A Gift from the Class of 2006
Graduation Speech
By Emily Meinhardt, Student Body President
Nicolet High School, Glendale, Wisconsin

This year, representatives of the senior class have chosen to leave Nicolet High School with a gift that will benefit not only students, but also a greater, global community. During our four years at Nicolet, we have learned to be responsible citizens of our own local community and have also gained an awareness of our role as citizens of the world. Thus, we have decided to make a positive environmental contribution to our society through the purchase and retirement of marketable emission-reduction credits.

Each one of these credits represents a permit to pollute that can be traded or sold to companies. Our purchase of these credits, however, ensures that the credits can never be used by anyone to emit the quantities of pollution or greenhouse gases that each represents. The banked permits represent a real and permanent reduction in harmful emissions. Our gift was made to the Clean Air Conservancy, a non-profit entity that is now one of the largest "banks" of pollution allowances and emissions credits held by any non-profit organization in the United States.

Through the fundraising efforts of the Senior Class, we were able to purchase and retire 50 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. This is 50 tons of harmful emissions that a private company would otherwise purchase and use to pollute our air. These 50 tons of emissions also represent a significant portion of Nicolet's yearly energy usage. Based on information from the US Department of Energy and WE Energies, our purchase of emission credits displaces nearly 30% of Nicolet's total yearly carbon dioxide emissions.

The Senior Class is proud to help the Clean Air Conservancy's goal of continuously improving our shared environment. While this gift is in theory, intangible, the Clean Air Conservancy has presented us with a certificate of our contribution, as well as a listing on their online Emissions Bank.

I leave you with these words from Gaylord Nelson, former governor of Wisconsin and the founder of Earth Day: "The ultimate test of a man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard." The Senior Class of 2006 needs no words of thanks to feel confident and proud of our gift to Nicolet High School.

Emily Meinhardt
June 11, 2006

To learn more about how you can NETZERO your school, please contact the Clean Air Conservancy at (216) 522-8700, or email us at Michael.Short@cleanairconservancy.org.