SAC Environmental Creed

We believe that all Andreans should cultivate ecological citizenship, and thereby inspire positive environmental change for sustainable living within our school community and beyond.

Rationale

Since 2002, SAC's student committee - the St. Andrew's Green Environmentalists (SAGE) - has acted as a hub for further greening the School. We want to build on that foundation and demonstrate leadership in terms of environmental sustainability in all walks of school life. Our goal is that everyone in the school community become one of St. Andrew’s Green Environmentalists, in spirit and by modeling a campus-wide ethic of environmental citizenship. As a community, we understand the environmental impact of the decisions the School makes, and we are acting locally to make the campus as sustainable as possible.

We are working to instill an environmental ethic in all members of our School community and will seek to apply that ethic when making decisions that affect the School. We believe our School's organizational behaviour and attitudes must reflect the commitments made in our Environmental Plan. In other words, we must walk our talk.

By doing so, we aim to inspire our students to demonstrate leadership in terms of ecological citizenship, and hope they graduate to become agents of change in our society’s transition to a sustainable future.

SAC'S GREEN PLAN

In January 2009, the Administration decided to strengthen its efforts to make SAC a greener place. We wanted to build on the momentum of student projects and initiatives led by SAGE, such as, banning plastic water bottles on campus, instituting a no-idling policy, using recycled paper, and banning pesticides on the grounds. In short, we wanted a plan for making St. Andrew’s College “the greenest place possible."

To do so, we created a multi-stakeholder Environmental Task Force, comprised of faculty, staff, administrators, parents and students, which was tasked with developing an Environmental Plan that includes short, medium and long term goals for greening the School. The Task Force was formed in January 2009 and completed its work in December 2009.

The Environmental Plan is organized into four categories which focus on different aspects of the School. They are: Education and Curriculum, Community and Communications, Physical Plant and Facilities, and Operations. Over the year, the Task Force and working groups met several times to explore ideas, costs and benefits of several strategies for greening of the School.

Education for Sustainability

At St. Andrew’s College we recognize the need to educate students about global citizenship and environmental stewardship, and to engage students in critical thought and inquiry about the issue of sustainable development. And in line with the School’s Environmental Creed, we are working toward the goal of incorporating concepts related to ecological citizenship into every course, at all grade levels, taught at St. Andrew's College.

Our curriculum is aligned with the Ontario Ministry of Education’s new Guidelines for integrating environmental education into all learning, at all grades, and as such, teachers are encouraged to identify learning outcomes relevant to educating for sustainable development. It is vital to the future of our planet that our next generation of community leaders and global citizens has a strong understanding of the environment, climate change, and the importance of conservation. Students, in particular, are demanding more knowledge, better alternatives and concrete actions. They also want to help make a difference.

In the Middle School we are constantly introducing environmental issues that help our students understand the basic concepts of ecological literacy. This happens in a myriad of ways, such as: environmental monitoring of water quality in the Shad River on campus; calculating personal ecological footprints in geography and French classes; building model landfills in art class;  and doing audits of energy-efficient light bulbs around campus. In addition, each grade participates in an Outdoor Education experience, Beyond the Gates, during the first month of school. This activity enables our students to appreciate biodiversity, connect with nature, and develop a clear understanding of the relationship that exists between humans and their environment.

In the Upper School the focus is more on learning about solutions to environmental problems, such as climate change, air and water pollution, and biodiversity protection. While a significant amount of this work happens in the science classes, we want all of our students to take a well-balanced approach to understanding environmental sustainability, taking into account social justice and economic issues, as well as environmental issues. For example, we will work to include concepts like ecological economics, life-cycle analysis, and triple bottom line accounting in economics, business technology and leadership classes. Our goal is that education for sustainability will be featured in other courses as well, where students can use real world data on global issues, such as climate change, population and financial literacy to learn about sustainable development. Moving forward, SAC graduates will be prepared to address the challenges of environmental sustainability, and inspire positive environmental change for sustainable living, locally and globally.

School Life

Everything we do at St. Andrew’s College relates to education, whether it’s through formal in-classroom teaching, during extra-curricular activities, on the fields or in the School’s hallways. That’s why our goal is to incorporate awareness of environmental sustainability issues into all aspects of student and community life at SAC, and to cultivate ecological citizenship among every Andrean.

Starting with student orientation, we introduce new Andreans to the School’s Environmental Creed and inform them about the essential behaviours, such as respect for the environment, which we expect of the boys. This ranges from the basics like recycling properly, turning out the lights when leaving a classroom, and not wasting food in the dining hall, to participating in community service projects that contribute to local environmental sustainability.

SAGE

An important part of the School Life Curriculum is to provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills around the issue of environmental sustainability. Since 2002, in the Upper School, the student group, St. Andrew’s Green Environmentalists (SAGE), has worked to promote environmentalism in the School by organizing special activities and communications programs aimed at increasing energy efficiency, reducing food waste, improving recycling, conserving water, reducing paper consumption, and adopting greener policies school wide.

SAC Environmental Days occur throughout the year when Middle School and Upper School students join forces to promote ecological citizenship related to specific topics, such as water, waste reduction and climate change, and to celebrate Earth Week.

SCHOOL LIFE: Middle School Green Team

In the Middle School, the student Green Committee works on projects to educate and raise awareness in the Middle School about environmental issues. This involves practical projects, such as no idling campaigns and classroom energy audits, building student awareness through assemblies and presentations, ensuring teachers and students are as environmentally friendly as possible each day by turning off the lights, recycling properly, and using scrap paper when possible. Additionally, they hope to carry out research into school greening initiatives, such as the possibility of getting renewable energy on campus.

