管理 & 可持续性

在我们的金里奇校园, we charge students to create art with two principles in mind: environmental sustainability and a spirit of adventure. The centerpiece for this course work: the Green Art Path (GAP), a site that allows students to interact with nature through such creative activities as building sculpture made from natural materials or venturing into nature and writing about their experiences. U乐国际’s own campus campsite, situated just off the path, is also a bounty of inspiration.

在我们的肖特山校区 蓝色的大花园—a well-used learning garden and outdoor laboratory, 各种各样的, 由学生, 教师, and staff—allows students to dig deep into interdisciplinary learning, 批判性思维, 和协作. 较低的学校ers have the opportunity to:

• Work together to separate school trash for composting and prepare soil beds for a range of flowers and vegetables;
• Employ their math skills by calculating optimal grid spacing for crops;
• Sharpen their research and writing skills by studying the garden's plants, 包括它的香草园, and describing the many sights and smells;
• Enjoy the fruits of their labor by sharing their produce in the lunchroom;
• Practice mindfulness techniques in the garden's "quiet classroom";
• 磨练他们的艺术技能, using the garden's natural surroundings as inspiration during art classes.  

第二个花园 三姐妹的花园, exists on the opposite side of the 矮山校区. Constructed by Grade 4 students and used in Grade 4 social studies and science classes, 它反映了德拉佩文化. 每年春天, 类植物玉米, 豆子, and squash (considered the Lenape's "three sisters"), and harvest them when school resumes in September, providing a hands-on learning experience so students can better understand Lenape farming practices and food. 

At our 姥岭校园, a nearly 1,700-square-foot 厨房花园 supplies not only fresh vegetables to the kitchen staff and, 反过来, U乐国际学生, but a wealth of education to its students, who use the garden in many classes and interdisciplinary projects. The garden is well tended, in part, by U乐国际’s Green Group, an environmental club on campus.

This group was founded with one goal in mind: to promote the values and practices of environmental sustainability within the U乐国际 community. 是否组织地球日, securing picnic tables for outdoor dining near the Engel Dining Room, or making U乐国际’s first beehive colony a reality, the Green Group is committed to making environmental education an everyday occurrence.

The roots of this long-established U乐国际 club stretch back to 1894 and include midnight ramblins’, snowshoein”, 熊wrastlin”, 只是简单地放轻松. 今天, whether it’s hiking the woodsy campus trails, roasting marshmallows by firelight on the campsite, or organizing a variety of short and extended hiking trips off campus, you can be sure that members of the 郊游俱乐部 are off discovering their next adventure.

2012年1月至今, 1,400 +面板, 400 kilowatt (kW) solar system on U乐国际’s 金里奇 roof has provided approximately 20 percent of the building’s power, 导致重大, 长期的能源节约.

The Head of School’s residence, completed in 2012, is an impressive example of green construction. 由回收材料建造, the house features solar technology for hot water and electricity; geothermal heating and cooling; high-performance LED lighting and high U-value windows; interiors of reclaimed, 回收, or sustainable stone and timber; and a 6,000-gallon storm water collection system for water recycling and irrigation.

实时创新的领导者, web-based energy and water monitoring, the Noveda “dashboard” provides powerful technology that helps the school to monitor energy consumption in order to reduce energy and water usage, optimize performance of renewable energy systems, 减少我们的碳足迹.

We have retrofitted boilers and plumbing equipment and upgraded waste systems across both campuses, enabling us to save thousands in heating costs and millions of gallons of water. We have also reduced waste pick-ups and landfill contributions through the addition of a compactor and introduction of new recycling measures.

“如果它还活着，就把它堆肥!" This is the rallying cry of members of U乐国际's Green Group, 谁参与了头脑风暴, 发射, 测试U乐国际的40英尺, 工业级的混合机, 2019年秋天揭幕. A natural extension of the School's experiential education and stewardship and sustainability initiatives, the composter was built by U乐国际’s own Facilities staff and designed in partnership with the North Country School in Lake Placid, 纽约, all thanks to a grant from the Union Foundation. A laboratory for science students to study cellular respiration and the role of microbes in decomposition, the composter's food scraps are also repurposed into high-quality, earth-friendly fertilizer for U乐国际's campus gardens.