Sustainability at RE

4/30/2019

“The only thing that we cannot do is not do anything.”

I heard that line repeatedly last week – Earth Week – whenever I tuned into National Public Radio on my car radio. NPR dedicated much of its air time to stories about the degradation of our environment and ways that we can help.

We hear and read about what appear to be dramatic and irreversible changes in the global climate: severe droughts, erratic rains, record high and low temperatures, winters that are snowier in some places, snowless in others, receding glaciers, fires, and devastating storms.

Last December, The New York Times called attention to one of Miami’s most coveted resources, running an article about the effects of a prolonged red tide on the stone crab industry. The iconic Miami Beach restaurant, Joe’s Stone Crab, found itself having to limit menu selection and raise its prices for the first time in three years.

NPR recently conducted a study on teaching children about climate change. Eighty percent of the parents surveyed said they wished teachers taught climate change in school; yet most teachers said, in a separate survey, that they don't teach climate change. Eighty-five percent of the teachers, however, wished they did. The survey also revealed that most parents, even those parents deeply committed to practicing habits of environmental sustainability in their own homes and lives, admitted that they themselves don't talk much about climate change with their children.

The reasons for the disconnect are many. In schools, there can be a sense of divisiveness caused by climate change believers and non-believers, and teachers and administrators are unwilling or unable to cross the political divide. Teachers are also busy with their own curricula and do not have the knowledge or resources to effectively teach a complicated subject. In short, teaching climate change has not been prioritized.

NPR’s response: The default message cannot be silence.

I am happy to report that the silence has been broken at Ransom Everglades. Just a few of the many examples of how our RE community is committed to leaving the world better than we found it:

At the start of school in September, our students refused to allow Smoothie King to serve plastic straws with their weekly smoothies; too many photos of sea turtles, their health challenged by plastics that have invaded their habitats, served as a call to action.

Recent articles in both the Dell + Cannon and RE Log have highlighted the efforts the school is making to become more sustainable and more green. We installed solar panels at the Middle School in March and kicked off a composting program last week. Truly innovative and inspiring things are happening on both campuses, and the students are at the heart of the activity.

The STEM Center construction on the Ransom Campus is fully underway, and this week concrete walls started appearing. The STEM Center will be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certified structure, and all the sustainability features are integrated directly into the design and operation. The roof area supports both an outdoor classroom and a full photo-voltaic solar array. The solar panels will feed directly into the building's information system and augment the power needs of the building. In the main lobby, a large screen will visually breakdown all the systems in the building – water, power, waste – for learning purposes.

Because of the flexible and open design of the classrooms, air will circulate freely through the building, lowering the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) requirements and saving energy.

The exterior glazing is hurricane-impact rated and will be coated with reflective materials that lower the heat gain of the interior of the building, again making the HVAC system more efficient. Special attention has been paid to the materials used within the building. Materials that need to be transported large distances have been avoided to minimize the use and cost of fuel for transportation.

Yesterday, brand new, extra sturdy and durable recycling receptacles arrived on the Ransom Campus.

We also have invited experts in the field to talk to our students.

Last week, Meg Daly ’78, the driving force behind the Underline Miami project, inspired Upper School students with her talk about how the project came into being. The Underline will "encourage residents to walk, bike and take mass transit as an alternative to driving, making us a healthier, greener, more mobile, connected and sustainable community," she explained. Pedestrian and bicyclist safety will be improved; native plant habitats along the pathway will be restored; and the end result will be a healthier lifestyle in a more environmentally sustainable community.

Our students’ questions after the talk revealed a keen interest in every aspect of the Underline project. They asked probing questions not just about the project itself but also about its legacy; among the issues raised was the displacement of the homeless persons who inhabit parts of the trajectory. Meg noted that she had visited Harvard University for a similar talk just weeks before; our students’ questions were every bit as thoughtful as those she received in Cambridge, Mass.

There’s more to come at RE. In mid-May, we will proudly hold our third annual RE Energy and Climate Change Symposium; it’s grown so much in four years, it’s expanded from one day to a four-day affair (May 16, 17 and 20, 21).

RE graduate Steve Sawitz ’75, whose family has owned Joe’s Stone Crab for more than a century, was interviewed for The New York Times article. “We have to protect these very important natural resources that we have; it is bigger than just crabs,” Mr. Sawitz said. “We’ve got to do whatever it takes.”

We all have a part to play.

Penny Townsend
Head of School
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RE founder Paul Ransom, circa 1903

Sustainability at RE

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