Joshua Nodiff

October 16, 2014

To Mayor Bill De Blasio,
My name is Josh Nodiff, and I am a senior at LaGuardia High School, in the Technical Theater
Department. More specifically, I am the President of LaGuardias entire student body, and I lead
the Student Government Organization. As a social and environmental activist, I have devised an
agenda in collaboration with my fellow students to transform our high school into a beacon of
sustainability for the entire public school system.
Our action plan for the 2014-2015 school year is to implement a series of environmentally
conscious initiatives to make our school more sustainable. We would like to address several
environmental concerns: recycling, composting, and reducing net waste; analyzing the wellness
of cafeteria food and fresh alternatives; implementing a green roof, monitoring and reducing
energy usage, and installing solar panels; and creating an environmentally conscious community
within the school (students, teachers, administrators, and custodial staff).
Last year, I successfully started an after-school club with a handful of committed students and
teachers to discuss our solidarity in catalyzing sustainable reforms. Together, we have been
striving to make sustainability a priority for our school, because quite frankly, the majority of
administrators do not capitalize on the urgency of sustainability. We've been investigating the
policies that the NYC Department of Education has legislated regarding sustainability, and we've
discovered the existence of policies that LaGuardia does not enthusiastically adhere to (namely,
Local Law 41). It had never occurred to us that the Department of Education had mandated
sustainable action, since it was obvious that our high school and Im sure many others
lacked in this area. For this reason, I have successfully nominated an environmentally passionate
teacher to replace his predecessor as LaGuardias Sustainability Coordinator, as required by Local
Law 41. We have been working with him and several other individuals to catalyze a change, both
inside and outside the school. For example, weve been working with an organization called
Cafeteria Culture, which aims to reduce waste in public school cafeterias while boosting the
effectiveness of recycling and composting. The obstacle is ensuring proper communication
between the student body, administration, teachers, and custodial staff. A common issue is that
the custodians mix recycling with trash and composting in one big bag. Therefore, students say,
"Why bother placing things in the appropriate bins?" Students don't do it because they think
janitors don't do it. Janitors can't do it unless students do it. The issue here is the mindset and
motivation. Additionally, the chief custodian has stated that he is against recycling because it will
"add work" for his staff. We want to create a uniform system of three bins in each classroom: one
for trash, one for paper, and one for plastics. Unfortunately, we also have a shortage of bins, and
we need to aquire more from the Dept. of Sanitation. In the cafeteria,we want to create a
consciousness for students to compost, and dispose of organics in a designated bin. As of now,
the bins are all indistinguishable. When students produce art, they pour their heart into a project.
If the art students paint murals on the bins to distinguish recycling and composting and trash, they
will strive to become the stewards of their sustainable creation. Furthermore, however, I truly
believe that in order for this to be accomplished, sustainability must be embedded into the
curriculum.

Many students are disgusted with the quality of the cafeteria food, and often discard a large
amount of food, adding to the net waste of our school and many others. Therefore, we're also
looking into options for supplementing the lunches provided by the SchoolFood organization
(which is supplied by Tyson Foods, notorious for antibiotic use, animal abuse, and opposition to
the organic movement) with healthier, nutritious options. One option is to partner with the local
farmer's market, or to take advantage of the USDA Farm to School and Fresh Fruits and
Vegetables program. Additionally, we have proposed an idea for a community garden in which
students would grow fresh, organic produce to supplement cafeteria food. The students
themselves will be involved with growing this food as an extracurricular activity, allowing them
to become more in touch with their food. This opportunity will allow students to engage handson with the growing process, and become educated on the principles of urban agriculture,
community organizing, and food science. The school has a beautiful courtyard outside, which
would be ideal for this garden. However, students have been forbidden from accessing this
spacious location for nearly a decade. The administration says this is due to our scaffolding,
which has existed for the same amount of time. We need to finally take down the scaffolding in
order to take advantage of this community space. Furthermore, once we take down the
scaffolding and receive custodial permission, we could construct a Green Roof, which would
essentially utilize LaGuardias spacious rooftop for agricultural purposes while lowering carbon
emissions and subsequently reducing unnecessary heat within the building. We would then install
solar panels, which are being offered to public schools via the Mosaic organization, and also the
NYPA K-Solar program. Custodians also leave building lights on all night, and this is an
expensive waste of energy. The panels would go hand in hand with an initiative for custodians to
turn off building lights at night, thus saving large amounts of money and energy. Lastly, we are
working on making LaGuardias Technical Theater department more sustainable, since we
dispose of an inconceivable amount of perfectly usable lumber and discard that plywood into a
dumpster filled with styrofoam, food scraps, hardware, and landfill waste. I believe this intact
wood can be better allocated elsewhere other than a landfill.
The long-term goal of these initiatives would be to embody practical changes that other high
schools, and eventually perhaps the entire Department of Education, would strive to emulate. This
way, not only would the LaGuardia community become more environmentally conscious and
lead by example, but the entire student body of New York City would strive to mimic these
standards. I am sure that many other public schools in NYC experience similar issues in regards
to sustainable practices. Your support with these initiatives would be greatly appreciated.
Together, we can transform the Department of Education into a powerhouse of sustainability.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to any assistance you can provide.
Sincerely yours,

Joshua Nodiff