SOLEBURY ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION CLUB
Who we are
SEAC is Solebury School's student-led environmental club. We have a dual mission: to encourage conservation right here at Solebury and to promote an awareness of the environmental issues facing the world today and inspire the Solebury community to work to solve them. We bring in speakers and have events on weekends. We are particularly proud to have been the driving force behind the school’s environmental improvements over the last decade including improved recycling policies, the institution of composting in the dining hall, adoption of a sustainability vision statement, and the creation of a green team. For more information about our purpose and values, see the about page.
Be sure to also check out Solebury School's webpage on sustainability for more information on how the school is embracing sustainable practices and making it a priority. Follow us on Instagram at @solebury_seac too!
Solebury School Awarded Eco-Schools USA Silver Award for Exceptional Achievement in Educating for Sustainability
Honor indicates commitment to sustainable management of school grounds, facilities, and curriculum
In March 2023, Solebury School was recognized by the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA program for exceptional achievement in educating for sustainability and improving the environmental footprint of the school grounds, facility, and curriculum. It is the 6th school in Pennsylvania to receive the silver-level award.
With more than 5,500 schools in all 50 states, the Eco-Schools USA program is based on the commitment and work of student-driven teams dedicated to reducing waste and consumption, climate resiliency, and environmental justice using audits, action plans, and other educational resources.
"National Wildlife Federation and Eco-Schools USA are proud of the example set by Solebury in Pennsylvania,” said Elizabeth Soper, Senior Director of K-12 Education Programs. “This award demonstrates not only a commitment to sustainability and environmental literacy for students and faculty, but as well, recognition by the school community that environment-based education supports and provides an effective approach to student learning and leadership.”
To receive the silver award, Solebury students and faculty tackled sustainability initiatives through the student-led Solebury Environmental Action Club (SEAC) and Green Team. Students and faculty planted a rain garden, restored the riparian buffer, implemented a meatless day, and created a composting program in the Dining Hall. These initiatives were designed to raise environmental awareness, connect students to the natural world, improve the school’s environmental footprint, and increase student engagement while saving money for the school.
Learn more about Solebury School’s commitment to sustainability here.
What we've done
While we are always striving to be more sustainable, SEAC has implemented/lobbied for the following to ensure our community is as sustainable as possible:
Led an educational campaign (including strategically placing signage around campus) to remind students that Solebury is a plastic water bottle free campus.
Maintenance did the full campus LED conversion in August of 2021, which cut electricity consumption by 33%. This reduced our carbon footprint on campus by 527,000 pounds of CO2 annually which is the equivalent of not driving 601,067 miles driven annually.
We planned a sustainability week this year (including a school-wide community event) and put in a rain garden and riparian buffer to counter the effects of severe flooding events (which are increasing due to climate change). We presented to senior administration, students, parents, facility, and maintenance. We got funding, wrote and got grants, and ordered signage. We consulted with master gardeners, master watershed stewards, coordinated with the local watershed, and more. For more, go here!
We've implemented Minimal Meat Fridays in an effort to introduce students to healthy vegetarian food and show community members that changing your diet to consume less meat is a viable way of fighting climate change.
We've given information presentations to the school regarding food waste and sustainability in an effort to boost awareness about environmental sustainability in the student and staff body.
Solebury School composts leaves, clippings, wood chips, and food from the kitchen. The compost is turned weekly and used in various gardens around campus and by the beautification committee when planting flowers.
Solebury School maintains a vegetable and pollinator garden, which is used primarily as a teaching tool for the Science department. Produce from the garden is used by the dining hall and on-campus faculty.
SEAC partnered with Call2Recycle to allow Solebury community members (including the IT department) to recycling most batteries and even cellphones.
Providing a riparian buffer along the Primrose creek to reduce run-off and support biodiversity in the stream bed and surrounding wetlands
We've purchased clearly labeled large bins as "Landfill" or "Recycle" and strategically placed them on campus to increase recycling
An ongoing effort of replacing water fountains with "hydration stations" that have filtration systems and easy fill spouts for reusable water bottles
We've printed and strategically placed signage around campus reminding students and staff to use reusable water bottles and to be mindful of their food wastage and make better choices.
We've held a fundraiser to buy re-usable mugs for the dining hall so that school dining services could reduce the number of single-use paper and Styrofoam cups that were used.
We've created a web page on sustainability and how the school is embracing sustainable practices and encouraged administrators to put it up on the school's website. Solebury's sustainability web page can be viewed here.
We lobbied the senior administration to adopt a Solebury School sustainability vision statement which can be found on the sustainability webpage.
SEAC met with our trash hauler to make our recycling system more efficient by determining what exactly can and can't be recycled (a surprisingly complicated task)! We then worked with the school's director of finance to re-negotiate our waste contract to make it more eco-friendly!
Last April (2021) SEAC held a Sustainability week (similar to Solebury's STEM week) that centered on educating the Solebury school on how to recycle properly and ways to be more sustainable (such as by ditching single-use plastic bottles, by using TerraCycle to recycle hard-to-recycle plastics, and by composting our lunch containers). We hosted different speakers from an expert on Passive House design and a climate and energy NPR reporter to an environmental lobbyist and a representative from the Conservation Voters of PA. See the full schedule here.
Began composting food scraps from students in a rotating composter behind the Dining Hall. SEAC students manage and run the entire composting process!
And we are always striving to do more!
See it for yourself!
One SEAC student created this video for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and circulated it around the school community
Students participating in SEAC's all-school sustainability community event. Students had the opportunity to choose from activities such as planting a riparian buffer, planting a rain garden, live staking, learning about composting, constructing beehives, and more!
Solebury School is a Plastic Water Bottle Free Campus!
Students directed, produced, shot, and edited a video about why plastic water bottles are bad for the environment and you!