Sustainability
encouraged to walk or pedal, when possible, instead of driving. Participants logged more than 1000 miles of alternative transportation that included walking, bicycling, rollerblading, riding a scooter, and even unicycling. That month sixth grade Integrated Studies students took a bike tour of the Underground Railroad in Concord. Entire families got involved, with parents doing “dry runs” with their boys to make sure they knew the route and that travel along it was safe. The effort prevented more than a thousand pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, Cousins says.
Each Friday morning team members arrived early to hike through snow banks to the meters, notebooks in hand. They discovered that certain factors affected the readings and made comparisons to historic data difficult. Construction of the Meeting and Performance Hall actually drove up the numbers in some buildings that were providing power for the work, but in others, usage went down. Patch says the students “were able to observe how their message got out to the community and how acts as simple as changing bulbs can really add up.”
The students “were able to observe how their message got out to the community and how acts as simple as changing bulbs can really add up.” GREEN CUP CHALLENGE During January and February, a group of Middle School boys led by math teacher Sean Patch charted the kilowatt hours from five electricity meters around campus once a week while encouraging the community to turn off lights, shut down computers, and close windows when leaving a room. The project was part of a nationwide student-driven initiative that asked participating schools to measure and reduce energy consumption. “It was a means,” Patch says, “for the boys to find out in a tangible way whether or not they could reduce their school’s energy usage.” 4
ACTS OF GREEN This year the Earth Day Network launched the Billion Acts of Green campaign to deliver a billion pledges to world leaders at the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, asking them to take action against climate change. Inspired by the challenge, Fenn boys submitted 635 Acts of Green slips, each reporting an effort made to reduce energy consumption. “No electronics during the week,” was ninth grader Joe Pacheco’s submission. “Took a Navy shower,” wrote fourth grader Andrew Metellus. Eighth grader Austin Galusza “biked into Concord.” Other boys reported activities ranging from carpooling to reusing water bottles and ordering ice cream in waffle, rather than plastic, cups.