t. Lebanon students are educated about the environment throughout their time in the district — from Tree City / Arbor Day celebrations in elementary school, to required environmental science courses in high school, and much more in between. In fact, Mt. Lebanon High School was nationally recognized for its excellence in environmental education in 2018, as one of 46 schools named a “Green Ribbon School” by the U.S. Department of Education. The award recognized innovative efforts to reduce negative environmental impacts through education, improved facilities
and programs.

Given the emphasis on environmentalism in school, coupled with Gen Z’s heightened eco-consciousness, it’s no surprise that many teens volunteer their time to the cause. From new clubs to established ones, class projects and volunteer opportunities, Mt. Lebanon students are helping the environment in a variety of ways.

A newer initiative: Upcycling Club

Founded in 2022, the Upcycling Club is one of the 105 clubs at Mt. Lebanon High School. Almost everyone knows what recycling is, but upcycling is a newer phenomenon in reuse culture. Recycled items are broken down with other items of like material and mass reproduced into a new product. Upcycling is different — it’s all about taking something that’s no longer useful and giving it new life.

“The high school has an environmental club already, and all of these environmental initiatives, but not that many people know about this idea of upcycling,” said club co-founder Kate Yang. “The idea of upcycling is to recycle something in such a way that the resulting product is of higher value than the original item or has a unique purpose. So, I think just being able to teach this concept of upcycling to students — and kind of spread awareness to this concept that isn’t so widely talked about — is something that we really wanted to do.”

Interested in environmentalism and sustainability, Yang, Addison Evan and Violet Slagle started the club in their sophomore year. In the years since, the club’s grown exponentially, with more than 70 involved students as of the 2024-25 school year.

“Kate, Addison and I all worked together the summer before sophomore year to create the club,” said Slagle. “While starting the club I was inspired by my love for art and the environment. As we have continued over the past few years, the club’s ability to bring people together while being creative and doing something with a purpose only inspired me more.”

The club usually meets once a month, directly after school, and students work on projects together. One of the most popular projects so far involved making bird feeders out of single-use plastic water bottles. “We were practicing upcycling, but it was actually practical,” said Evan.

Slagel added, “It was so cool to see how much fun everyone had while creating it. Everyone was able to take their own project home, hang it in their yard and get a real use out of it. This project inspired people to keep coming back.”

Other creative projects include name pennants made from T-shirt scraps and cardboard, flower bouquets made from old egg cartons, planters made from cans, pots made from yogurt containers, and ornaments made from old newspapers and magazines.

All three co-founders will graduate this spring, which means they need underclassmen to keep the club going. Evan, who will be studying environmental science this fall at Boston College, said “We want to pass it on to someone dedicated. Some groups die out after the leaders leave. We don’t want that to happen.”

Students interested in joining the Upcycling Club can find out more on Instagram @mtlupcyclingclub or under club information on the Schoology portal.

A longstanding org: Environmental Club

The Environmental Club is a decades-old student organization at the high school. The club meets twice a month, with no membership requirements other than showing up, said science teacher and club advisor Rob Bergstresser.

Previously, members would organize an activities table at LeboGreen’s Earth Day celebration, but Bergstresser said it’s been difficult to organize since the COVID-19 pandemic. Participation is a challenge that the club continues to face, as students have commitments to multiple athletic teams, activities and responsibilities. “The hardest thing is getting kids to come out,” said Bergstresser.

Still, the students who are involved are passionate about it. With about 10 active students, the club leads recycling and composting  initiatives, holds clothing swaps in coordination with LIGHT (Leadership through Innovation in Genocide and Human rights Teaching), maintains the campus garden and bird feeders, teaches environmental lessons and activities to students at Hoover Elementary, helps the Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy with tree planting and invasive species removal at Bird Park, and much more. “The students’ interest is very strong,” said Bergstresser. “The kids really want to do a lot.”

Additionally, students engage in activities on their own time and report back to the club. Politically minded students write letters to politicians, demanding action on climate and environmental issues; community-oriented students directly serve in local advocacy organizations such as LeboGreen.

APEGS students make eco-friendly life choices

While involvement in student organizations is voluntary, every student at Mt. Lebanon High School is required to take environmental science during their junior year.

“Back in 2009, the district changed their sequence,” explained AP Environmental Geoscience (APEGS) teacher Michael Gullo. “Normally, it would be biology in ninth grade, 10th grade chemistry, 11th grade physics, then earth environmental science was sort of optional. We learned that only 50 percent of the people leaving the high school had an earth science/environmental science course,”  he added. “It’s a junior level capstone course for
a reason.”

As part of the APEGS course, students complete a four-month lifestyle change project. They identify something environmentally unfriendly in their lives, create an action plan to address the issue and track the results. At the end of the semester, the class compiles the total amount of resources saved.

“One of the number one threats that we face, environmentally speaking, is that people feel like they’re just one little, small fish in this big pond of 8 billion people, and their effort isn’t going to make a difference,” said Gullo. By adding together the total amount of savings, students can see the impact of their collective efforts, he explained.

In recent years, the Danielle Duncan Green Award is given to the student whose project was voted most impactful by their peers. The award is named after 2022 Mt. Lebanon graduate Danielle Duncan, who tragically died in a car crash at age 19. She was studying environmental science and journalism at Allegheny College at the time. Gullo said Duncan was passionate about environmentalism and the school wanted to honor her legacy in a meaningful way.

Yousuf Khan-Afridi won the award in 2024, after composting 1,175 pounds of coffee grounds in just four months. Initially, he planned to compost coffee grounds from home, but felt that wasn’t enough. Khan-Afridi contacted Uptown Coffee and the high school to see if they would set aside their coffee grounds for him each day — they agreed. For the next three months, he collected between 40 and 50 pounds of coffee grounds each week, then composted it in the garden plots at the Mt. Lebanon Golf Course.

“Yousuf really stepped out of the comfort zone, and he encountered so many different challenges that most people didn’t. He had to call all the employees from Uptown Coffee to remember to save the coffee grounds [and] get permission from Mt. Lebanon Sustainability Coordinator Greg Wharton to spread the grounds and compost in those flats. He had to do so much extra work, and I think that’s really the reason why his peers voted him the award winner for this year,” said Gullo.

Students in APEGS have other opportunities to put their environmental science lessons into action. During a group project, students conduct an energy audit on a home in Mt. Lebanon. They evaluate the home for overuse, inefficiencies, leaks and other problems, using the data to develop an efficiency presentation to the homeowner. Gullo said that about 500 homes in the area have been studied over the years.

Other projects students complete are cleanups in Bird Park, running activity stations for third grade students attending School in the Park and presentations with LeboGreen at the Mt. Lebanon Public Library. Tying classroom instruction with outside activities is one way students can better understand the practical implications of environmental science.

“The thing I took away most [from the class] is how hands-on and relevant all this stuff is,” said Khan-Afridi. “We all come together to talk about something that is going on in our day-to-day life, like climate change.”

Gullo added, “I concede the fact that not every kid is going to major in environmental science or become an environmental engineer. So, I really try my best to preach to my students that it’s up to you to try to take something out of my class and apply it.” He hopes students leave with a mindset of five R’s (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle) and a greater environmental consciousness.

Khan-Afridi followed Gullo’s advice — he’s still composting coffee from home, a year after the school project ended. “It’s all about the bigger picture,” he said.