Sustainability

What is Sustainability at Avon Old Farms?

At Avon Old Farms, we strive to meet the current needs of our students, faculty, and staff without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Meeting our current needs requires the use of electricity, food, water, oil, and gas, and results in the production of wastewater and solid waste. The flows of goods and materials that allow us to live create an environmental impact known as our ecological footprint. The goal of our sustainability program is to educate, motivate, and empower our individual members of the Avon community to reduce our collective ecological footprint.

Our community’s ecological footprint is a measure of how much land and water area our community requires to produce the resources we consume and to absorb our wastes. Each year, we use over 10 million gallons of water, burn over 15 thousand gallons of oil and 20 million cubic feet of natural gas, consume three million kilowatt-hours of electricity, and produce over 100 tons of solid waste.

A Note from the Director of Sustainability

As the Director of Sustainability, my goal this year is to provide engaging activities for students interested in reducing our schools ecological footprint. This year, the Environmental Club is comprised of a progressive-thinking group of young men who have produced a long list of projects and ideas for our campus. We meet twice a week to discuss various issues related to sustainability. This fall, we have focused our efforts primarily on brainstorming and planning, but we look forward to working toward the implementation of several proposed projects over the winter and spring.

Sincerely,
Chris Canning '07