Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon

Winona Senior High School and Sustain Winona were notified they are officially certified as ISO 14001 compliant. On June 15 and 16, a conformance audit was conducted in Winona by members of Purdue University’s Center for Clean Manufacturing. The audit demonstrated Winona has a structure in place (ISO calls this structure an Environmental Management System, or EMS) to achieve the goals determined by the team.

Sustain Winona is a collaboration of local agencies pooling their resources, knowledge, and funding to effect the local environment in a positive manner. The collaboration has committed to reducing its carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste generation by setting targets of a 10% reduction in electrical power consumption, a 5% reduction in fossil fuel consumption, and a 25% reduction in the amount of solid waste generated by the year 2011, using 2007 as the benchmark year.

Over the coming months Sustain Winona members will continue implementing educational programs and operational changes to reach all goals. For now, Winona celebrates its success. Sustain Winona is the first community in the nation that has become ISO certified as a multi-organizational partnership (as opposed to just an educational institution or local unit of government on its own). It has been an inventive and challenging process, but well worth the extra effort.

Two other Cutting Carbon Schools, Minnesota State College – Southeast Tech in Winona and Winona State University, are participants on the Sustain Winona team.