Big Red Goes Green
We live in an unsustainable world, one that promotes the fossil fuel industry, overuses unnatural resources and cultivates climate change. These habits are slowly destroying our forests, polluting the air we breathe, invading habitats of animals and humans with the constant flooding on our coasts and drying of the land elsewhere.
Here at Phillips Exeter Academy, we see gases rise into the air above our dining halls, smell the murky brown water of the nearby Squamscott river and feel the effects of climate change through the scorching summer days and freakish blizzards only days before snowless winter nights.
To combat the ever-growing issue of climate change, the administration has implemented several changes to make Phillips Exeter Academy a greener place.
To combat the ever-growing issue of climate change, the administration has implemented several changes to make Phillips Exeter Academy a greener place. From 2009 to 2010, they switched a large portion of our energy sources from oil to biofuels and other natural gases. Because of this, our school’s carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by 63 percent, bringing the excretion down to 48.4 tons per year.
In 2012, they completed the installation of 40 geothermal wells that provide the energy for all of Phillips Hall. There are plans to install at least 40 more as a part of a major renovation on the Academy Building.
In 2013, PEA eliminated the use and sale of plastic water bottles on campus. Last year marked the beginning of the “Tiny Trash” program, which is why in some classrooms and dorms, there are no trash bins, but instead 24 oz trash cups that sit on desks. This program is intended to reduce waste and encourage recycling. Additionally, PEA earned the national “Green Ribbon Schools” award, being only one of ten private schools to receive the award that year and the only school nominated by the New Hampshire Department of Education to have won the prize.
Most recently, Exeter finished construction on the gorgeous 85,000-square-foot William Boyce Thompson Field House. The building was certified to LEED gold standards with a stunning array of more than 1,500 solar panels on its roof. This is projected to offset the majority of the building’s energy usage, simultaneously saving the Academy $2 million.
Although Exeter has made many sustainable improvements in the last decade, there remain several physical and financial changes that the school must put into action. PEA should expand the idea presented in the fabrication of our field house throughout campus by building solar panel systems on the roofs of our dorms and academic buildings. This could help provide most, if not all, of the energy consumption of this campus. Additionally, PEA should expand our existing dining hall composting system by adding more compost bins around campus, helping to reduce waste and fertilize more soil.
Another course of action for sustainability is the implementation of green roofs. These are greenhouses that could be built on top of buildings, which would not only provide a space to grow produce for the dining halls but cool down buildings throughout the summer and help them retain heat in the winter without the use of the fossil fuels.
In addition to including more renewable energy infrastructures, increased compost options and the use of greenhouses, Exeter’s administration could relocate our endowment money by completely divesting from the fossil fuel industry and reinvesting that money into the renewable energy industry. The 2016 Financial Report stated that the PEA endowment is approximately $1.1 billion. Out of that substantial amount of money, over $90 million is currently invested in and promoting fossil fuel companies.
Divestment from those companies would not only advance the downfall of the fossil fuel industry, but also allow Exeter to gain the long-term financial and environmental benefits of renewable energies. Continued support of fossil fuels will cause the school to lose, rather than gain, the money that is continually sought after, and, in nearly 100 years, there will no longer be enough oil or coal remaining worldwide to foster the planet’s current energy consumption.
In addition, divestment is an ethical responsibility. As an institution seeking to educate and nurture the leaders of the world, it is Phillips Exeter Academy’s foremost obligation to safeguard tomorrow and to ensure that the world she sends her students out into is a world with a future.
It is in the administration’s best interest for Exeter to take this action as soon as possible. As more institutions and associations across the United States arrive at these same conclusions, the expense of investment increases with the value of the industry. Instead of waiting to follow in the footsteps of others, Exeter must lead the movement and reinvest for financial and environmental profit, avoiding support of the impingement that the fossil fuel industry presents.
Exeter’s environmental mission statement declares that “Phillips Exeter Academy must be committed to stewardship of the environment. Recognizing we are all but one small part of the natural world, we must value, protect, preserve, and replenish natural resources. While our actions are local, our reach is global…. As an institution, our priorities, decisions, and actions will be informed by their environmental impact.”
The continued addition of renewable energy and sustainable habits on campus—such as divestment and the installation of green roofs, composting systems or solar panels— will greatly impact energy preservation and the cost of fuel, while perfectly aligning with our mission to cultivate sustainability. By continuing to make these essential changes, Phillips Exeter Academy will be on its way to improving not only our campus, but our future on this planet.