In a continued effort to foster conservation awareness, the Phillips Academy Campus Sustainability Office launched a new website early last week, designed to inform the public about its current sustainability initiatives. The introduction of this website coincides with the recent announcement of the selected students of the Environmental Stewardship Program. Both the sustainability website and the Environmental Stewardship Program were projects under the instruction of Andover’s first Sustainability Coordinator, Ms. Rebecca Bogdanovitch. This site is largely a redesign of the Phillips Academy Recycling Program website that had been present since October of 2002. Web developers Benjamin Moore and Jeffrey Rask, from the Office of Communications, assisted Ms. Bogdanovitch in expanding the previous recycling page into a fully comprehensive sustainability website. “From what I’ve noticed so far, the global community is just beginning to realize how much we’re damaging the world, but there is still much to learn and even more to do in response. I am glade to have been able to contribute to the website. It will be a great tool to expand efforts and maintain awareness,” said Mr. Moore. On the website, the Sustainability Office states its mission to “connect all aspects of student learning to efforts that reduce Andover’s impact on the environment,” as well as to “promote sustainable behavior by students, faculty and staff that allows members of the community to take responsibility for the institution’s environmental impact.” The sustainability website details such programs as athletic food redistribution to the Bread & Roses Community Kitchen, the campus recycling program, the Green Cup Challenge, Step It Up Andover and the clothing and book drives done in collaboration with the Community Service Program. The website gives further information regarding several courses at Phillips Academy that incorporate sustainability education, such as an interdisciplinary science course in Environmental Science, as well as a Philosophy and Religion course titled, “Bioethics: The Environment.” Other information found on the sustainability website includes a description of two student organizations: Eco Action, with “goals to keep knowledge of and pursuit of environmental conservation alive in the PA and Andover community,” and the Energy Resource Awareness Council (ERAC), which “seeks to raise awareness on campus about the political, social, environmental and economic importance of energy and resource depletion.” Head of ERAC, Wesley Hartwell ’07, said, “Making a dedicated Andover sustainability site will, I hope, promote the acceptance of sustainability goals at PA. Additionally, it should make collaborating on and organizing sustainability efforts easier, allowing these efforts to be more effective.” Along with the publishing of a new website, Ms. Bogdanovitch has also been busy with the premiere year of the Environmental Stewardship Program. On May 18, two students per cluster were notified of their acceptance as an “E-Steward” in this new program. Out of an application pool of more than 25 students, ten students were selected to be E-Stewards: Emanuel Feld ’09 and Vivian Wehner ’09 for Abbot; Joel Camacho ’08 and Michaeljit Sandhu ’09 for Flagstaff; Matt Emery ’08 and Alison Kent ’08 for Pine Knoll; Meredith Rahman ’10 and Anna Mackey ’09 for West Quad North; and Rosie Raymond-Sidel ’08 and Kie Watanabe ’08 for West Quad South. Within the application form, the Environmental Stewardship Program declared its mission “to support efforts that reduce Andover’s impact on the environment and promote sustainable behavior by students, faculty and staff that allows members of the community to take responsibility for the institution’s environmental impact.” “I hope to help guide the campus towards being more conscious about environmental issues the planet faces and to be a part of the solution to these problems…by actively involving all members of the campus in deciding how Andover can become an emblem for the changes that all need to make in order to live with the future of a healthy planet in mind,” said Emanuel Feld ’09. “My goal is awareness for everyone. I think it’s amazing that there are groups of people who deeply care about our environment, but, sadly, that is not enough. The only way we can hope for a cleaner, healthier environment will be if everyone strives for sustainable use of resources,” said Joel Camacho ’08. Anna Mackey ’09 said, “My personal hope is that I can influence others to take care in the decisions they make, whether it be turning off your lights when you leave the room or recycling your plastic water bottles. I would overall want to make Andover a more eco-friendly school.” The Environmental Stewardship Program is looking to propose ecological projects for Non-Sibi Day, as well as any other opportunity, so as to elevate awareness in the Andover community about environmental issues. It will also work in coalition with Eco Action and ERAC, in order to synergize their sustainability efforts. Hartwell, expressing his satisfaction with these new programs, said, “It’s very exciting for me to see this new green movement take off at Phillips Academy with the much-appreciated contributions of our new Sustainability Coordinator, Ms. Bogdanovitch, and others. I hope to return in five or ten years to see an Andover much more aware of sustainability issues and taking much-needed actions to become as sustainable as possible.”
