Students for the Environment!

Students for the Environment (SFE) has had a great semester so far! We have begun several conservation-oriented projects that we hope will help incorporate a general sense of environmental activism in the ISK community.

Since the beginning of the year, we have collected paper weekly from all high school classrooms and administrative buildings to be recycled by the local corporation Chandaria. Every week, kilograms of paper are weighed and deposited in the recycling bins in the high school parking lot. The next step is to create a partnership with the elementary and middle school environmental clubs so that all discarded paper on the ISK campus can be properly collected and recycled.

A small committee of SFE members is also working to create a new, comprehensive environmental policy that will be proposed to the Board and hopefully instated as early as next school year. The policy draft focuses specifically on methodology to cut down school water usage, protect important tree species on campus, reform bus routes, and create a carpool network for students living in the same area. We are optimistic that the fruits of this project will endure for many years if the policy is adopted by the administration.

We are also excited to announce the opening of the school’s first tree nursery, which is located near the high school parking lot, behind the library. With amazing guidance from Ms. Scilla Davey, we chose ten tree species that are indigenous to Kenya, easy to grow, and quite beautiful. These are the Podo, Nandi Flame, Terminalia brownii,
Newtonia,
Neem,
Elgon Olive, Caster Oil Tree,
Potato Tree,
Bamba Coffee, and Olea Africana.
Throughout the year, SFE members will maintain the nursery, which opened on Friday, March 9th with 20 Podo and Nandi Flame seedlings. Soon, we will be able to start showing off our nursery to potential buyers. Trees from the nursery will be used to supplement our own future large-scale tree planting projects as well as planted in gardens by independent customers.

It’s going to be a productive, eco-friendly semester!