The exciting theme of both our end-of-year faculty meetings and the "visioneering retreat" was the groundswell of support for ever-greater environmental responsibility and leadership. Specifically, the entire community is considering adoption of an environmental mission statement that will transform everyday practices. Interestingly, the faculty's vote to "table" the proposal came not from opposition to carbon neutrality, but to our desire to have the entire staff, and all trustees embrace the measure. Here's a view of a dark faculty room, graced with a kayak in late June:

It is often observed that our students are technological "natives," while adults are technological "immigrants." Likewise, today's teenagers are thoroughly inculcated with environmental values and practices. They have been recycling their entire lives. Here are some bins next to books heading for recycling:

The point of the proposed mission statement is to set a school-wide standard for responsible practices and behaviors. The idea is highly popular and awaits faculty action at our late August meetings. Here we see our hybrid car getting a cleaning at the Maintenance Department.

The construction of a new facility is an opportunity to practice conservation and both ethical and economic responsibility. Peabody House--a sixteen-student, two family residence nearing completion--is heated and cooled with a geo-thermal system that feeds off of six 500-foot wells drilled under rocky ledge.

Plymouth State University had a problem when a new athletic facility neared completion. How to dispose of the potentially valuable hardwood basketball floor from the old gymnasium? Building & Grounds Director Will Ames sniffed out the opportunity to acquire the material for the cost of removing it, and--today--Hunter Fifield and Erik Major are prepping the boards for installation in our new dormitory's commons rooms.

Long before our environmental mission statement was drafted, the Trustees of the school moved boldly by financing transformation of our campus-wide steam plant to a woodchip furnace. This high-tech system is highly efficient, with extraordinarily clean emissions, and it promises to pay for itself quickly, (increasingly soon, as oil prices rise!) Here's Jeff Sweet preparing the site:

For today's teenagers, teaching environmental responsibility is a matter of practicing environmental responsibility. The notion of tree-hugging is passe; we conserve and act because it pays. This is the gate to Proctor's prodigious organic garden.