc.), meaning it will produce as much as it consumes. When the building is first off the ground it will not be net zero as the cost is too high, but the design will allow for easy solar panel installation and other additions. Not only will it have the capability of being net zero as more pieces are added, it will be using one-third of the energy the current West Elementary building uses. The town will save two-thirds of the cost even before going net zero.

Andover is a SolSmart Bronze Town

SolSmart is a U.S. Department of Energy funded recognition program which acknowledges that the communities it awards have removed barriers to solar development and installations. Andover had to submit a lot of information about the solar application process, the guidelines in place to install solar panels, and the zoning relief that makes solar energy in Andover possible.

Rooftop Solar Panels for Sanborn

The town is looking into the feasibility of putting solar panels on Sanborn Elementary’s roof.