Berkeley High School’s Green Team club hosted the annual Walk and Roll to School Day on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, aimed at popularizing eco-friendly transportation methods, such as biking, carpooling, busing, and walking to school. Green Team is dedicated to improving sustainability at BHS and beyond through fundraising, adding recycling and compost bins at BHS, and removing invasive plants in the Bay Area.
The club set up tables around 7:40 a.m. at the BHS A and M-Gates, asking incoming students how they commuted to school. Students who shared that they got to school in an eco-friendly way were rewarded with color-changing pencils or sunglasses.
“This is something hosted every year, and it’s a good way to encourage people to come to school with a sustainable form of transportation,” Hazel Copithorne, a BHS junior on Green Team, said. She added that the event allowed for useful data collection by the club.
Solomon Gutride, a BHS sophomore on Green Team, explained his motivation for taking part. “It ... hopefully, encourages some people to switch from taking a car to some other form of transit,” he said, “We’re very lucky because of where we live … a lot of people can walk to school.”
This year, out of 234 people surveyed by the Green Team, 12 percent walked, 40 percent biked or scootered, six percent carpooled, 28 percent used public transit, and 14 percent drove.
Green Team’s supplies and event were sponsored by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area’s transportation management agency. The MTC also works to improve the Bay Area’s housing and environment. They fund student transportation programs like Safe Routes to School, which creates safe route maps, and gives grants to cities and counties to rebuild walking and biking paths.
This year, the MTC brought Walk and Roll to School Day to 2,795 schools nationwide.
According to the Berkeley City Council’s Climate Action Plan report published last April, in 2023, 58 percent of Berkeley’s greenhouse gas emissions came from transportation.
“I think (Walk and Roll to School Day) is a really good idea because it’s really good for the climate. There’s a big amount of students here and a big population. It really does make a difference if people actually participates,” Amaia Alesi, a BHS freshman who carpooled to school that day, said.
Green Team members see events like these as a way to reduce those statistics. “Even just carpooling or taking the bus or walking, it reduces gas emissions,” Acadia Legg, a BHS sophomore on Green Team, said. Gas-powered vehicles emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, which trap heat, contributing to global warming and climate change. In large amounts, gases produced by gas-powered vehicles also pollute the air and can cause health problems.
Copithorne pointed out that while electric cars have gained popularity and are seen as alternatives and a way to be more sustainable since they don’t release greenhouse gases, they have their downsides as well. “People might think electric cars are all good. There are still issues with them. For example, their lithium batteries,” Copithorne said.
Lithium batteries power electric cars, but according to the Environmental Protection Agency, only a small number of lithium batteries are recycled. Most end up in landfills, where hazardous chemicals spill into the soil, leading to pollution and large landfill fires that burn for years.
Current findings from the National Institutes of Health discovered that the process of making lithium batteries for electric vehicles and collecting the materials for them uses a large amount of fossil fuels and energy, releasing greenhouse gases, while the production process for gas-powered cars emits fewer greenhouse gases overall.
“By walking, rolling, or taking a more sustainable mode of transportation, it is helping to reduce the impact that you have on the environment,” Copithorne said.
Copithorne acknowledges that everyone’s situation is different, “Some people need to take a car, some people live too far away.”
As climate change effects worsen, events like Walk and Roll to School Day demonstrate how much small choices matter. At BHS, over 3,200 students and 319 staff members commute daily, and small actions like walking, biking, or carpooling help to create a healthier environment and planet for all.