Three Bainbridge organizations are the first to be recognized for their efforts in the city’s Climate Smart Challenge.

Town & Country and The Island School were recognized by city manager Blair King as the first two Climate Smart businesses taking on the “Erase the Waste” pledge by reducing their use of single-use plastics before new waste reduction requirements go into effect in 2023.

Congregation Kol Shalom was named the city’s first Climate Smart leader.

“It’s a big deal because they are helping to lead the charge in our sustainable future for the island,” King said.

The Island School’s “Erase the Waste” challenge involved their entire community.

“We don’t use straws. We bring our own water bottles and mugs, and we don’t issue disposable utensils. We have a ‘pack it in — pack it out’ policy for lunch waste and our food scraps go to the worm bins daily. The resulting compost helps our flower and vegetable gardens thrive,” said Joan Henderson, the school’s advancement director.

Henderson said The Island School has been committed to reducing waste, composting and recycling since 2009. The school has a “no idle” rule in the parking lot, they purchase Green Power from Puget Sound Energy, they are a collection site for cell phone and CFL light bulb recycling, and they have created animal habitats on school grounds. A student-created “power down” campaign lowers energy usage, and trash audits are conducted frequently.

As for Town & Country, it removed single-use plastic utensils from the floor and is now keeping them behind the cashier counter so customers have to ask to get one.

Environmental stewardship is part of T&C’s core values, their website says. “Environmental, social and fiscal impacts inform the way we operate. We’re intent on minimizing our eco-footprint, being of benefit to local and global communities, and sustaining our success through wise fiscal management. We care about how our actions today affect tomorrow’s generations, and we do what we can to influence our families and communities to think this way, too.

It’s not easy. Public Relations representative Emma Mackintosh said supply chain disruptions during COVID-19 forced T&C to return to individually wrapped utensils for health and safety reasons when compostable versions were not available. But now T&C is moving back to compostable utensils, she said.

Meanwhile, the city’s first Climate Smart Leader has been recognized as a “Certified Cool Congregation” for their efforts to replace an old fuel-oil boiler with efficient electric heat pumps that reduced their energy consumption by nearly 60 percent, saving thousands of dollars in energy costs and preventing 9.6 tons of carbon emissions annually.

Rabbi Darío Feiguin of Congregation Kol Shalom said, “by removing the fuel oil as an energy source and switching to ductless heat pumps, we could save our congregation thousands of dollars a year in heating costs and several metric tons of CO2e in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Congregation member Deborah Rudnick said the climate crisis is one of the greatest threats to humankind. “The Jewish faith teaches the principle of Tikkun Olam, or repairing the world — that as a people, we may not sit by when we see social or environmental injustice being done. It is our responsibility to be part of the solutions for this crisis.”