Big Red Goes Green
Through classes and projects over the past year, Exonians have been making many efforts to improve Exeter’s sustainability policies. With two more LEED-certified buildings on campus added last year and new dining hall initiatives to address food waste, many feel that Exeter is moving towards a greener future in all aspects of campus life, including possible future careers.
Upper Erin Ahern, a co-head of the Food Waste Reduction Club, said that the diversity of the environmental job market is a large draw to the on-campus clubs. “It’s interesting because there are a lot of angles you could go into,” she said. “You could go into the policies, law, engineering or the hard science of it. I think those are all really cool fields.”
Upper and co-head of the E-proctor program Alayna Thomas focused on the depth of jobs available in the environmental field. “With all of the innovation that's happening and all of the the technology that's allowing us to be more sustainable, a path is forming for us to go down for the future,” she said. “I believe it's important for us to recognize that and really try to pursue a way of growing that will help humankind but will be sustainable and beneficial to the Earth.”
One club, Divest Exeter, is working on getting Exeter to eliminate fossil fuel companies from the school’s endowment portfolio. According to seniors and co-heads Sophie Faliero and Hillary Davis, the club “wants the school to divest within a certain number of years, but [understands] that it can’t happen right away” and that “there are certain steps that the school can take to move towards the goal [of divestment].”
Faliero and Davis explained that there are multiple smaller goals that the club also wants to achieve. “I want to open up conversation between the administration, the trustees and the students about environmental issues, because I feel like there's no dialogue there right now,” Faliero said.
Faliero isn’t the only one who believes that change takes small steps: Ahern also recognizes that improving environmental awareness at Exeter is a long process. “The problems are not [going to] be solved overnight; it takes time to put in all these different changes,” she said.
Ahern encourages the entire student body to continually change small aspects of their lives in an attempt to become more eco-friendly. “Consciously try [to] not waste food, try to minimize your use of paper and take shorter showers,” she said. “If you do them every single day, then that's a lot added up.”
Senior Heidi Lichtl, a former student of Human Population and Resource Consumption: Implications for Sustainability course, thinks that these small actions can easily become habits. “One of the big things we talked about during class was changing our daily actions,” she said. “Hopefully, through the signs we put up in the dorm—if people pay attention to them—they can just start getting in the habit; that's just something we do.”
Thomas also noted how easy it is to remind others to be environmentally friendly. “If you see somebody who has a habit that's not great, such as leaving the water on while they brush their teeth every day… speak kindly to them,” she said. “It would be good to have a community on campus that's constantly encouraging each other to do things that are good for the environment.”
In addition to student efforts, the Academy itself is taking steps to become more involved in environmental wellness. Newly elected Student Council President and upper Ayush Noori, who is involved in the upcoming Bike Share program, believes the school is very invested in becoming more green. “Programs like GULL [Green Umbrella Learning Lab] are exactly the right steps,” he said. “They allow students the opportunity [to make a difference]. I think we're lucky to have the opportunity to engage directly in environmental change.”