Sam Snitkovsky, a senior at Swampscott High School, is the youngest member of the town’s Climate Action Plan Committee.
Appointed to the committee in the fall of 2022, the 16-year-old is in his second term on the committee.
Snitkovsky first got interested in composting. At Swampscott High, he led a movement to start a composting program in the cafeteria, which got the attention of the committee and led to his nomination.
Snitkovsky, who is also the Student Council president, orchestrated various initiatives such as cleanups with the school’s environmental club. He said he is driven by his concern for the environment and jumped at the opportunity to join the committee.
“We hear a lot about environmentalism and about fighting climate change and what’s the effective way to do that,” Snitkovsky said.“I definitely felt that this was going to be a way to do much bigger change.”
“The best way to address these issues is through policy and changing our rules,” he added.
Snitkovsky said he gained popularity among his peers for taking an “activist approach” to tackle many environmental issues.
It was through the Student Council that he started the process to form a composting program. Swampscott High sent out a survey asking students what their areas of concern were.
“It was only after speaking with a lot of other students and other people who had been invested with environmentalism for much longer than I had been,” Snitkovsky said. “That’s really when I got a lot more invested into it.”
Snitkovsky is most interested in zoning. He said if you take a look at the statistics on where the carbon emissions in town are coming from, the top sources are buildings and transportation.
“That’s very similar, actually, for most suburbs and the reason is because of
single-family exclusionary zoning,” Snitkovsky said, adding that it is the least efficient way to use energy.
The town has regulations that prevent property owners from creating more residential units, meaning Swampscott is restricted to single-family homes. The law has forced it to be that way, Snitkovsky said.
Snitkovsky said single-family homes are inefficient in energy usage compared to multi-family buildings.
“When the law is forcing everything to be single-family, you have significantly higher CO2 emissions than you could have been having,” he said.
Reflecting on his time on the committee, Snitkovsky said he felt very accomplished that the American Conservation Commission, which he is a member of, donated three bike racks to be used at Fisherman’s Beach. He said he requested the donation after he became more aware of the need for the racks as a member of the committee. The racks will provide a total of six parking spots for bikes.
The other moment he said he is most proud of is when the Vinnin Square redevelopment plan adopted a suggestion he made. Snitkovsky had proposed limiting each unit in a new building designed for the plan to one parking space on the property, regardless of the unit’s size, and his recommendation was accepted.
Snitkovsky said the past year has been a learning process. He has become familiar with a lot of laws and regulations, and said that composting gave him a head start in the field.
“Composting can lower the trash fill and composting can be cheaper,” he said. “Even in cases where it’s not, it’s still a great program where you’re helping your community, you’re helping your environment, and you have a lot more food waste than I think people realize.”
While Snitkovsky said composting is important, his top priority is to “abolish exclusionary single-family zoning.” He encourages people to ask the leaders of their communities about why they continue to have single-family exclusionary zoning laws.
Snitkovsky recently finished his college applications, and has been accepted to the University of Maryland and Rutgers University. He said he wants to continue this line of work and to participate in similar clubs.
He said he will continue his work with the Climate Action Plan Committee, which meets virtually on Zoom, as long as he lives in Swampscott.
“I am going to continue to be informed and get us to where we need to be,” he said.
