The Lovett School
Sustainability Program
Annual Report 2016–17
Highlights No, those are not astronauts on the front cover of the Annual Report. They are student beekeepers Muhammad Dhanani and Nick Marshall, both members of the Class of 2017. Muhammed and Nick pursued their beekeeping project as students in Angela Mitchell’s Honors Spanish VI class. Kelly Ryan, who is a beekeeper, as well as a first-rate Latin teacher, mentored Muhammad and Nick. Botany instructor, Alex Reynolds, found a home for the bee hives at the Upper School organic garden, behind the Physical Plant office. Ms. Ryan will continue to work with fledgling beekeepers and members of the Upper School Green Team. The bee hives and equipment were provided courtesy of the Henagan Sustainability Endowment Fund. Bill and Babette Henagan’s generosity also supported a bioremediation, biodiversity project that seventh grade science students completed while working with Galen Fulford, our 2016 Sustainability Scholar-in-Residence. Their floating island is located in the pond in front of the Community Center and is a favorite sunbathing spot for turtles.
Muhammad Dhanani and Nick Marshall suited up for their beekeeping project.
Seventh graders working on their bioremediation, biodiversity project
Education for Sustainability (EfS)
Nolan Morris, Upper School science teacher, with Jaimie Cloud
For the third straight year, Lovett continued its relationship with Jaimie Cloud, the founder of the Cloud Institute in New York City and a nationally recognized leader in Education for Sustainability. During the summer of 2015 Sandra Switzer, Lovett’s Director of Sustainability, and three other faculty members attended the Cloud Institute’s Summer Design Studio in New York City. Also, during the summer of 2015, Ms. Cloud conducted a three-day EfS workshop at Lovett which was attended by 20 administrators and 25 teachers. During the summers of 2016 and 2017, Ms. Cloud personally conducted special Design Studios at Lovett which were attended by a total of 50 faculty members. During the 2015–16 school year, a cohort of 21 teachers received individual coaching from Ms. Cloud as they designed EfS lessons for their classrooms. During the 2016–17 school year, another cohort of 29 teachers received personalized coaching from Ms. Cloud and Sandra Switzer. A third cohort is being assembled for the 2017–18 academic year. All told, 139 Lovett teachers and administrators have attended intensive EfS training sessions over the past two years. It is unlikely that any other school in the country has made this level of commitment to Education for Sustainability—and the commitment, and Lovett’s relationship with the Cloud Institute continues! Jaimie Cloud, Sandra Switzer, Bernadette May-Beaver (History Department Chair) and Petter Bauer (Middle School Science) made a presentation entitled “Sustainablizing the Curriculum: An Overview of Lovett’s Experience” at the National Green School’s Conference in Atlanta last March. Approximately 50 people attended the presentation, which was very well received and has led to a spate of phone calls from educators who want to learn more about the school’s model EfS program.
Sustainability in the Classroom Here are a few examples of how EfS principles and practices are being applied in Lovett’s classrooms from kindergarten through twelfth grade.
The Lower School
In order to live in a sustainable manner, students must understand the importance of diversity in both natural eco-systems and human societies. Amy Darsey (2nd grade), Laura Jordan (3rd grade), and Sarah Griffin (5th grade) developed units in their social studies curricula which focused specifically on the EfS (Education for Sustainability) Enduring Understanding “Diversity Makes Life Possible.” Their EfS goals centered on empowering student empathy and perspective taking. Carla Civita-Garcia developed several units related to sustainability in her 4th and 5th grade Spanish classes, also.
The Middle School
There were numerous creative sustainability projects in the Middle School during the 201617 school year. The Bioremediation Island that the students built with Sustainability Scholar-in-Residence, Galen Fulford, was incorporated into the eco-system unit in Seventh Grade science classes. Students were challenged to design an outdoor learning space near the pond and the floating island which would be bioremediate, biodiverse, and beautified with native plants. Eighth grade students continued the interdisciplinary science/social studies project they began the previous year which resulted in the production of a sustainable polo shirt that can be part of their Lovett school uniform. About 125 students ordered a prototype of the shirt which they are wearing to test its durability. In addition, 8th grade girls researched sustainably produced skorts, and boys researched sustainably produced shorts. To date, they have not identified a company that is able to manufacture prototypes of these items which meet the students’ criteria for a sustainable product. Petter Bauer’s students learned about the importance of sharks in ocean eco-systems and wrote letters advocating for shark conservation. They also received funds to tag a shark, whose movements they will be able to track in real-time on the internet.
