Sustainability
Sustainability Mission Statement
As members of the IMS community, we have an individual and collective responsibility to be stewards of this land and of the broader world. The school is therefore committed to providing students with the moral framework, understanding, and skill set necessary to address the challenges currently facing our planet. We recognize that the changes to the planet’s systems brought about by human activity tend to affect marginalized peoples first and more severely. And so, we understand that sustainability work is work toward justice and that it is in direct conversation with our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. As an institution, IMS will strive to minimize its environmental impact and will encourage faculty, staff, students, and families to consider their own ecological footprints and, wherever they are, to become better stewards of the planet and the future.
Programs
Whether it be in the classroom, on the field, at home, or online, our students have the ability to create positive change, and our goal is to help every student identify the impact they have on the world around them.
These are some of the programs that help us practice sustainability at IMS:
Poquonook Solutions Symposium (SDG Projects)
The Poquonook Solutions Project is the capstone effort of the broader, year-long ninth grade focus on the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ninth grade teams use the framework of the SDGs to identify a real world issue, and then work to develop a real world solution to that issue. Employing research, design, and presentation skills, the team members collaborate as they work toward the Poquonook Solutions Symposium, during which they present their efforts to a panel of outside sustainability experts, who assess the solutions’ viability and relevance with an eye toward implementation.
Eighth Grade Co-Curricular Course: Intro to SDGs
Introduction to the SDGs is centered on providing an understanding of the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals and the issues they are intended to address. These seventeen objectives are designed to confront everything from social justice issues, such as equity and the reduction of poverty, to environmental concerns, such as climate change and the protection of species and biomes. In addition to raising the students’ awareness of these global issues through a series of investigatory assignments and guided research, this course helps students see the connections between their schoolwork and issues in the world beyond IMS.
Seventh Grade Sustainability Course
Our Seventh Grade Sustainability Science Course incorporates innovative and culturally diverse perspectives to encourage our students to question, reflect, and deepen their understanding of what science truly means in today’s world. Students learn about Earth’s systems, how they work, and what roles humans play in those systems. They then critically reflect on the individual and collective roles they’ve played in their ecosystems, as well as how they could act as stewards of the Earth. The course culminates in a long-term project called the Seventh Grade Solutionaries Project, during which students identify current local barriers to living sustainably and take action towards solving these problems.
Fifth Grade Science Curriculum
In fifth grade science, students learn about living things and their environments. Beginning with science journaling and close observation of our mountain, students start to get a sense of both the scope of biodiversity, and its crucial importance to the sustainability of wild spaces. By then learning about biomes across the globe, and their unique challenges, as well as the conservationists fighting to save them, fifth grade science students internalize their role as stewards of the environment.
Lower Campus Education
Sustainability is interwoven through every grade-level curriculum on our Lower Campus as well as introduced through action. One example being our food cycling initiative, where students collect food waste around the school each day after lunch ensuring it makes its way to our food cycler. The food cycler creates a composite that is utilized on our garden beds each spring. Programs such as these help demonstrate to our young learners how small sustainable practices can leave a large positive impact. Learn more about our Lower Campus Education.
The Montserrat Sustainability Program
The Montserrat Sustainability Program is a recent addition to our ninth grade offerings that provides students with an opportunity to learn about sustainability and related topics in a unique, hands-on, experiential setting. Learn more.
Student Organizations
Students have played a huge part in envisioning and advocating for the future of sustainability at IMS through student-led initiatives such as the Mountain Sustainability Council and the Sustainability Elective course offered each term. In these organizations, students work on internal action projects and meet weekly to discuss sustainability issues both within the school setting and among the local community. Some of these ongoing efforts include organizing a clothing swap shop on campus, leading composting initiatives in the community, and educating our Lower Campus students on sustainable practices.
Outdoor, Adventure, and Education (OAE)
When we say our mountain is our classroom, we mean it. Students at IMS have the ability to learn outdoors no matter the weather. Learn more about our OAE Program.
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”
Initiatives
As a community, we recognize that ensuring a sustainable future requires consistent work. We pursue initiatives that will uphold our sustainability mission statement and inspire our students to be stewards of the broader world.
Here are some of the initiatives that help us meet these goals:
- The OWL (Outdoor Working Lab)
- Green School Alliance, START Benchmarking Tool
- Solar Power
- Geothermal Wells
- EV Charger Stations
- Food Cyclers
Ongoing Efforts
Our students and faculty are supported as stewards of the broader world through policies and professional development opportunities including:
- Guest speakers
- Conferences and programs
- No Idling Policy
- Tree for tree construction
- Elimination of single-use plastics
