Utah’s schools emit just under 890,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Salt Lake City School District is one of the districts trying to actively pursue a cleaner future in the state. It wants to reach a goal of using 100% clean energy by 2030.
The IRS reimbursed $1.6 million to the district to help make this happen.
In order to achieve that, the Sierra Club Utah Chapter is partnering with the youth-led group Utah Youth Environmental Solutions — also known as UYES.
The organization educates students on environmental issues and helps them get involved with their communities.
Maria Archibald, an organizer for the Sierra Club Utah Chapter, said that a group of high school students went to this nationwide conservation group about their concerns for Utah’s environment in 2018.
“With support from the Sierra Club, those students started organizing around a 100% clean energy resolution," Archibald said.
The Salt Lake City School District approved the 100% clean energy resolution in 2020. Archibald said that currently the school district has completed roughly 26% of their total renewable energy goal from solar arrays. Those are solar panels grouped together.
Sophia Smith, a UYES organizer and a Sierra Club fellow, has participated in the program since high school. She is now a sophomore in college.
“I myself have learned that I have a lot more power than I thought I did through doing the UYES program, and I'm just interested in providing that to students and also bridging communications between students and decision makers,” Smith said.
Smith first joined UYES on a week-long training program that the organization provides. She said the training helps students understand that they can be part of environmental movements in their own community.
“It's just exciting …. There's lots of different avenues for involvement for different students' skills, it's just great for working together to get to this," Smith said.
Smith said that the UYES community is her favorite aspect of being part of the group.
Muskan Wallia, a lead organizer in UYES, is 24 years old and has been with the group for the past six years.
“The two big values at UYES, which is that everybody is a teacher and everybody is a student. And number two is that we just believe that a good education should be free,” Wallia said.
She said that energy costs are one of the largest expenses for schools and the change to clean energy will help the schools have more funding to go into other parts of education.
