Deerfield Academy is Taking Back the Tap! We have great tasting, great quality drinking water, and we’re trying to encourage people to kick the nasty bottled water habit. To raise awareness of our excellent tap water, our e-proctors recently conducted a blind taste test of our tap water, filtered tap water (from our dining room [...]

Thanks again to the 260 people (and counting) who have signed the petition to stop Deerfield Academy’s purchasing from suppliers of antibiotic-fed livestock. I have increased the goal to 315 (which is roughly half the size of the student body), so please visit the site and consider signing the petition if you haven’t already. Eighty percent [...]

Happy Holidays to all! Before you leave for break, be sure to UNPLUG! Follow these tips to save energy, save money, and prevent pollution while you’re gone: Close and lock windows (take out your window fan if needed)Shut off all the lights (overhead and desk)UNPLUG all electronics. Cell phone chargers, laptop chargers, TVs, etc. all [...]

As part of campus sustainability efforts, Deerfield Academy recently launched its THINK 80/20 campaign to improve our recycling and composting. Our goal is to divert 80% of campus waste from landfills by instead recycling it, reusing it, or composting it, leaving only 20% being sent to landfills. This is an ambitious goal, but achievable. This [...]

Want to help DA become even greener? Did you like the recycling madness of our school meeting “recyclopalooza” last week? Apply to join the current environmental proctors (e-proctors) for the 2012-13 school year. I am particularly seeking NEW STUDENTS (any grade), especially 9th/10th graders, but all interested students are invited to apply.  I want motivated students with [...]

Want to help DA become even greener? Apply to be an e-proctor for the 2012-13 school year. There will be a smaller group selected this year, and it doesn’t matter what dorm you live in. I want motivated students with ideas and passion to work for improving our campus sustainability. It does not matter if [...]

We’re halfway done with the 2012 Green Cup Challenge, where dorms compete for a month to reduce their electricity consumption compared to an early January baseline value. This is a competition where everyone wins – the school saves money, the mountains in West Virginia don’t get blasted away to extract coal, students learn how to [...]

Today is the kick-off for the 2012 edition of the Green Cup Challenge (January 18 – February 15), a nationwide competition between schools to save electricity, save money, and save the environment. Last year during the Green Cup, Deerfield Academy reduced our electricity usage by 9.1% from our baseline. This prevented the emission of 64,605 [...]

Want to help Deerfield be an even greener place? Become an environmental proctor! Environmental Proctors educate and encourage their peers to recognize the impact of their actions on the environment and alter their habits accordingly. Our environmental proctors have had a significant impact on dorm energy use and recycling in past years.  We have improved [...]