The Sustainability Mission of Christchurch School

In keeping with the mission of Christchurch School, it is our belief that sustainability is and will remain a part of the integral fabric of the school’s operations. We believe that through recycling, re-using and reducing our school products, we will be able to promote sustainability. We intend to improve the environment for both our school and the surrounding area by making the best use of our local resources, making decisions to improve our health, economy, society, and environment and by improving our campus through energy and water conservation, sustainable landscaping, building design and renovation, using local and organic food, and recycling. We strive to involve all members of the school community to achieve our goal of reducing our impact on the environment while educating ourselves in the process by means of equity, economy, environment, and education, equally important for everyone in the community.

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Sage is Composting

Composting with Kirk and Kyle 
Composting is a organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Kirk and I have chosen to do composting in the garden. Mr Smiley has been nice to give us a bin to use behind the dining hall for composting. Right now our compost is coming from Sage's food scraps(organic matter) from there preparation of every meal. Our school is still not to the step of being able to scrape our food scraps from our plates straight into a compost bin. Our job is to teach the community how to compost. Our goal is too educate the community so that we can have a composting bin in the dining hall for every meal. 

Composting is sustainable because it fits the three E's fractal. 
Environment: Helps the environment because there is less waste in our landfills, has more nutrients for the crops and a natural fertilizer.
Equity: our school isn't at the top level of equity for composting because the student population can't seperate cans from our trash, what makes them able to seperate compostable and non compostable foods when clearing there plates.
Economy: by composting you are removing trash that the school would pay to have take to the landfill. There for you would be saving money by composting  The produce is used in the dining hall for our meals and could be eventually used for compost.  





Cans for Oysters, lets help!

Cans for oysters is a process where we recycle cans for oysters. After we collect cans from everybody at Christchurch we recycle them and use the money to buy oysters. Oysters do a process called, "filter feeding" which help filter the water by sucking all the nutrients of the water and letting it back out again. Not only we receive oysters but we recycle the cans which helps the environment much more because we won't have to keep manufacturing from raw materials if we can recycle items that we use.

Ecology: 
      -Aluminum cans can be re made again after recycling really quickly.
-Oysters help filter the water out in the bay and Rappahannock River.
-Recycling cans saves natural resources.
-Recycling cans saves land that is going to destroyed for trash.


Economy:
-If we recycle cans we can re-use the can and that would be saving tons of money.
-When we recycle the money not only we save money but we also receive money for the cans.
-These days many people drink from aluminum cans and aluminum has a really high market price.
-When recycled some recycling company's donate money for good uses.
-Recycling creates jobs

Equity: 
- Cans for oysters strengthens the community because there are many people working on the same project
-This would help people give jobs.
-Saves acres of land from being landfill which can be very expensive.
-Recycling cans would cause nothing harmful because all you have to do is put a can in an recycling bin.
-Obtaining oysters is not a hard job and is not harmful.



Mrs. and Mr. Maloney 
Vegetable lovers
By Turner Thompson 


What a CSA is:
A CSA is Community Supported Agriculture, this means that the community gives the grower money and in return they get a portion of what is grown. Ours truly, Mr. Smiley has a share with the Daysprings Farm and for 15 dollars a week he gets an entire grocery bag of vegetables and other food. The food is grown seasonally witch makes it fresher with out all the harsh chemicals that are used in food like strawberry’s to make them grow in December. At day springs farm everything is grown in its season so it has the best taste when you eat it.


Why Join a CSA:
The advantages of being apart of a CSA like day springs is you get to know were your food comes from, who is making it, and how it is being made. This ability to contact the grower gives you a better relationship with your grower. 


How does this affect you?
“Humans know quality. We put north face jackets on without hesitation because we know it is a quality item. But something strange has happened we have lost our sense of quality in our food.” Mr. Smiley. What he means by this is we care more about what is on our body than what we put into it. At a CSA you will know what you are getting how it is grown and where it is coming from. That is food quality. 


What do they grow?

  • 30 variations of vegetables
  • 6 types of fruit
  • 30 chickens 
  • 2 goats 
  • 2 pigs 
  • 2 horses
  • 20 types of flowers 
  •  6 types of herbs

The Three E’s
It creates jobs for people like the Maloney’s, and is an equitable thing to do. If you want you can go and get a lesion on how to grow your own food. When you invest your money in a CSA it will get pumped into your local economy. This makes your small town stronger. Along with that it takes less energy to transport. Witch makes it better for the environment.