"Array" of Sunshine

Petoskey High School Sustainability Club has eyes on the skies with a new solar array and other eco-conscious projects

By Kierstin Gunsberg | Feb. 25, 2023

When the pandemic paused meetings for the newly-founded Sustainability Club at Petoskey High School (PHS), no one would have blamed the student members for letting the ideas they’d been brainstorming fizzle out.

But, taking into account the urgency of their cause, the students didn’t see that as an option, and when they found themselves in need of a formal advisor for their club at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, they asked history teacher Matt Henning if he’d take over to keep the club rolling. Henning, who currently teaches both U.S. History and Contemporary World History at PHS, agreed to the role but says that he acts as more of a facilitator than a leader. “They’re driven. They run it and I just kind of help narrow the focus.”

Their Goals

What they run exactly, is a group of about a dozen active PHS student members who meet up a couple of times a month with the goal of addressing climate change head on. Club members discuss the effects of climate change on both the present and future and what Gen Zers can do to tackle the crisis they were born into. They’re determined to spearhead the crisis in proactive and tangible ways, while encouraging their peers, local government, and policymakers to do the same.

It’s a daunting task for a group of teens who are also juggling homework and college applications, but they don’t see an alternative. “What scares me the most about climate change is that we will reach a point of no return, and our lives will have to change because of this,” says PHS junior Cosmo Franseth. “Knowing that in some places this is already happening is scary, and I don’t want that to become the norm.”

Franseth, who’s interested in studying sustainable architecture after high school, isn’t being alarmist. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Earth was really hot last year, with the Northern Hemisphere experiencing its second hottest summer on record. And while we’ve seen excessive heat, flooding, and wildfires here in the States, students in the Sustainability (or “Sus”, as the students refer to it) Club are aware that the ramifications are global.

Another PHS junior, Nora Johnston, echoes her clubmate’s concerns over climate change. “I’m worried about the people who are being affected by the lack of sustainability, shown by food and water shortages as well as energy shortages.”

Their Progress

Dire, yes, but the club’s student members are not without hope—or motivation. With Henning’s guidance, the club is working to install a solar array on their school campus. By their current calculations, the array would offset the district’s energy costs by 10 percent while replacing a portion of their energy consumption with a clean power source. This push toward renewable resources by the student club members is in line with the city of Petoskey’s long-term goal of 100 percent renewable energy use by 2035.

The club’s involvement doesn’t revolve around only the solar array project though. Henning has been opening up opportunities for the club to learn about green jobs as an option for their post-high school careers, and the group has been working on ways to reduce food and plastic waste in their cafeteria too.

The solar array project has also meant that they’re getting a crash course in the initial high cost of sustainable infrastructure and the red tape that comes with implementing it. “They discovered that [the solar array] would cost approximately $820,000 to $980,000 for this 10 percent district offset, with a payback period of 24 years,” says Liv Rollinger, the climate and clean energy specialist for Groundwork Center (a nonprofit dedicated to building sustainable communities) who works alongside the Sustainability Club. “In this time, the array would save a total of $363,400.”

Rollinger has been an integral part of the club over the past year, helping the students navigate their financial options for the solar array, including seeking out grants and loan opportunities. While her role at Groundwork is broad and involves working on all kinds of projects, she says that working with the youth in the Sustainability Club has inspired her.

With Rollinger’s and Henning’s guidance, the club members are getting hands-on experience being changemakers in their community. The students we spoke to say that through the club they’ve learned how to pitch proposals, crunch numbers, and attend important meetings. They’re also making valuable connections with solar installers, school board members, and their district administrators. At the top of their to-do list right now is exploring where the best place to install the array would be, weighing the pros and cons of a ground installation versus a roof installation.

Their Future

One student member who has some experience in this arena is Tommy Skinner, who says that he’s already installed a small-scale solar array at his home. Over the past few years, his family has been making changes in an effort to be kinder to the environment. He joined the club because “it seemed like the perfect way to ramp up my efforts outside of my family and apply my knowledge on a larger scale,” and adds that the solar project is important to him. “School solar would be a net win environmentally, financially, and educationally.”

While growing up in a place like Petoskey where natural resources are abundant might seem like the ultimate lesson in conservation, Skinner worries that it may actually have an insulating effect on how its residents view climate change, giving a false comfort that all is well in the world when the harsh reality just hasn’t reached their front door yet.

The urgency of that message is one that Skinner and his clubmates are determined to spread through their work in the Sustainability Club. It may seem like a bleak mission, but for the high schoolers, tackling climate change by integrating workable solutions and advocating for better environmental policies is just another fact of growing up and preparing for the future, a future where they may one day be leaders.

As Rollinger puts it, “It’s their future, and so they deserve to have a say in that future.”