Seventh graders displaying shark conservation letters
The Upper School
Once again, Angela Mitchell’s Honors Spanish VI class researched and produced three excellent videos pertaining to sustainability. In Power to the Pollinators, Muhammad Dhanani and Nick Marshall, Lovett’s student beekeepers, educate their audience about the importance of bees to our food supply and the reasons bee populations are crashing. https://www.powtoon.com/p/cynt2ihHFzT/?mode=movie#/ (English) https://www.powtoon.com/p/dCm57EOIxoz/?mode=movie#/ (Spanish)
The Warren Garden
Paradise Lost, by Ted Quarterman and Caroline Shaw, is about how students, assisted by members of Lovett’s grounds keeping staff, restored the Warren Garden in the courtyard of the Community Center. The garden, named in honor of former English teacher and poet, James E. Warren, had been somewhat neglected and overlooked. Students cleaned it, added a Living Wall, planters and other native species, and created a beautiful place for outdoor education and private contemplation. https://www.powtoon.com/p/eveTrNyg9g8/?mode=movie#/ (English) https://www.powtoon.com/p/b1gJSyi7CFD/?mode=movie#/ (Spanish) Lending Library, by Kiran Ebrahim and Emmy Cross, explores the high cost of textbooks at Lovett and other secondary schools and how the creation of a lending library may help families on financial aid cope with this problem. By collecting used texts, recycling those which are damaged, and lending those in good condition to students, a free lending library can benefit families, education and the environment. https://www.powtoon.com/p/ecG7Dnq7DOG/?mode=movie#/ (English) https://www.powtoon.com/p/eXr7rErs6Pe/?mode=movie#/ (Spanish) Science teacher, Jennifer King, and art teacher, Amy Story, worked together and developed a unit in which students researched environmental issues and then created a piece of statement art to communicate a message about the root causes and solutions to a wide audience.
EfS in the Upper School (continued) Headmaster, Billy Peebles, and Tom Moak incorporated the Enduring Understandings “We are all in this together” and “We are all responsible” into their ninth grade religion class to develop EfS skills related to citizenship and awareness of perspective. They used the following essential question to explore each religious leader studied in their course: “How do we get from fear and anxiety around scarcity to restoring community, neighborliness and a sense of grace inspired by abundance?” In a similar vein, Bernadette May-Beaver, Heidi Gray, and Kevin Randolph focused on developing the skill of understanding diverse perspectives by connecting their American Studies students with peers at the Urban School in San Francisco prior to the presidential election. The students had an opportunity to work in mixed groups and engage in direct conversations about issues such as immigration, taxes, health care, and the interpretation of polling data. Students from both schools were challenged to respond to unfamiliar viewpoints with empathy and open-mindedness.
Bernadette May-Beaver with her class
Student Leadership and Involvement Upper School Green Team
After the election last November, the Green Team organized weekly letter writing sessions during which students wrote to Georgia legislators and urged them to take action on climate change, renewable energy, and other environmental problems.
Earth Week petition signing
Earth Week
Earth Week 2016 was celebrated in all three divisions of the school from Monday, April 18, through Friday, April 21. Highlights included: • Daily electronic waste and T-shirt collections; • Three Green Lunches sponsored by the Upper School Green Team at which documentary films about the environment were shown; • The annual Earth Week outdoor barbeque; • The annual plant sale sponsored by Mr. Reynold’s botany class; • A Walk, Bike, and Carpool to School Day on Friday; • Three NUDs (non-uniform days) with special themes; • Petition Signing; and • A “Pie-a-Teacher” raffle.
LERIG The Lovett Environmentally Responsible Investment Group (LERIG) hopes to inspire Lovett, other institutions, and individuals to support the divestment movement by demonstrating that investments in fossil fuel free mutual funds and stocks can be as lucrative as investments that are tied to the fossil fuel industry. Over the past four years, due to positive returns and donations from generous donors, LERIG’s initial investment in one stock company and three mutual funds, totaling $5,000, has grown to include 12 stocks and 7 mutual funds, with a market value of $44,343 as of August 10, 2017. During the 2016-17 school year, LERIG had the largest number of student investors (10) in its four-year history. In March, LERIG students made a presentation to Lovett’s Headmaster, CFO, and three Trustees who manage Lovett’s endowment in which they recommended buying 6 stocks and 3 mutual funds with a net purchase price of $14,664. All of their recommendations ultimately were accepted and the trades were made on April 4, 2017. As the 2017-18 school year begins, fifteen members of LERIG are poised to oversee LERIG’s portfolio and research future investment opportunities.
