The Greening of Millbrook School

MILLBROOK — On a brisk fall day at Millbrook School, three students, 16-year-old Sam Richards and 17-year-old twins Tate and Mariah Lavitt, discussed their involvement in Students Concerned About Planet Earth (SCAPE).

They were exploring the impact of being in an environment that fosters responsible stewardship of the earth, a philosophy also exemplified in the school’s new "green" Math and Science Center. For that achievement the school received a GOLD level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

Also present at the school, and privy to the students’ conversation, was Jane Meigs, the conservation education director at the school’s Trevor Zoo Science Department.

Meigs has heartily endorsed the Math and Science Center, like many others on Millbrook School’s campus. The building’s design is unique. The architects, Voith & Mactavish of Philadelphia, Pa., designed the building "around the school’s program rather than building then adding the program," as Associate Director Alan Tousignant puts it.

He said the process was "relatively painless to bring it online" and is something he "would definitely do again." Some of the green features he integrated include the geothermal wells, which are used for heating and cooling, solar hot water, movement and sun-sensitive lighting as well as roof-collected water.

The center opened in March 2008. It is a light-filled 25,000-square-foot building (over 75 percent of the occupied space receives natural lighting) that contains four science (with laboratories attached) and five math classrooms. The IT headquarters for the school are also housed here.

Upon entering the center, one is completely aware of the connection between Trevor Zoo and the green building. The site of the center was specifically chosen for this purpose, since it is within eyesight of the zoo and its bucolic surroundings of streams and marshes.

It’s an environment the students, as well as the staff and administration, have certainly come to appreciate. It is also one that is conducive to the eco-centric studies promoted by the school.

"Many are naive to the environmental destruction of the planet and SCAPE helps educate all involved," Mariah Lavitt said.

As a dorm leader, she works hard to achieve this end. Students are rewarded with items that are green or recyclable for chores completed on campus.

Sam, meanwhile, is a member of the Environmental Council at the school. He says SCAPE was very enlightening for him and showed "how important" the greening of the school is. The council uses "We Can Change" as its slogan and that certainly sums up the purpose and intent of the group. For example, there are trash and recycling bins at close proximity to each other throughout the school and the grounds. Sam wants to be an environmental science major and speaks to "the stewardship that is always necessary and present."

This is something that Millbrook School has a rich history of since its founding in 1931. For example, the Prum Dining Hall uses real mugs for tea and coffee, not paper cups. It also uses fresh local fruits and vegetables, which contribute to lower carbon output. Currently the school has five raised vegetable beds and seeks to increase this number.

All of the measures taken, including the LEED rating of the Math and Science Center, work toward creating an eco-friendly campus that can ultimately stretch its arms out into the surrounding communities. Ultimately the goal is for students to take the lessons learned even further and to share them with all who will listen, as they do their part to save the world, one piece of trash, one vegetable, one building, at a time.