8th Graders Participate in Community Harvest

Last spring as seventh graders, members of the class of 2013, planted seed at the Brigham Hill Community Farm in Grafton, MA. On Friday September 12th, they returned to harvest the crops as part of a Community Harvest Project. Harvest produce is donated to the Worcester County Food Bank, which serves 50,000 people throughout Worcester county. For more information click: communityharvest.shtml

WA-Oak Hill CDC CFL Drive

As part of the WA-Oak Hill CDC CFL drive to distribute over 2,000 energy saving CFL bulbs to the school and neighborhood community, students from WA and North High School spent three afternoons installing bulbs into neighborhood apartments along Providence and Aetna St as well as in units of a senior residence building on Upsala St.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s) use up to 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs, and last up to ten times longer. CFL bulbs reduce greenhouse gas emissions, smog, acid rain, and mercury pollution. From the government’s Energy Star website: “If every American home replaced their 5 most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs, and together we would prevent the greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from nearly 10 million cars.”

However they need to be managed properly when broken and recycled when spent. See CFL Bulb Links to the right.

For a direct list of locations in Massachusetts for recycling old bulbs click on RecyclingCFLs

4,000 lbs of Electronics Recycling

In a collective effort the Environmental Club co-president, Steve Wright, Mr. Carroll’s Environmental Science Classes, members of the Maintenance Department, and Mr. Delaney filled up two school vans with over 4,000 lbs of T.V.’s, computer monitors, hard drives, and a long list of other electronics for drop off at MeTech International, a world leader in management and recycling of electronic materials with a 32 million pounds per year capacity, located along the historic Blackstone River.

In 2007, the United States placed an estimated 500 million PC’s (11 million tons) into the “waste” management stream. Metech performs reuse, recovery, and reclamation of parts whereby precious, ferrous, and toxic metals (cadmium, arsenic, lead, etc.) as well as plastic, glass, and cardboard are recycled, burned for energy, or isolated and manged as hazordous waste, The end result is a dramatic reduction in air/soil/water pollution, deforestation, strip mining impacts, and fossil fuel and energy consumption. For more information on Metech go to www.metech-arm.com and www.waenvironment.wordpress.com/category/waste.

Renewable Art

Reusing random materials for their sculpture projects Ms. Duff’s students inspire us to see the potential in creative approaches to sustainability actions during a recent exhibit in Walker Gallery.

Renewable Energy at WA

The solar demo displayed above is 3, 12 watt portable panels set up on the Radar Quad. Each panel converts light radiation energy into electrical energy as dc current which charges the same batteries used with the pedal-a-watt. Pictured above students ride the “pedal-a-watt” bike which generates electricity that charges a battery which in turn can charge phones, laptops, the gym stereo, etc.

WA’s First Earth Week April 22-25

The Environmental Club and WA were busy this week with a host of events and actions steps including
1) Upper School Assembly Presentation by the Environmental Club
2) Off-campus CFL Bulb Drive
3) Film Series: Crude Awakening
4) Kettle Brook #2 Clean Up
5) Solar and Bike Powering/Demo Stations

In the assembly the Club covered a review of climate change and greenhouse gas dynamics and how each of us are connected to and the impacts of our of food, power, fuel, and waste use/production. The Environment Club distributed approximately 500 energy saving bulbs to the WA off campus community. Thursday night the Club hosted a showing of the documentary “Crude Awakening”, the first in a series of films covering sustainability issues, which addressed the realities and complexities of peak oil. Finally, students rode bikes and solar panel stations were built that powered batteries which in turn charge computers,etc.

A. Specific steps to be taken (as outlined on Academy News)
1. CFL bulbs
2. Green Start ( http://www.massenergy.com/options.html )-Non-National Grid Members can sign up for the New England Wind Fund
3. GCC Habits
4. Sign up for the Soup, Salad, Bread Meal
4. Unplug all unused electronics
5. Fill up your tires
6. Drive Speed Limit
7. Buy Local/organic Food- Compost

Kettle Brook Clean Up #1

WA Students

Parker-Metals

Kettle Brook Reservoir #3

Kettle Brook Collage

Kettle Brook Res. #1

Kettle Brook Res #2

Kettle Brook Falls

Old Landfill

Kettle Brook Res. #4

As part of their school community service obligation, 10 WA students spent a cold Saturday morning earlier this spring pulling the likes of tires, metal scrap, a metal barrel, and a car fender from the Kettle Brook and its banks as the brook flows along the edge of New Balance Fields.

The Kettle Brook is one of the major northern headwaters of the Blackstone River. One of the most fascinating elements of the brook is how it connects four of the city of Worcester’s drinking water reservoirs before flowing into Cherry Valley, the southwest corner of the city, along New Balance Fields, through an industrial corridor on route to the Blackstone. Pristine pictures of the Kettle Brook Reservoirs, above, obscures the impacts of nearby roads, old land fills, agricultural land, and tributary streams running through neighborhoods.

WA Anti-Idling Initiative

W.A. took a step closer to adhering to MA anti-idling laws. Roger Randor, head of maintenance, placed WA’s first anti-idling sign on the Dorchester Street entrance fence. The next step is to build on demonstrated interest among the Parent Council to begin a grassroots movement for education and collective participation along with increasing signage. For more informationa go to:

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/90-16a.htm

Idling vehicles waste as much 3.8 million gallons of gasoline a day in addition to increasing air pollution that negatively impacts our health. Typical estimates state that idling for more than 10 seconds wastes fuel, produces more air pollution, and wears down the engine faster than turning the engine off. For more information how to save gas and improve our air quality go to

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.shtml

Green Cup Challenge 2008 Final Results and Impact

In perhaps a more authentic sense of competition 30 schools striving together for improvement in sustainable practices reduced their collective carbon dioxide emissions by over 1.1 million pounds in 28 days as measured by electricity reduction use alone. For data graphs click gcc2008graphs.doc

WA achieved a 9.8% reduction of electricity use, and finished 15th place (Heydon/Stoddard and the class of 2011 won the dorm and grade level competition, respectively). Shy of its 20% goal, it was a good effort for the school and a pivotal opportunity to begin profound sustainability culture on campus. The WA Environmental Club, lead by co-presidents Stephen Wright and Ryan Barry, is planning to host a film series addressing oil and climate change and a panel on the impact and improvement of WA’s transportation habits, while continuing to manage the school’s recycling and dining hall compost program, and orchestrating the CFL project (a bulb for every WA student and 1,000 bulbs distributed to the local community through a partnership with Oak Hill CDC). For more information on the GCC click on links to the right. Also click below for the WA 2008 GCC Videos.

GCC 2nd Place WA Video

GCC 1st Place WA Video

Green Cup Challenge 2008: WA Launches CFL Bulb Initiative

To help kick off the GCC 2008, WA began its 2,350 Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Initiative tonight by administering 132 of the energy efficient bulbs to dorm students. AOD Mr. Boccuzzi has been a key player in working to prep the boarders for the challenge. Resident faculty are currently ordering bulbs based on their needs and WA will be working this week with Oak Hill CDC to administer the remaining bulbs between the WA community and our Oak and Union Hill neighbors. The impact will be huge: up to 7,600 kW-hrs conserved for the WA campus during the GCC and an annual 99,000 kW-hr reduction for the entire project. This annual savings is equal to the amount of power used each year by 8-10 average households. (click on document below for more numbers).  cflroi.doc