Faculty, staff, and students comprise the Sustainability Committee, which connects and advances existing efforts to implement sustainable practices on campus. The committee’s interim goals are to improve coordination and communication as they relate to sustainable efforts across all segments of our School, including the broader Pennington community. We also aim to create a culture of sustainable thinking that informs decision-making in every aspect of School life, from the classroom to the dorm room and the boardroom. These goals cut across the three pillars of sustainability—environment, society, and economy—and extend well beyond simply “greening” Pennington. For example, our sustainability efforts intersect with social justice in that we must consider the uneven effects of environmental issues on different groups of people, on and off campus. We therefore work to involve all relevant stakeholders in decision-making and planning.

The Pennington School’s Sustainability Committee goals are to:

• Connect and advance existing efforts to implement sustainable practices on campus;
• Improve coordination and communication as they relate to sustainable efforts across all segments of our School, including the broader TPS community; and
• Create a culture of sustainable thinking that informs decision-making from the classroom to the dorm room to the boardroom.

Our work encompasses the following areas:

Energy

• Power, heating/cooling, fossil fuels, and renewable sources

Waste

• Recycling program, paper and printing, electronics, dormitories, water usage

Food

• Food waste and compost, local food sourcing, School garden

Buildings and Grounds

• Landscaping, ecological studies, Lowellden Pond, Lewis Brook Nature Trail, facilities maintenance, cars on campus

Curricula

• Middle School, Upper School, within specific classes and School-wide

Students are encouraged to turn their environmental interests into action. Whether they are involved with the Green Team, the Sustainability Committee, the Global Studies and Applied Science certificate programs, or a class project, we support their efforts to make a difference at The Pennington School and beyond.

The Green Team is a student-led club whose members share an interest in the environment and the ambition to tackle various issues from the campus to the global scale. Most of their efforts are focused on minimizing the School’s impact on the environment and fostering a stronger environmental ethic within our community. Recent and ongoing successes include:

• Organize annual Earth Day events, campus clean-ups, field trips to participate in beach clean-ups or attend environmental film festivals, and other such activities. 
   

• Spring 2024 - Advocated for, and assisted with, new tree and wildflower plantings on campus

• 2022-24 - Organized and ran a school thrift store, with proceeds going to organizations supporting sustainable and ethical fashion practices

• Spring 2023 - Overhauled the School's paper recycling program and initiated a weekly student pick-up program

• Spring 2023 - Installed wood benches and natural walls in the Lewis Brook Woods, constructed from infected and dead ash trees taken down throughout the forest (a student’s Eagle Scout project)

• Spring 2022 - Led campaign about vehicle idling and initiated new signage for School drop-off and pickup zones

• 2021-22 - Built and installed screech owl and American kestrel boxes throughout Lewis Brook Woods with the help of Operations Department staff

• Spring 2021 - Organized the inaugural School-wide Eco-Challenge advisory competition

• 2020-21 - Collaborated with Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space to commence long-term restoration efforts in the Lewis Brook Woods and nature trail 

• September 2019 - Established our campus as an “idle-free zone” in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution and minimize impacts on human health 

• September 2019 - Modified our classroom and dorm room recycling and trash practices to improve education and accountability

• August 2019 - Eliminated disposable plastic bottles from vending machines and campus events, and switched to fountain drinks in the Snack Bar

• February 2019 - Initiated our compost program, which was the composting of kitchen food-prep waste, carried out by School advisories

• January 2019 - A group of Environmental Science students won the nationwide Lexus EcoChallenge with their well-researched proposal to switch to LED bulbs. The School transitioned four buildings to LEDs during summer 2019 (exterior lights were switched in 2017)

• May 2018 - Secured approval for a “Turtle Crossing” on the perimeter road, adjacent to the pond, with educational signage (made by students) describing eastern painted and common snapping turtles and the impact of habitat fragmentation

•  February 2018 - Implementation of “Meatless Monday” in the dining hall to minimize the various environmental impacts associated with the production of meat

Student initiatives currently in development include:

• Creating a carbon-offset program for all School flights
• Improving public education and community awareness of environmental issues
• Building a stronger connection between the Green Team and Community Service club through work in the School garden and off-campus volunteering
• Identifying spaces and developing plans for more “greenscaping” on campus

We are continuing to enhance and develop interdisciplinary curricula that get students outdoors, in the pond and brook, in the woods and School garden, and exploring campus ecologies. This environmental education opens students’ eyes to the various effects—both positive and negative—they have on local and global environments and provides them with the tools and opportunities to make a difference in the world.

Various classes and student clubs visit and work in the garden to engage in hands-on learning, conduct observational studies, and perform community service. The School pond serves as a wonderful outdoor classroom, laboratory, space for meditation, and active site for fieldwork and ecological restoration. Finally, Pennington students built and installed permanent outdoor classroom seating and a chalkboard overlooking the pond, and other outdoor classrooms were also established around campus. 

The Pennington School was honored to receive River-Friendly Certification in fall 2018 from the Watershed Institute (we were re-certified in 2023). The river-friendly designation is a reflection of Pennington’s dedication to improving water quality and conservation and protecting our environment. Earning this certification requires the submission of lesson plans and project descriptions. Teachers compiled a report detailing the School’s “river-friendly” activities, and Pennington achieved the highest level of certification—Watershed Level—by earning points with the School’s engaging and effective eco-focused curricula.

As the campus contains headwaters to two major watersheds (the Raritan River and Delaware River), we are excited to be teamed up with the Watershed Institute for the StreamWatch program. Our students conduct chemical and biological monitoring in Lewis Brook, and hope to eventually supply water quality data to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.

We have also been excited to offer several experiential learning experiences, both locally and abroad. These include annual field trips to Mercer Meadows to learn about the use of fire as an ecological restoration tool, as well as sustainability days organized by the Middle School to the Jersey Shore, a nearby hydrogen house, and local farms. In addition, students have traveled to the Island School in The Bahamas, to the Adirondacks as part of a for-credit Wilderness Seminar, to Puerto Rico, and to the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. We expect these offerings to grow given their popularity and the recent establishment of the Office of Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning.

Buildings and Grounds

The Pennington School campus provides ample opportunities for environmental education and for adopting strategies and practices that reflect our commitment to sustainability. As the grounds include a stormwater pond (with fish, turtles, frogs, and waterbirds!), a raised-bed vegetable and herb garden, grass and turf sports fields, nature trails, energy efficient buildings, landscaped planting beds, and undeveloped woodlands, the School takes the management of the property in relation to the topic of sustainability quite seriously.

Interest in improving our campus ecologies inspired the initiation of environmental remediation projects in and around Lowellden Pond and in Lewis Brook Woods at the northern end of campus. We worked with an ecologist and invasive species specialist from Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space to develop plans for the pond and woods involving the removal of invasive species and planting of native species that will provide critical wildlife habitat. We are also working with a company to develop a plan to remove organic material from the pond’s substrate to improve water quality and benefit aquatic organisms. Students will be included as project partners throughout the multi-year remediation process.

Dining

Our CulinArt dining services team thinks very deeply about what will work best for our community, and has integrated sustainable practices throughout the kitchen and dining hall. For example, the kitchen staff are leading Pennington to reduce food waste and implement best practices for disposal of the waste we do create. They also set up the kitchen so that composting and the management of food waste can be done as easily, ethically, and environmentally friendly as possible.