Gill Goes Green
GSB is committed to protecting our natural environment, conserving the earth’s resources, and to teaching GSB students about the importance of ecological awareness and sustainable behavior. After an initial evaluation and subsequent recommendations by the GSB Green Task Force, an environmental coordinator and a small group of dedicated individuals was appointed to help carry out the Green plan for the school.
New Construction
Hockenbury Academic Center, which opened in Spring 2009 and which houses Upper School classrooms, offices, and the library, incorporates numerous environmentally friendly features. These include motion sensors for lighting throughout the building, low-flow fixtures in the bathrooms, recycled content in building materials, low VOC paints and adhesives. All the materials for the building were sourced from within 500 miles of the school and the construction was planned to cause minimal site disturbance.
Recycling
GSB has significantly increased its recycling efforts with containers now being placed in all classrooms, offices, and common areas throughout the campus. There is also an ongoing educational effort to encourage more use of the containers among teachers and students. Upper School and Middle School students raised money for the new containers through bake sales and T-shirt sales.
Paper
Paper towel and toilet paper holders now dispense recycled paper in campus bathrooms. Facial tissues made of recycled paper have also supplanted the traditional variety. Unbleached, recycled napkins are in use in the GSB dining hall and the school has eliminated trays for most grades, thus achieving environmental savings in water, electricity, and detergents that had been used to wash the trays.
Composting
Students in the Lower School dining facility collect waste food for composting during the warmer months, when organic material decomposes quickly. Trials have been conducted in the much larger main dining room. The school is exploring ways to collect this compost for use in the community garden.
Community Garden
As part of a spring Unit course, a group of Upper School students built a community garden on campus for growing vegetables and flowers. The school plans to expand the effort in 2010 to involve more GSB families and perhaps additional land.
Lighting sensors
A sensor similar to the ones used in Hockenbury Academic Center has been used successfully on a trial basis in a classroom of one of the older buildings, and plans are now being made to retrofit light switches throughout the school with sensors.
Electronic communications
In the past year, GSB has eliminated much of the paper communications (flyers, letters, etc.) that constituted the bulk of the regular “Friday folders” that Lower and Middle School students took home. Such information is now distributed electronically to GSB families. In addition, the monthly GSB News, the seasonal Athletic Booster Newsletter and the bi-weekly Parents’ Association News Update are sent electronically. The GSB Magazine, distributed three times a year, is printed on recycled paper using soy-based inks.
Dining Hall
The school has reduced the number of lunches that include beef, while purchasing more products from local farms to reduce transportation. Other initiatives are being explored to help reduce waste.