The focus of the Middle School Green team is to build awareness through 'Little Acts of Green.'  By helping the Middle School students recognize that one person can make a difference, this can cause a chain reaction of environmental awareness amongst their friends and family. If everyone changes little things - taking shorter showers, changing light bulbs, or drinking from re-usable water bottles - this can still have an environmental impact, and it will influence others to do the same. According to David Suzuki, if every household in Canada replaced one lightbulb to a compact florescent light bulb (CFL), the would save up to $73 million a year in energy costs and reduce greenhouse emissions by nearly 400,000 tonnes!  Little Acts of Green can make a Big difference!

House Eco-Reps

One of the goals of the Residential Life Curriculum is to make environmental sustainability part of the everyday “language” of the School and something that is part of the culture. In each boarding house two Eco-Reps Students act as a resource to their peers to promote environmentally responsible behaviour. They also work with SAGE on school-wide campaigns to promote ecological citizenship.

These student activities are complemented by the School’s Social Awareness Curriculum, which seeks to develop the “Complete Man” and expose young men to differences of opinion, and to challenge them on societal assumptions. For example, through the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, students can participate in an exciting self-development program available to all young people, equipping them with life skills to help make a difference to themselves, their community and their country.

Faculty & Staff

Faculty and staff are also expected to model the behaviour that the School expects in terms of environmental responsibility. They are all expected to use re-usable mugs and water bottles, limit their paper use, print double-sided, turn off lights and the projector when not required or in use, and incorporate environmental sustainability into their teaching practice. 

Reducing SAC's Eco-Footprint

A central goal of SAC’s Environmental Plan is to reduce our ecological footprint. Today, if everyone lived like the average Canadian, we would need four planet Earths to survive sustainably. Simply put, an ecological footprint is a measure of how much nature we need to sustain our lifestyle, taking into account consumption of food, energy and water, goods and services, and the need for nature to handle the waste we generate.

Energy and Water

Since climate change is such a critical issue in today’s world, reducing energy consumption is an important part of reducing the School’s eco-footprint. Having carried out an energy audit of the School’s facilities, we now have a plan to reduce energy by 15% over five years. We will achieve this through a number of measures, such as retrofitting older buildings with energy efficient lighting, modernizing building automation systems, updating heating and cooling equipment, and replacing windows. We also plan to reduce water consumption where feasible by installing more efficient water fixtures and appliances. For example, new showerheads in the residences are expected to save over 2.5 million litres of water per year!

Waste Management

Educating the School community about what can be recycled and what cannot is a key part of SAC’s plan to increase our diversion rate. We have ensured that recycling bins are located conveniently around the campus with clear signage to inform people about proper recycling. We plan to increase SAC’s recycling rate even more by composting food waste as well, instead of sending it to landfill. In the future, we want to reduce renovation and construction waste through recycling and salvage programs.

Grounds and Landscape

At SAC we are lucky to have a beautiful campus in Aurora that we call home. We are committed to reducing our impact on the natural systems around us and, where possible, we will work to enhance and naturalize our green spaces. As much of our grounds are sports fields, we are also working to make these even greener, by banning pesticides and by trying out some organic turf management programs to reduce our dependence on chemical fertilizers.

New Buildings

Finally, as we look forward to expanding existing buildings and building new ones, the School is aiming to meet requirements for green buildings as specified in the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) certification program. Not only will these buildings be built and operate with minimal impact on the environment, they will provide students with high quality, state-of-the-art learning environments.

Greening Operations

We are also working to reduce the environmental impact of SAC’s operations, such as in our dining hall, cleaning and custodial practices, and purchasing.

Food Services

At SAC, we are working to reduce the eco-footprint of our food service operations by reducing waste, and, where possible, supporting local producers of food, which has secondary benefits of supporting the local economy and reducing food miles and greenhouse gas emissions created by transporting food long distances.

A move to trayless dining will reduce food waste considerably, and any food waste that is leftover is collected and sent to a composting company, instead of going to landfill. We have also introduced biodegradable food serviceware that can go into the compost instead of the garbage.

In terms of eating local foods, we grow our own kitchen herbs in a greenhouse on campus, so the boys can enjoy home-grown parsley, basil, oregano and other herbs in their meals throughout the year. Plus, we purchase local bread, dairy products, poultry and fresh fruit juices. Going forward, we want to increase the amount of local food we buy, and by doing so, teach students what it means to eat seasonally and sustainably.

Purchasing

Every product SAC purchases for use in the School has environmental impacts: “upstream” in the extraction of natural resources, manufacturing, transportation and packaging, and “downstream” in the operation, final disposal, recycling or re-use of products. So we want to be mindful of all these issues when making purchasing decisions.

Some examples of how SAC is making greener decisions on the purchasing front include: buying Fair Trade coffee; using paper with higher recycled content; using Energy Star certified appliances and equipment; and using cleaning products with fewer chemicals. Also, all of the computers we purchase are certified as Silver by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). Future possibilities include switching to eco-friendly paints, furniture and fixtures.

In addition, our goal is to reduce SAC’s eco-footprint by using less in the first place. For example, SAC’s Environmental Plan has set the goal of reducing paper consumption by 15%. The School’s shift to tablet computers, combined with efforts to educate everyone about how to save paper will help us to achieve this goal.

Links & Resources

To find out about how you can reduce your ecological footprint and to learn more about how other youth are greening their world, visit these websites:

• York Youth Environment Network
• Sierra Youth Coalition
• The Otesha Project
• Eco-Mentors
• Green Street
• Suzuki Foundation
• ZeroFootprint
• Ontario Nature
• Oxfam Youth Canada
• World Vision Youth
• Students on Ice