PROVIDENCE – La Salle Academy has begun a unique initiative to "green" the school's campus. This year Gregg DeMaria, in conjunction with other faculty members, developed a "Vision for a Sustainable Future."
The document outlines a 5-10 year plan that, they hope, will place La Salle at the head of the class when it comes to creating "green" campuses.
A "green" campus, he said during a recent tour and interview, is one that "does as much as it can to mitigate environmental degradation" and is also a building that has "some green features."
DeMaria works as the coordinator of academic support programs at the school, and he also teaches classes in architecture and sustainable design. He has a background in architecture, which has informed many of the initiatives he has put forth.
One of his projects is a plan to protect and sustain the large area of protected wetlands behind the school. In conjunction with the state Department of Environmental Management and "Save the Bay" project the process of identifying the native plants in the wetlands and coming up with a plan to save them is underway.
"We see the wetlands as integral to having a green campus," DeMaria said.
Part of his plan to protect the wetlands incorporates DeMaria's architectural background. He and the school's architecture club have developed blueprints for a greenhouse that will be built near the school's urban garden. DeMaria hopes to begin construction on this project in the spring with the help of as many members of the LaSalle community as possible.
"We want to make it like a barn raising," he said.
The greenhouse will not only allow students to grow plants, it will also serve as a showcase for green building and growing techniques. The plans include recycled tires and a large water basin that will regulate the greenhouse's temperatures in both warm and cold weather as well as solar panels that will convert the sun's energy into growing energy for the plants throughout the year.
The greenhouse will stand on the side of a small hill, so half will be under the earth, a design that further regulates temperature.
Eventually, DeMaria hopes to grow plants in the greenhouse that are native to the nearby wetlands and use them to replenish the protected area. DeMaria also sees the greenhouse as an "incubator for Christian service opportunities."
Students will fulfill their obligations to do volunteer work and community service by working in the greenhouse, he hopes.
The greenhouse project is one of the most developed plans that DeMaria and the LaSalle community have. Their list of hopes for a green future at the school is very long, though. DeMaria said there are plans in place to study the feasibility of having a "green" or living roof on the building.
A roof made of plants would help regulate the temperature inside the building and eventually save on the school's energy costs. But, DeMaria was quick to point out, no project goes forward on optimism alone.
"We're serious about this making sense financially," he said, "We're going to make investments that make sense for us."
Although many potential projects promise to save energy costs in the long run, any substantial changes to make the school greener require some initial investment – a stumbling block that has the power to quash the plans of even the most hopeful environmentalist.
DeMaria recognized this when he set out to develop a plan to make the school greener and said that his approach was to first make sure that the school's board of directors, administration and faculty were in agreement before he moved forward.
"You need everyone on board," he said. "The process itself has to be sustainable."
Initially, he worked on developing a comprehensive proposal and raising consciousness about climate change and conservation in the community. Then, he and other interested faculty and students made the first steps.
To gain support for a recycling program he and members of the environmental club collected all of the school's paper recycling for one day. Then, they calculated how much the paper weighed and compared it to the price, per pound, that the school pays to have its garbage removed. They presented their recycling plan to the administration and board in terms of its potential financial savings. The environmental benefits were secondary. They won over the powers that be and La Salle now has a comprehensive recycling plan in place.
"These are traditional business people and they get it, they get it from a numbers perspective," DeMaria said.
The success of the recycling program paved the way for further steps in making the La Salle community environmentally friendly, projects like thegreenhouse. "Now we're starting to move past talk," DeMaria said.
DeMaria has more plans up his sleeve. He hopes to harness the potential of the school's new science wing and state-of-the-art facilities with a wastewater treatment project that someday could make "the water leaving La Salle cleaner than it was when it arrived."
Although they are going about the process in a very practical way, the La Salle community has seemingly limitless optimism. DeMaria has compiled a list of "potential projects" with 37 different ideas that range from biodegradable cafeteria products to energy efficient heating and cooling systems to organic clothing for the academy's shop.
One of the projects that DeMaria is especially interested in is obtaining LEED certification for the school. LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certification is the standard for sustainable architecture in the country. The certification has a variety of levels for new and existing buildings and means that the building is working to decrease
its impact on the environment. Buildings that are LEED-certified are also eligible for help and advice on continuing to improve their green status. DeMaria hopes that eventually La Salle will be "a center for innovation" for green building.
He hopes that the process of greening La Salle's campus will have a positive impact on all of the school's students. "It all centers and focuses on the kids," he said of his long-term plan.
He excitedly talks about studies that have proven that good air and light quality in schools have a positive impact on student achievement. The greening process, in his eyes, is about much more than lowering electric bills and saving polar bears. He sees an opportunity to impact nearly every facet of life at La Salle Academy.
His plans fit into the school's tradition of service and social justice as well as the message of the Christian brothers who founded La Salle as a school to serve the community. He hopes students will learn the "connection between environmental degradation and global climate issues and poverty."
In the guiding document for the greening process DeMaria cites six goals for the project. Many of them encompass much more than cleaner sources of energy: "To link questions of ecology and poverty, environment and development; to begin a broader conversation on the potential contribution of the Church to environmental questions." The latter goal is borrowed from a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops document called "Development and World Peace" that calls on Catholic communities to join the national conversation on ecology. La Salle's goals reflect a desire to change the school community on both a practical and fundamental level.
Changes like recycling, De Maria said, are practical solutions but they will not work without a lifestyle change on the part of every member of the La Salle community. A major goal of the project, he said, is to show students that "what they think is waste is really a resource."
For schools and other organizations just beginning the process of factoring their environmental impact into their everyday lives DeMaria has some advice: evaluate existing systems, develop a vision statement and apply for LEED certification, he advises.
Any changes "have to be from the ground up," he said. Like La Salle has, he hopes that other organizations will look at the problem from a holistic approach and prepare themselves to make lifestyle changes.
