About CASE
What We Do
The Community for Alternative Sources of Energy (CASE) is a student-run organization dedicated to finding a way to use more alternative and environmentally-friendly energy resources at their school, Northside College Preparatory High School, a selective admissions Chicago public school. To do so, CASE has undertaken a project that will lead to the installation of a solar thermal system. This system, when installed, will save the school $50,000 annually and will account for approximately 55% of the energy required to heat the school's pool, locker room showers, and water supply. In addition to this project, CASE also aims to create a "Green Machine" - a car that runs on recycled oils and eco-friendly fuels. CASE students are actively working to make the issue of using alternative and environmentally-friendly energy resources more accessible to their fellow students and the community at-large. To promote awareness in their community, CASE will host a festival in 2008 called the "Green Scene" for the second consecutive year, and also plans to sell recyclable, sturdy water bottles in hopes of reducing the energy consumed in the production of disposable water bottles while also reducing waste. The CASE students are committed to being more responsible about the way they use natural resources, to delivering on the promise of their ideas, and they are dedicated to finding others who want to advance these priorities with them.
Why You Should Care
The mission of CASE is, ". . . to be among the agents of change who are in the process of greening our planet." The world today is generally very dependent on fossil fuels as sources for energy that are not only nonrenewable, but in their consumption, produce huge amounts of pollutants that contaminate the environment. The world is at a point in time when the wellbeing of our cultures, our economies, our species, and inevitably, our planet, depends on our ability to make significant changes to the way we manage the balance between energy consumption and environmental costs.
History
CASE was born in the fall of 2004, when five high school students approached their chemistry teacher to see if he would support their idea to identify, recommend, and secure funding to use alternative and more environmentally-friendly energy resources at their school. Since then, CASE, run by students of Northside, have begun a variety of projects that will make this goal possible, have spread awareness in their community of eco-friendly practices, and have continued to find other ways to use more green energy resources. In the past, the students of CASE have presented their project to scientists at Argonne Labs (Illinois) and were the first non-collegiate organization to present at the Argonne Undergraduate Symposium. They have met with representatives from local, state, and federal government, utility companies, installers of alternative energy systems, non-profit environmental organizations, privately-funded alternative energy advocacy groups, and consultants from the public and private sectors. The students found a partner in the City of Chicago Department of Environment, an organization charged with developing a city-wide solar heating program of their own. This partnership led to the donation of 136 solar-thermal panels and related engineering. Since then, the students have impressed Chicago Public Schools, who have donated towards the installation of the panels. Most recently, the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF) has awarded CASE a grant toward installation. CASE is currently waiting for the last piece of the puzzle - a grant which will cover the last 30% of the installation from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). Currently, local contractors are submitting competitive bids for the installation job.