The ninth grade class the Springfield Renaissance School looks to brighten their future by reducing the city's carbon footprint. Over the past several months, the students compiled a report, “Greenprint 2010,” which investigated ways the city could cut costs and become more environmentally-friendly.

On Tuesday, their educational investigation was presented to Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno and the city’s Green Council.

"I'm just so impressed by these young people here.” said Mayor Sarno. “This is the talent we have in our Springfield Public School systems and we should be very proud of that."

As part of the ninth grade Environmental Science curriculum, the students researched energy conservation, performed building audits, and interviewing experts for their 49-page report. Their studies focused on four Springfield elementary schools: Glenwood, Talmadge, Dorman, and Brunton.

Their findings included inconsistent and uncontrolled temperatures, constantly-running vending machines, gaps in door and windows. Environmental sciences teacher Aurora Kushner said, other than a little guidance, the students completed the report themselves,

"They presented all of their research, they wrote the whole document, they did all of this on their own.” said Kushner. “My only job was to facilitate and guide them through the process, but the actual work was all theirs. I am incredibly proud of the work they did."

The students greatly appreciate the opportunity to have such a valuable impact on the community.

"Seeing what we are doing here, trying to make the city as green and cost efficient as possible, it really brightened my spirits.” said student Edward Brown. “To know that we can make a change together and everybody works in unison we can really do something good with our city."

The students’ hard work could have a significant financial result as well. Their report predicts an annual savings of more than $35,000. That would allow payback from the energy-saving investments in a little more than 5 years.

"Springfield is a really beautiful place.” said student Jesse Lederman. “It's our home, so we like it to be as good as we can."

The communication skills learned during this project should carry students through the rest of their education.

“The work we are doing really relates to everyday life.” said Kushner. “Our students are learning real-world skills. Families are sometimes surprised that we are doing something so connected to the community

In the future, the Springfield Renaissance School may continue investigating other area school for the next class of ninth grade students moving through.