Sustainability

Emma Willard School’s Environmental Philosophy

Our community cares deeply about being part of the positive change we would like to see in the world by advocating for environmentally conscious practices. We have our own work to do to achieve true environmental stewardship.

Our Vision for Environmental Sustainability

Emma Willard School’s commitment to environmental sustainability is alive in our culture, curriculum design, and historic campus. Across the gamut of the Emma Willard curricular and co-curricular experience, we challenge students to understand and address the effects of climate change, encouraging them to become future leaders and problem solvers for environmental action.

Emma Green gathers for their club meeting outside of Dietel Library.

Principles

We educate students about the science and impact of climate change, including connections to social justice, micro- and macro-economics, and the unique effects on girls and women around the world.
We empower students to explore personal and collective responsibility to find practical and concrete solutions to combat the effects of climate change and lessen its causes.
We empower and support students to engage in leadership and collaborative roles related to environmental action both on and off campus, through participation in clubs, volunteerism, and more.
We work proactively to measure and reduce the environmental impact of our own campus operations and to ensure the future of our historic campus.
We partner with the local, regional, and alumni community to further the collective work of climate change mitigation and sustainability.

Strategic Goals

Campus

Create a “Climate Action Plan” with expert guidance to outline actionable steps and metrics for benchmarking by the end of 2024.
Identify formal Sustainability Coordinator(s) on staff who lead a sustainability council, coordinate new initiatives, and measure and report on progress beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.
Create a campus plan for mindful use and re-use of resources (including travel, events, dining, and facilities) working with Emma Green to focus on student resources in spring 2024, and examining school events and resources more broadly starting in summer of 2024.

Curriculum

Establish an environmental sustainability curricular scope and sequence, review existing curriculum, and create and execute a plan for curricular change, beginning in 2024-2025.
Continue to enhance environmental sustainability related experiences through Experiential Learning in 2024-2025, empowering students to work to enhance the school’s goals on and off campus.
Immediately work to ensure strong collaboration between the DEI and Sustainability teams and initiatives, recognizing and taking advantage of the interconnectedness of these issues.
Immediately work with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to promote and offer professional development opportunities in environmental sustainability to individuals and the entire community.

Community

Build a culture of sustainability and stewardship by embedding sustainability into community events and major policy documents (Employee Manual and Fine Print) by 2025-2026.
Create a comprehensive communications plan for environmental sustainability, including building an ongoing web presence on the school site in summer 2024 and considering opportunities to include topics in Signature magazine, and parent and alum newsletters in fall 2024.
Empower student leadership through Emma Green and School Council to take a leadership role in building a culture of sustainability on campus and connecting with student leaders from other schools.

Sustainability News

RSS Feeds Subscribe to Alerts

Landing Navigation

In This Section

Breadcrumb