Vote by June 24 for BLS to Win a Green Technology Makeover!

Editor's note: This article was written by William Burnett, an 8th grade student at the Boston Latin School, who lives in West Roxbury.

IMPORTANT: Vote for BLS by June 24 here and help them win these green technologies!

In recent days the Boston Latin School student body has been buzzing with excitement. Boston Latin School YouthCAN (Youth Climate Action Network) entered the “Global Green USA's Green School Makeover Competition.” The news came just two weeks ago that we made it into the top 10 schools!

Winning this competition would mean a $75,000 Green School makeover for BLS, courtesy of Global Green. A win would give BLS the money to install at least five "green" water fountains, which are used to refill students' reusable water bottles in just six seconds and eliminate the use of those awful one-use plastic water bottles the bottled water industry has made so popular. The filling stations even have a counter showing how many plastic bottles have been kept out of landfills by using the refillable bottles.

In addition, our school would also win an outdoor hydroponics lab for students to learn in. The “Freight Farm” lab is a recycled, revamped shipping container completely outfitted as an outdoor greenhouse where students would be able to use the Freight Farm’s state-of-the-art vertical hydroponic plant-growing technology to grow all sorts of fresh vegetables and plants for use in the school and for students to sell at community farmers' markets. Our school cafeteria would also get a brand-new vertical growing system from Sage Vertical Gardens, where students would grow fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables for the school lunches. And it just keeps coming! The school would also win an energy performance tracking system called the “Lucid Dashboard” to help us follow our real-time energy usage and implement effective energy-saving measures that will help us reduce our carbon footprint. BLS would also win solar panels that would provide green electricity. These are just some of the amazing green technologies the school would win.

As a student at BLS, I can say that we would make full use of all of these things, especially because our school is making such a major effort to go green. The student body would get some great things to learn with, faculty would get some great tools to teach with, and given how much work our student environmental group — the Boston Latin School Youth Climate Action Network does in the community — it would definitely also be used to benefit and teach others. Winning the Global Green School Makeover would bring a lot of great things that would help our school and our community “grow,” and we’d definitely be growing greener! I really hope we win. If you want to support us, please vote for our school by June 24 at globalgreen.org.