Capital Projects and Campus Improvements
Glover Gym Lighting
During the summer of 2016, 48 new LED fixtures were installed in the Glover Gymnasium. This lighting update resulted in a 62 percent reduction in operating costs and a total annual savings of about $2,800 in electricity costs. This project was beneficial to the environment and to Lovett’s bottom line. The lights in the Wallace Gymnasium were converted to LEDs during the summer of 2015 and the Pope Gymnasium in the Lower School is scheduled for a similar retrofit during the summer of 2017.
Solar Energy on Campus
As of August of 2017, the smaller solar array over the Lower School walkway, which has been operating for 28 months, and the larger Physical Plant array, which has been operational just over 16 months, have produced about 127 MWh of electricity. As of March 1, this had saved the school nearly $8,000 in electricity costs. Real time data for both arrays, which are functioning smoothly, can be found by clicking on the sustainability link on the Lovett homepage.
Capital Projects and Campus Improvements Diversion Rate
Lovett is continuing its campus wide effort to responsibly handle the waste that it produces and limit the amount of trash that it sends to landfills. Educating the community about the importance of recycling, reusing, and composting materials is having an impact on collective behavior. During the 2016–17 school year Lovett was able to:
• Compost 270,637 lbs. of food waste; • Use 4,200 lbs. of used cooking oil to produce biodiesel fuel for campus vehicles; • Recycle 11,980 lbs. of plastic and aluminum cans; • Recycle 45,135 lbs. of cardboard and mixed paper; • Recycle 4,352 lbs. of used books; • Recycle 165 lbs. of used batteries; • Recycle 1,209 lbs. of used computers; and • Collect and properly dispose of 3,161 lbs. of electronic waste. Lovett’s overall diversion rate (the percentage of waste that is diverted from landfills) was 53.4 percent in 2016–17, a considerable improvement over the 47.7 percent diversion rate in 2015–16.
Renewable Energy Certificates
In December of 2015, Lovett purchased Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for 3,937,000 KWh from Sterling Planet in Atlanta. These RECs offset approximately 25 percent of the school’s total electricity consumption during the 2016–17 school year. They will continue to offset the same percentage of Lovett’s electricity consumption through the end of the current calendar year. Lovett has purchased Renewable Energy Certificates since February of 2014 for similar purposes.
Acknowledgements
There are many anonymous heroes who quietly contribute to the success of Lovett’s sustainability program year after year. Special thanks are extended to all of the Dining Hall, Housekeeping, and Plant Operations personnel who assist with the school’s composting and recycling programs. We would like to recognize the following individuals for the time and effort they have devoted to helping Lovett operate more sustainably.
The Sustainability Advisory and Outreach Board, 2016–17 Chris Allen Angie Carrano Glenn Cartledge Laura Deisley Jeff Dinkle Bill Dunkel Chris Dunn Alan Gray Juliette Jarrard Jim Mahoney Ira Pearl Billy Peebles Jeff Rountree Beth Salvatti Sandra Switzer John Wells
The Lovett Environmentally Responsible Investment Group Seniors Josh Eiland Anthony Romaniello Ryan Schimpf Nick Becker Juniors Jamil Atkinson Abby Shlesinger Charlie Faramarzi Jenna Brown Neil Patkar Sophomore Tara Joshi
The Upper School Green Team Student Leaders Michael Moore, Co-President Chris Ocana , Co-President Suzanne Hollis and Jennifer Heiman, Terra cycling and Earth Week Kendall Greene, Dining Hall Liaison Lauren Rausaw, Publicity and Communications Faculty Advisors Sandra Switzer Jennifer King Stacie Penland
The Middle School Green Team Student Leaders Cooper Pope Katie Maier Andrew Wilkerson Charlie Woocher Brady Rackley Faculty Advisors Petter Bauer Diane Husmann Shawn Mackinson
“…we must act with so rapid and resistless a purpose, in one direction, that our vices will necessarily be left behind. The nucleus of a comet is almost a star.” —Henry David Thoreau “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country (planet).” —Abraham Lincoln