Commitment

Funded by a seed grant from the Abbot Academy Association, Phillips Academy created a new part-time position, Sustainability Coordinator in May 2006.  In January 2008, Barbara Landis Chase appointed Dean of Studies, John Rogers, to serve as Advisor to Head of School for Sustainability.

In the Fall 2008, the school’s first campus-wide Baseline Sustainability Assessment Report was completed by Woodard and Curran and beginning in the Fall 2008, the Sustainability Steering Committee was formed and charged with responding to the information gathered, and drafting an Environmental Policy Statement, and an Environmental Strategic Plan.  The statement follows and the strategic planning process is underway.

Phillips Academy Environmental Policy Statement

We, the Phillips Academy community, embrace environmental sustainability as a natural extension of our non sibi ideal. We affirm our responsibility to serve and to lead as stewards of the natural world and to promote environmental awareness, global thinking, and local action.

In our academy operations, Phillips Academy will strive to:

• Conserve and protect natural resources and support their sustainable use.
• Reduce the use of energy, water, and consumable goods.
• Purchase renewable, reusable, recyclable, and recycled materials.
• Eliminate or reduce the use of toxic substances and the generation of wastes, and promote strategies to reuse and recycle those wastes that cannot be avoided.
• Conduct affairs in ways that safeguard the environmental health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and the widespread and diverse communities our actions affect.

In our educational mission, Phillips Academy will strive to:

• Ensure that all members of the academy have opportunities to learn about the environmental and health issues that are relevant to their roles in the community.
• Encourage teaching, research, and service that deepen understanding of the environment.
• Conduct teaching, research, and service in an environmentally responsible way.
• Provide a forum for the academy community to discuss and study environmental issues in their relationship to other social issues.

Our commitment to environmental stewardship requires an ongoing, evolving process – one that challenges us to find new ways to cooperate in setting measurable and achievable goals, assigning responsibilities, and evaluating progress.