Instead of attending their usual classes, the juniors participated in a sustainability day on Friday, March 6th. In the morning, they split into small groups and went off campus to six local organizations—Emersion Design, Pepper Construction, 80 Acres Farm, Cincinnati Office of Environmental Sustainability, Melink Solar, and UC DAAP—to see different ways sustainability is incorporated into workplaces. In the afternoon, they all came together at the Cincinnati Zoo to learn more about sustainability efforts there.

Emersion Design is a multidisciplinary firm that specializes in architecture, interior design, planning, and structural engineering. The company dedicates itself to creating sustainable and energy-efficient structures for its clients and also works to produce net-zero-ready projects. The students learned about the ways they incorporate sustainability into their designs and the process by which they do that.

Pepper Construction is a business firm that specializes in construction management, contracting, and design-building that centers around green architecture across the city. They are strongly praised for their reconstructed headquarters, which is an award-winning structure because of its green design. Students saw some of these buildings and learned about the sustainability efforts that went into constructing them.

80 Acres Farm is a unique farm that differentiates itself from others by doing its work indoors. They are a vertical farming company that produces pesticide-free produce like lettuce, tomatoes, and salad herbs in indoor, climate-controlled environments. The students saw the fundamentals of how the farm runs and learned how they reduce the amount of water and land used at their farm to promote sustainability.

The Cincinnati Office of Environmental Sustainability is located downtown and is in charge of coordinating the government’s environmental efforts for the city. Their primary role is to lead citywide efforts that create a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient community. Students went to City Hall to learn about their work and heard from people who are part of the office.

Melink Solar came to Seven Hills to teach the students about their work, which is designing and installing solar panels across the city. They specialize in designing these solar systems for businesses, non-profit organizations, and municipalities. The students learned about the focus of their work and how they incorporate sustainability into that. They also saw the thought process Melink Solar goes through to achieve its goals.

UC DAAP is the college of design, architecture, art, and planning at the University of Cincinnati. Students learn about creative disciplines like fashion, industrial design, urban planning, and architecture. Students saw the curriculum within the program and learned about what they do and teach about sustainability. They also learned about how they use sustainability in terms of design.

The students continued their learning at the zoo, where they saw the zoo’s intense sustainability program and heard from their director of sustainability. They have a very unique setup of solar panels on top of their parking lot and incorporate many water preservation efforts within the zoo. During a tour of the zoo, Junior Boden Schoeny said, “Learning about the Zoo’s sustainability program was very interesting and it was cool to see their efforts in action.” 

In the end, the hope was that the juniors were able to view sustainability in a new light. Mr. Wabler said, “The point of doing a sustainability day is for people to realize that sustainability shows up in all kinds of industries and businesses, and hopefully, students can see the way that folds into all kinds of different things.” This experience is definitely an important one to have, and hopefully, the other grades will soon be able to have the same opportunity to learn about sustainability from these unique organizations.