A new Meridian school building means preparing for the future with an environmentally friendly approach and many student projects working towards the sustainability of not only Meridian High School, but also the community of Falls Church.

Meridian is making an effort to be sustainable for both the well-being of current and future students. For Meridian, being sustainable is not only about the environmental friendliness of the building but also the health of the students and their future.

The New Meridian building is LEED-certified, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Being LEED-certified means that the Meridian High School building is centered around the health, safety, and future of the staff and students of this building. The building is also net-zero certified, which means the number of greenhouse gasses the school emits is balanced out by what we remove from the atmosphere. 

“We are designing and facilitating each of the buildings to be energy efficient and also sustainable with regards to its impact on the surrounding environment,” said Kenneth George, Meridian’s career and technical education teacher. “On top of that, the building is net-zero already, so that means that there’s enough consideration that was put into the design and build that will prepare this building once it can generate its own electricity, probably through a solar panel array on the roof.” 

While the building itself is revolutionary for our environment that is not all that sustainability is. It is about the people and students. Meridian is human-centered. 

“I think the spirit of the teachings and the way we approach education is focused on sustainability as well,” environmental science teacher Carolyn Pollack said. “For example, you might try to understand the problems facing life on land or in the water or facing humans like poverty or healthcare or infrastructure. So from that perspective, I think Meridian is at least teaching from sustainability landings.” 

The lessons that the staff at Meridian are teaching are key to the focus of sustainability at Meridian. The students are also helping out.

“Students work on projects and choose projects in our classes and with all the capstone products we have going on, personal projects, extended essays, CAS projects, service hours for different clubs, and project-based learning in the classrooms,” Pollack said. “All of those are thought of by kids but if we can then kind of prompt them or encourage students to interact with that community while they take on their projects I think that’s one really good way to influence the community.”