It began with measuring the school's carbon footprint.  That was in 2007 as part of what they called the Cool Schools Challenge, which a Redmond teacher and group of students established with help from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and Puget Sound Energy.  They got training in conducting energy audits and learned ways that teachers and students could reduce greenhouse gases.

The GO GREEN team (GREEN standing for Greater Redmond Environmental Education Network) began by turning off school lights and then sought help to get the Lake Washington School District to override the automatic lighting system in the school that kept lights on when they weren't needed.

They organized a comprehensive composting program and helped expand composting and recycling programs to a dozen other schools by teaching students to sort and collect compost and recyclables.  They came up with innovative programs to boost bus ridership by the students and to lower single car driving by teachers. 

Along the way, Redmond High School won recognition for starting the Cool Schools carbon-cutting project, earning a President's Environmental Youth award, and an invitation to the White House last year to celebrate the school's accomplishments.   Katherine Long, reporter for the Seattle Times, wrote an article about how the GO GREEN group came to be and how the students proceeded to try to win the contest to become the country's greenest school.  First, it started with a great teacher; Mike Town taught an Advanced Placement class in environmental science, a class taken by more than half the students.  The students took it from there.  "Senior Hilary Polis, 18, wrote the essay that put Redmond High into the top 10, out of nearly 2,000 entries. She and her classmates have found that making your school greener means taking matters into your own hands, exerting a little peer pressure, offering rewards and getting really good at turning off the lights."  If the school wins, the school receives a hybrid bus from the contest's sponsor, IC Bus of Warrenville, Illinois. Hilary would receive a $5,000 scholarship.

For the Greenest Schools contest, representatives from IC Bus plus a green specialist selected the top 10 schools.  The essays from the school were posted on a website which people could vote on.  Again, the Redmond students swung into action, lobbying for votes in the contest that ended last weekend.  The winner will be known soon. 

The sponsoring company, IC Bus sells hybrid school buses, something we wrote about here a few weeks ago.