Vermont Academy

For March, we’re taking our CFL spotlight to the schools and shining it on one very eco-conscious place, Vermont Academy.

Located in Saxtons River, Vermont, Vermont Academy is a small independent secondary school.  Their Director of Communications, Maryann McArdle, as well as current student Dylan Gilbert were kind enough to share some of the green initiatives they have organized to promote green friendliness on campus.  Check them out!

Vermont Academy students clean up the river during the Connecticut Rivershed Cleanup day. Students also work at compost buckets during lunch time.

Bottled Water Initiative
Based on a growing awareness about the negative social & environmental consequences of disposable plastic water bottles (and disposable plastics in general) Vermont Academy agreed to discontinue the use of bottled water at Vermont Academy. The bottle water initiative:

• Eliminates bottled-water expenditures
• Reduces Vermont Academy students and faculty exposure to harmful Bisphenoln A
• Educates Vermont Academy students, faculty and visitors about water as a universal right that must be consumed sustainably and protected
• Reduces Vermont Academy’s participation in fossil fuel dependence, climate change, environmental pollution, and water privatization among other issues
• Creates a powerful statement that Vermont Academy takes sustainability seriously—improving our image in the community and providing opportunities for promoting ourselves to prospective students and their families.

Composting Project
Vermont Academy along with every major institution in the United States today faces a convergence of crises largely centered over the interface between ecological and economic sustainability.  Beginning on Earth Day last year, we as a school acknowledged an excellent opportunity to eliminate a tremendous amount of our waste production while at the same time producing a much-needed resource for the region.  So began the Vermont Academy Composting Project. This project has many important environmental benefits: it helps us to reduce the amount of waste we are putting in local landfills; it reduces our contribution to the global warming gas methane; it educates faculty, staff and students at VA about “closed-loop ecological systems” as an alternative to wasteful linear systems; and it produces a high quality soil amendment which can be used on campus gardens, donated to community gardens, sold at fundraisers or traded to local farmers in exchange for fresh organic produce (further reducing our ecological footprint and dependence on fossil fuels).

Christine Armiger, environmental science teacher and Certified Master Composter, Bruce Herforth of Garden Alternatives, along with some of our product.

VA Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Program
Vermont Academy as an individual player in a global society bears the responsibility to make efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials and energy as efficiently and effectively as possible. During this time of global climate change, VA must transition away from our participation in the linear materials economy, and toward systems that follow closed-loop ecological cycles. Vermont Academy conducted a survey, specifically addressing our efforts to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle here on campus.  Over 200 surveys were distributed to students, faculty and employees at Community Lunch.  Results of this survey indicate that while the majority of Vermont Academy students have made some efforts to Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle materials and energy on campus, a significant number of individuals are not contributing to sustainability efforts either because they do not find it to be convenient or they are not aware of the importance of modifying their individual actions for the collective benefit of the environment and future generations.

Based on these findings, the Vermont & Environs Committee proposes a series of initiatives targeted towards increasing campus participation in a variety of sustainability projects:

• Place single-sided paper bins – have been placed next to every printer and at the end of the day, an assigned individual places all of the paper that is sitting idol in or beside printer tray into the ‘single-sided paper bins’. This helps Vermont Academy reduce the amount of paper it uses.
• Disposable products – such as chip bags, disposable coffee cups, and disposable yogurt containers have been removed from the Dining Hall. This has reduced VA’s amount of post-consumer trash waste significantly.
• Reusable Klean Kanteens – VA school store numerous metal reusable water bottles as to accommodate students with reusable water bottles that are durable and do not leach harmful chemical into the water.
• Black Out Time Slots – every week there is a scheduled time slot where the Vermont Academy community takes efforts to reduce its energy usage by conserving power. Phantom devices that slowly leach energy are turned off.

Organic and Local Products in the School Store & Student Café
Vermont Academy has recently started to incorporate local products into the School Store and Student Cafe. Local artists are commissioned to provide clothing and various locally produced items, such as maple syrup for sale. Moreover, United Natural Foods Incorporated (UNFI) will now act as the school’s main distributor for organic products.

Earth Day
Every year in order to raise environmental awareness Vermont Academy holds an Earth Day event. Students are required to attend and participate in activities designed to raise environmental awareness. Workshops are taught, green art projects are commissioned, students are taken to work on local farms, and students are invited to visit to local recycling and paper centers.

Localvore Banquet
This year Vermont Academy will host its first Localvore Banquet. The night would feature the produce of local farmers. Selling finalized soil amendment from the Compost Initiative to local farmers in return for fresh produce would offset some of the cost of the night. Farmers will come to speak about the benefits of your local community, sustainable agriculture, and the importance of knowing where your food comes from.

For more information about Vermont Academy, visit their website.