可持续性，环境管理，环境-MG冰球突破官网

可持续性是VVS的基因. A guiding principal of the school long before it became a buzzword, students and faculty work in a number of ways to put the verde in 佛得角谷学校.

The VVS way of life has historically included living lightly on the land, considering the effect of our choices on ourselves and on people around the world, 帮助学生思考如何过平衡的生活. In this way VVS models the pursuit of full sustainability; we do not simply practice a handful of eco-friendly activities, but pursue comprehensive goals to ensure that our environmental and social impacts are sustainable. 我们用什么, 我们所做的, and what we produce must all align with a way of life that allows nature and humanity to flourish. We imagine a world of less stuff and more regard for each other and the earth.

我们的愿景

Create the smallest possible footprint and healthiest possible culture.

通过师生合作，我们的目标是:

提供可持续食物
减少填埋废物
100%使用可再生能源
加强水资源节约和管理
采用最佳环保措施
培养健康的生活方式
支持全球正义倡议

校园可持续发展-全球农场

Members of the faculty and student body planned and built our school farm, transforming a plot of desert land into a working farm artfully secured by a fence made out of stones from the wash and recycled pallet boards, a beautiful bee-hive shaped gate welded by local artist Dan Miller, 还有用我们自己的堆肥改良过的种植床, 被番茄占领, 南瓜, 辣椒, 豌豆和更多.

Students work throughout the week to maintain and harvest the farm. 亚利桑那州为数不多的经过国家认证的学校农场之一, our farm provides fresh vegetables and herbs for the school and faculty kitchens.

1项清单.

塞法·比·克莱因

Our goals for the global farm were to create a community growing space where a good portion of the produce we usually buy from stores could be grown and brought to the dining hall. I’m grateful I’ve had the opportunity to contribute my labor to something so valuable.

4项清单.

Alumni 可持续性 – Creating Champions in Green Energy, 可持续性 and Social Justice

t’s no surprise that VVS has graduated our fair share of students who have gone out into the world to champion green energy, 可持续发展和社会正义事业. 不管是大卫·卡利, ’81, working with wind energy to provide turbines in places like the Navajo reservation, base camps on Mount Everest and the small island of Baththalangduwa, the setting for a system that supplies power to remote areas of Sri Lanka; Chris Horner, ’71, whose documentary “Trouble in Paradise” is an overview of the tiny South Pacific country of Tuvalu, one of earth’s first sovereign nations faced with total destruction due to the effects of global warming; or the countless other VVS graduates who champion similar causes, 环境管理是我们的使命之一.
堆肥

你是从农场开始还是从堆肥开始, because at VVS the two are definitely and inextricably linked. 我们在食堂供应农场出产的食物, 哪个国家的食物垃圾是100%的堆肥, which makes its way to either the vermiculture bins or the composting compound where food waste is layered with yard waste and horse manure. The active piles are aerated twice a week and monitored by students for core temperature, PH平衡和相对湿度. 细菌和真菌消化并分解这些物质. The finished product is a beautiful nutrient-rich soil that has been sifted and sent out for laboratory analysis to meet AZ state standards. This allows us to move the soil to the school farm where it is blended with native soil and used to grow vegetables that are then served in our dining hall. We also use this product in the greenhouse and for landscaping. 谈谈相关的学校作业!
学生们在我们的堆肥项目的各个方面工作, from building the composting compound from recycled and re-purposed materials, 到从厨房和宿舍收集堆肥, 监测堆肥温度. 短短三年之后, our students can boast that they have started and maintained a program that composts 100% of our kitchen waste and feeds our school farm.
食堂

Three times a day the VVS dining hall staff provides our community with organic, 本地采购的真正食物. 我们的厨师强调新鲜应季的饭菜, 与当地农场建立了合作关系吗, develop global menus that represent our global community and put student nutrition, 食品质量和口味是他们所做的一切的重中之重.
学生可持续性
A student-led group that meets regularly and implements environmentally-friendly practices and changes to the school. 再小的改变也不嫌少. 该组织向自己提出了三个指导性问题:
- 我们用什么，用多少?
- 我们生产什么，又去了哪里?
- 我们日常和季节生活的习惯和节奏是什么?
The Green Team is responsible for beautifying the campus with drought-tolerant plants, 建立一个蚯蚓养殖项目, 监督学校堆肥, replacing school cleaning supplies with environmentally friendly cleaners, and conducting energy audits to help the school realize ways to become more energy efficient. Each Earth Day the Green Team is responsible for a day’s worth (and they’ve been known to celebrate Earth Week) of environmental education and fun that usually culminates in our Recycled Fashion Show, a runway show featuring student models wearing student-made designs created by recycled materials.
Much of the Green Team’s work happens during the afternoon activity slot dedicated to sustainability. 是否在农场工作, maintaining local riding and hiking trails or working with the sewing project, students have many opportunities to get involved in various sustainability initiatives.

1项清单.

Mike Spielman, VVS Farmer

Every time each of us scraped the leftovers from our plates into the bucket outside the dishwasher students brought that up to the compost pile which was broken down and turned to fertilizer which now nourishes our plants. Our farm is a place we can all retreat to when needed to watch the 辣椒 redden on the vine and listen to the wind blowing through the corn.