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‘Uncommon’
Green Leader Finds New Passion
June
15, 2011
By
Jeannette Boner
Valley Citizen
School
District implements sustainability project
Roy Davis never really gave much thought to the word
sustainability.
When School Superintendent Monte Woolstenhulme asked him to attend a
Yellowstone Business Partnership meeting to further investigate how
sustainability efforts could benefit the Teton County School District,
Davis approached the request with a fair amount of cynicism.
“I
went to a two and half day seminar and going up there I had some
skepticism,” Davis said on Tuesday of attending the Uncommon
Sense
seminars in Montana and then again in Jackson. “When I came
back, I was
a changed person. And the word sustainability was making sense to
me.”
On
Monday Davis received the green light from the Teton County School
Board to apply the Yellowstone Business Partnership’s
Uncommon Sense
program, a regional recycling, reuse and refuse project that champions
the idea of sustainability on a variety levels.
Although the
school board was interested in the cost savings they may find with
implementing green initiatives district wide, Davis is passionate about
protecting natural resources for the greater good of future
generations.
“What this amounts to is education,”
Davis said
at Monday’s meeting. “I am more than happy to be
the legman on this,
but I’ll still need some help.”
Davis will be organizing “Green
Teams” in each of the district buildings this summer. These
Green Teams
will begin the process of implementing phases of the Uncommon Sense
program. The program is broken into phases with each step streamlining
energy efficiency, waste management practices and above all, changing
attitudes about sustainable living.
The program has been
successfully completed by local businesses including Silver Star
Commutations and Grand Targhee Resort; as well Uncommon Sense has been
positively received in other school districts such as the Teton Science
School in Jackson and the Cody, Wyo. School District. Davis reported
that the Billings, Mont. School District saved almost $600,000 in
energy efficiency measures and recycling practices through the Uncommon
Sense program.
Although Teton does not compare in size to Billings, Davis is anxious
for the program to provide that kind of savings locally.
“In
the end what it is all about is that our posterity has the same
blessings that we had,” said Davis, who is a retired Teton
High School
teacher and lifelong valley resident.
Teton County school
officials have been working with R.A.D. Recyclers, a local company
based in Victor that provides curbside pick up for recycled materials.
Founder and owner, David Hudacsko said his company has been picking up
recycled materials from the Victor, Driggs, Tetonia and Alta Elementary
Schools as well as the Kindergarten Center for the last six months. He
said that on average he hauls 800 pounds of recyclables from the
schools every months and over the last six month more than two and half
tons has been collected. The schools purchased or acquired their
recycling bins and from there, said Hudacsko, the program simply took
off with staff modeling recycling behavior that translated to students
doing the same.
“In many, many cases it means savings and that would mean
savings for the school,” Hudacsko said of the Uncommon Sense
program.
Hudacscko’s
company currently transports its recyclables to the Jackson facility
while Teton County, Idaho is storing its recyclable products. The
county is anticipating receiving a bailer for the recycling program
within the next couple of months.
Davis said he hopes to fully implement the program in all the school
buildings in the district by next spring.
“I’m
new to it also and I’m learning as well,” said
Davis. “There are things
that people don’t think about and we have to start thinking
about it.”
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