Upper School students take environmental action

By Elise Song ‘20

Left to right: Will Leonard, Megan Cover, Amy Wang. Photo by Elise Song.

In a more environmentally conscious world, the Environmental Action Team (EAT) has begun to make change in the Catlin Gabel School (CGS) community. 

The leaders of EAT, senior Amy Wang, sophomore Megan Cover, and senior Will Leonard, have challenged students to be aware of their recycling habits and plastic use and encouraged them to reduce their carbon footprint through carpooling.

CGS has a school sustainability goal of reducing its carbon footprint and energy consumption by 5%, equivalent to the energy used by the Creative Art Center. The money saved from using less energy will then be invested in renewable energy sources. By 2030, CGS hopes to go carbon-neutral, or having a carbon footprint of zero. 

Catlin Gabel’s second school-wide goal is to teach every student about climate change by integrating it into class curricula. This summer, the Upper School read “Climate Justice” by Mary Robinson and held discussions in C&C’s. This year’s Palma Seminar centers around climate change as well.

In the past, EAT has pushed for Meatless Mondays. Leonard sent an email to the Upper School on Feb. 15, 2019 entitled “Meatless Mondays,” saying refraining from serving meat on Mondays could “save over 100,000 gallons of water and over 1,000 pounds of both methane and carbon dioxide per meal.”

EAT’s initiatives for this year include limiting food waste, reducing paper waste, using recyclable paper, incorporating sustainability into the curriculum, and reaching out to the Middle and Lower School divisions. 

The EAT leaders have different opinions on the environmental consciousness of the CGS community. 

“Generally people are pretty excited about sustainability,” said Leonard. 

Cover, however, had a different perspective. “Most people put sustainability to the side,” she said. 

EAT hopes to push students to make sustainable decisions instead of doing “what’s convenient,” said Wang.

EAT meets on E days during Co-Curricular. Anyone interested is encouraged to come and brainstorm ideas about making CGS more sustainable.