Senior Henry Hilton is seeing green: in the budding trees, in the sustainability committee he chairs and during the Earth Week event he founded.

Hilton sees climate change in action. “I’ve been exposed to not only the beauty of the outdoors and the nature around us here…but I’ve also been exposed to how that beauty has changed,” he said. “[We planned] competitions that are going to hopefully create a precedent of sustainability.”

Students celebrated Earth Week as a time to foster environmental stewardship. Preceding Earth Week, the USC sustainability committee pursued initiatives, such as implementing Meatless Wednesday and creating a sustainability statement. Additionally, the USC sustainability planning committee created Earth Week challenges, hoping to inspire students to keep sustainability in mind.

“This year, there are two competitions we have planned. There’s a bike to school day or carpool day.” Hilton said.
USC tallied up everyone in each grade who biked to school or carpooled for a schoolwide competition, and in addition, gave each individual who partook in the challenge a donut.

The second challenge was a compost challenge. “We [had] four different compost bins instead of two. It [was] a different one for each grade. And then we’re gonna see which one is the most filled,” Hilton said.
Besides these challenges, USC hosted a sustainability-themed club expo. The founder of the Nuclear Club, senior David Hsu, has been interested in nuclear energy for years, and he made a poster for the Earth Week club expo.

Hsu thinks the presentation will educate people about renewable energy sources and the dangers of fossil fuels. “The poster will be a demonstration presenting nuclear energy as a potential solution in order to minimize the usage of fossil fuels,” he said.

Climate change is a bigger issue than a single policy can fix. “The problem with sustainability is that it’s often grouped into political points of a left-leaning person, and it’s just kind of lumped into one boiler plate of political views…it’s so much more,” Hilton said.

Hilton hopes that USC’s sustainability initiatives will carry into future years. “I’m hoping that it can become a new tradition at SPA. I’m hoping people will embrace it,” Hilton said.

The event kicked off on Earth Day, Apr. 22, and ran through Apr. 26.