On November 15, National Philanthropy Day, Waring School was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation. This generous grant will support the school's Campaign for Waring and will help fund a new, sustainable school building. In the coming year, Waring will raise $100,000 in matching funds.
This grant and its 1:1 match is geared toward Waring’s new school building, and, specifically toward Waring's stated goal to utilize Passive House standards. This European standard of sustainability sets a high bar for energy efficiency and air/light quality through a tight, meticulously designed “envelope.” Waring’s leadership, including its Board of Trustees and Building Committee, have carefully vetted and hired Maryann Thompson Architects with sustainability as a key factor in the firm’s pedigree. In addition, Waring has engaged The Green Engineer consulting firm to set the school’s energy goals both in the school building and in the broader Campus Masterplan. Waring has prioritized sustainability in the school building and, through the support of this grant and its match, will be better positioned to achieve goals specific to Passive House buildings.
Environmental awareness and sustainability have been embedded in Waring’s curriculum for many years. Waring offers courses such as Earth Science, Oceans and Climate, and Botany. The school has an active student “Sustainability” group that organizes composting on campus and trains fellow students about recycling practices. Waring’s science department chair, Sea Captain John Wigglesworth, just this summer conducted oceanographic research in the Arctic Circle with the renowned Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. All school events have been “zero waste” for many years and Waring has ambitious future goals to become carbon neutral. Caring about the environment is a part of Waring’s ethos. Constructing a Passive House building will provide the school's faculty a chance to utilize the new physical space as a teaching tool to help students measure energy consumption and observe conservation in action. For example, students will analyze data on the school's energy consumption in this building and across the campus. In addition to helping fund the physical aspects of the building that will allow it to be Passive House, a portion of grant funds will be used to provide programmatic support and professional development funding for enhancing the environmental and conservation curriculum in grades 9-12.
The mission of The Edward E. Ford Foundation is to strengthen and support independent secondary schools and to challenge and inspire them to leverage their unique talents, expertise, and resources to advance teaching and learning throughout this country by supporting and disseminating best practice, by supporting efforts to develop and implement models of sustainability, and by encouraging collaboration with other institutions. The Foundation had awarded more than 2,100 grants approximating $118,000,000 since its inception in 1957. All grants must be matched at least one-to-one and used for the same general purpose as the grant money.
Waring is grateful to the E.E. Ford Foundation for their commitment to this exciting sustainable building project at the school. So far, Waring has raised a remarkable $5.4 million toward a goal of $6 million for the Campaign for Waring. To learn more about the Campaign visit: www.waringschool.org/campaign.
2 min read
Topics: Campaign for Waring Featured
.jpg?width=100&height=100&name=Graham%20Pearsall%20(1%20of%201).jpg)
Written by Graham Pearsall
Waring School's Communications Manager
