Sustainability Statement Announced

At Earth Day 2014, Friends School formally announced a new sustainability statement. Here's the Youtube version of the Earth Day announcement, but if you prefer to read it yourself, this is what it says:

Sustainability Statement

Sustainability is an integral part of the Friends school experience, combining deep thinking about the future of our planet, collaboration with partners within and beyond Friends school, and meaningful actions that facilitate sustainable stewardship of our campus and the environment.

Our statement is the result of lots of work by the sustainability council, with input from parents, staff and students, and we have given ourselves some "guiding principles" to focus our work going forward:

Guiding Principles

Recognizing that this mission statement is only valuable when we meet and expand beyond its premise, the Sustainability Council intends to add continually to this document as students, parents and employees implement existing plans, strategize about future projects, and seek additional input from the community.

The following principles and ideals guide the Sustainability Council and the Friends School community in this work:

• Sustainability at Friends School of Baltimore embodies the Quaker testimonies of Stewardship, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Simplicity and reflects our intention to live in right relationship with people and our environment.

• Shifting our mindsets at the personal and institutional level will challenge us. We acknowledge this challenge as an ongoing process necessary for continued sustainable thought and action.

• As the world becomes ever more interconnected, we strive to build partnerships with schools, community organizations, and others who can help us become better stewards of the environment.

• Engaging and addressing questions of conservation, ecology, and stewardship is an integral part of how Friends School prepares students for their roles as local and global citizens of the twenty-first century.

So, hurrah! We have a Sustainability Statement! And we think it’s a good one, but we know that these statements, on their own, don’t mean that much. And that’s where you all come in. We want to know what kinds of actions you are already taking and how you think Friends needs to challenge itself further in the future. And we want you--students, parents, staff-- to tell us about it, which is why we’ve created an email address, sustainability@friendsbalt.org.  Have a neat idea about reducing paper waste on campus by changing printer settings?Send us an email. Your class talked about the ethics of global resource usage and connected it to environmentalism at Friends? Let us know. You’re going on a service project that combines deep thinking, collaboration in the community and meaningful action AND you’re going to take some pictures of it? Please, Please do! And then send your requests, ideas, stories and pictures to sustainability@friendsbalt.org. With your help, we’ll post developments, projects, plans and concerns here and eventually on a new page on the Friends School website.