Department of Green 
nitiatives
Commitment Statement
The community of Greenhills School dedicates itself, its students, and its staff to support an organized and committed sustainable foundation that aims to provide learning, opportunity and positive benefits and contributions to our people, our planet, and our economy.
The Green History of Greenhills
Ed Read, founding Headmaster of Greenhills School, instituted the first conservation practices, as much for economic reasons as environmental. Dialing down the thermostat in the winter to save on fuel costs, directing teachers to devise creative ways of giving quizzes as a way to save paper, and using returnable pint glass bottles for milk at lunches were all both economically sound on a lean budget as well as environmentally friendly.
Students first banded together in a serious way in the 1989-90 school year when members of the class of 1992, then tenth graders, started an organization known as EARTH. (The acronym preceded the written-out name, which was said to be “Ecological Advocacy for the Restoring of Today’s Habitats”.)
That first year was spent brainstorming ideas and raising money for causes of concern to student members. The 1990-91 year brought the first recycling (just of paper), which expanded to cans, bottles, and paper lunch bags the following year.
The EARTH group became the wealthiest student organization at school from the returnable-container proceeds, enabling them to purchase rainforest acreage, host Earth Day Celebrations for the student body, purchase recycling bins for every classroom and open area, and design and sell cloth lunch and shopping bags. They also found themselves able to lend funds to other student organizations in need.
After lying fallow for six years, student interest emerged again as the Environmental Club during the 2006-07 school year. Not only was recycling actively revived and expanded, the class of 2007 also chose to raise funds for a wind turbine [pictured at right] as their class gift.
As the result of a two-day environmental “summit” in the summer of 2007, a variety of initiatives were planned and instituted by the class of 2008. Working with the school administration, these students were instrumental in researching and having installed light sensors in all restrooms in the spring of 2008, in selling cloth lunch and shopping bags, and in building a composting facility for appropriate lunchroom waste.
Current Green Initiatives
Today, Greenhills has moved forward to formalize its commitment to sustainable practices, this time by the administration. As the 2008-2009 school year begins, Greenhills has created a Department of Green Initiatives, directed by Martha Friedlander, one of the early EARTH faculty sponsors.
The work of this department will build on the good work already underway to establish PlanG, a formal initiatives plan to establish and track success. The groundwork has been laid for each grade level to play a specific role in making Greenhills more sustainable in its habits and practices.
Goals for the 2008-2009 year include:
