Environmental Sustainability and Stewardship

The School's mission statement reflects a commitment to ecological awareness and conservation that is both an essential part of the founding vision of the School and the School's Episcopal identity. Felix duPont's original mission statement for St. Andrew's referred to the School as one located “at some distance from urban and suburban life.” We can no longer claim any distance, as a rushing suburban world now lies at our doorstep here in Middletown. At the same time, we feel more than ever our duty to preserve and conserve the land and water we own and also reduce our consumption in a world of dwindling resources. Our educational mission and Episcopal heritage push us further—to model and teach to our students the habits of sustainable living that will enable them to lead and help bring balance to a world nearly exhausted from consumption and use.

On the campus alone, our responsibilities are daunting. St. Andrew's is a key part of several watersheds and comprises one-third of the watershed for Noxontown Pond. The School is also situated on Silver Lake, a smaller millpond, and the Appoquinimink River. The School owns the property directly adjacent to the two ponds, which are the primary waterways that feed into the Appoquinimink River, one of the principal southern Delaware tributaries of the Delaware River. The School owns property along the Appoquinimink River and some of the associated tidal marshland.

SAS Map

View a larger version of this map.

From an educational perspective, sustainable thinking is now a crucial part of preparing students for their world in the future. This kind of education makes them better CEOs, community leaders, doctors, teachers, writers, lawyers and artists. Every day, our campus, woods and farms can be laboratories for learning—providing opportunities for experiential, hands-on lessons, not only in the life sciences but in literally all academic disciplines. We can help our students engage in and take responsibility for their own intellectual development as they explore and study “the real world” outside of their textbooks. St. Andrew's can lead the way in this kind of education because of our natural assets.

We will take the following steps to ensure the preservation of our campus, reduce our use of energy on campus, and better educate our students:

  • Land use and management. We will take action to ensure the health and longevity of the watershed and ponds. We have partnered with the University of Delaware to begin research of national importance on our farms, fields and woods, to monitor Noxontown Pond, Silver Lake and the Appoquinimink River and protect them from further siltation, high nutrient loads and the resulting eutrophication of the pond. We will seek expertise in alternative and greener farming practices, better management practices and practices that will bring us closer to “zero runoff” from the farms.
  • We will partner with area conservation organizations to introduce them to St. Andrew's, creating allies who can help us with our efforts to preserve open space in southern New Castle County. We will act as a host and catalyst for conferences on environmental education, sustainable agriculture and conservation on St. Andrew's campus.
  • We have developed a map of the area within a one-mile radius of our campus indicating all key parcels and will develop a cascading flow chart of actions given various contingencies. We will publish a comprehensive campus and land use plan by the end of the 2006-2007 year.
  • We have obtained professional legal and land use counsel to monitor changes in the region's regulatory and political environment that might encroach on St. Andrew's land holdings. These partners work on St. Andrew's behalf with state, county and local government agencies and work for measures that will enhance conservation efforts in New Castle County.
  • Green campus and educational initiatives. We will strive to teach a pattern of consumption informed by both the limits of available resources and an awareness of the lack of others, which results in using only what we need and sharing what we have. We have begun limited efforts to use sustainable energy and fuel sources, local food in the dining hall, including growing our own food, purchasing more environmentally friendly products and other sustainability initiatives. In the coming year, we will organize these efforts into a coherent action plan involving students, staff and faculty.
  • Through the creation of Eco-Leaders on each dorm and careful education of the student body, we saw substantial savings in energy use on St. Andrew's campus in 2005-2006. We will continue our efforts to recycle and reduce energy consumption, engaging students in leadership roles. We will study ways to include more time for our students to spend outdoors, working and exploring the campus.
  • We will ask each department in the School to study whether their curriculum makes adequate use of the inspirational laboratory of our 2,200-acre campus and create a plan to engage the natural world in its curriculum.
  • As we create a campus and land use plan for publication, we will consider how we can develop and highlight areas for conservation, habitat protection and natural areas for student use on our campus and throughout our land holdings.