On Feb. 7, the new athletic center earned the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification! Harker’s Nichols Hall science and technology center already received LEED Gold Certification and the brand new Rothschild Performing Arts Center (RPAC), which just opened last Friday, is on track for certification. The athletic facility opened in August.
The LEED system, created and maintained by the U.S. Green Building Council, is administered by Green Certification Inc., The athletic center was awarded all 72 points applied for, including five out of five points for development density and community connectivity, six of of six points for alternative transportation—public transportation access, 19 out of 19 points for optimized energy performance and seven out of seven points for on-site renewable energy. The solar array on the roof of the athletic center will supply up to 25 percent of the energy needed for the two new buildings.
Many other features contributed to the rating including many materials, such as paints and coatings that emit minimal vapor when installed; building materials with recycled content; water use reduction; and water efficient landscaping.
Harker’s Nichols Hall, opened in 2007, was the first school building in Santa Clara County to receive a Gold rating from LEED. Read more, here.
Here are some of the other features that helped the athletic center achieve LEED Gold Certification.
White reflective paint on roof
Bioswales to filter runoff water
Photovoltaic cells (supplying 25 percent of the electricity needed for the athletic center and RPAC)
Plumbing fixtures are designed for 40 percent reduced water use from baseline
Dedicated parking for high-efficiency vehicles
Exterior lights with photometric layout to reduce light pollution
95 percent of construction debris diverted from landfill
No volatile organic compounds emissions from carpet or paint
No volatile organic compounds emissions from wood
Occupancy sensors on interior lighting
Glazing on windows that minimizes solar heat transfer
Following an extensive multiyear effort across the Harker community, The Harker School has now been recognized by as a Certified Green Business by the Bay Area Green Business Program. In addition to being a major sustainability goal, fulfilling the requirements for certification also is expected to reduce costs in a variety of ways.
“Aside from the primary goals of being a more environmentally sustainable institution and meeting Harker’s standard of modeling and teaching sustainability through our actions, CGB provides a report card,” said Jeff Sutton, Harker science teacher and a member of Harker’s Green Committee. “This report card provides positive feedback as to how much savings, both fiscal and in the reduction of our impact on the environment, the actions are generating. These numbers are estimates but still provide encouragement for continuance in the program.”
The effort to become a Certified Green Business began in late 2012, when the newly formed Green Committee was searching for a way to advance Harker’s sustainability goals. “[Harker head of school] Chris Nikoloff began the search for a tool to implement to gain better understanding of sustainability at Harker, including knowing what Harker was doing to be stewards of resources and looking for ways to improve the overall sustainability of the operation of the school,” Sutton said. “The CGB application provided an excellent framework because it was so comprehensive and very objective in the tasks needed to achieve CGB status.”
Preparation for the application process began in 2013 and lasted through the year. Applications for all four of Harker’s campuses were submitted in May 2014, and inspectors from Santa Clara County visited in June and noted what needed to be done to qualify for the certification.
The schoolwide effort to become certified lasted for the next two years, with key projects and initiatives occurring on all campuses. Shipping/receiving manager Bob Benge and business manager Clif Wilcox devised a more sustainable policy for school purchases. Stephen Martin, executive director of food services, worked with the Harker kitchen staff to acquire food products that had been sustainably produced, in addition to using more environmentally friendly paper products and discontinuing the use of polystyrene. Thanks to transportation supervisor Heather Armada, all of Harker’s vehicles now use recycled oil. Other projects included spearheading the use of Energy Star-rated electronics, using recycled paper for photocopying, examining the use of LED lighting and much more.
Harker’s Green Business certification is up for renewal in three years, and Sutton is confident that the school will maintain its dedication to sustainability. “As an institution of education, it is awesome to see Harker modeling ways to improve its sustainability in its relationship with the environment,” he said.
Harker celebrated Earth Day 2016 in a big way on April 22, with activities across many grade levels, highlighting Harker’s schoolwide dedication to sustainability.
At the upper school, Earth Day celebrations began as early as the previous week, as students, faculty and staff engaged in the Green Challenge. Using an app called SJEnvironment, participants made note of and “buzzed” each act of sustainability they performed over a weeklong period. Simple actions such as refilling water bottles, minimizing shower time, turning off lights and appliances, and taking public transit could all be recorded in the app for points that were later tallied. Participants were awarded with prizes from Starbucks, Sports Basement, Summer Winds Nursery, Aqui Restaurant and other businesses.
“Our hope is that through participating in the Green Challenge, everyone learned how many simple actions we can each take every day to help promote sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint,” said upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss, who is also the upper school representative for the Harker Green Committee.
Upper school biology teacher and Green Committee member Kate Schafer added that it “challenged our students to think about their actions and modify those actions and learn about why it’s important to modify those actions.”
The upper school campus was also the location of the final Eagle Buddies event of the year, in which grades 3 and 10 teamed up to make special flags with imprints of leaves and other objects found in nature.
Lower school students celebrated at special Earth Day-themed stations set up by BEST staff. Students in grades 4 and 5 gathered at a table to make crafts from recycled materials, while second graders made potted plants from plastic bottles and string. Kindergartners dressed up as “Earth Jedis” and trekked about the lower school campus picking up trash and recyclables.
The preschool campus was the center of much activity, despite rainy weather consigning it to the indoors. Grade 8 students visited their preschool friends in the Eco Buddies program. In a number of cottages, the middle schoolers set up stations to demonstrate various ecological concepts. One station demonstrated the concept of solar power by having a solar-power operated toy car move around when light was shone on it. At another station, eighth graders used a sock puppet (a stand-in for a worm) to explain Harker’s “wet/dry” waste disposal program: anything that the worm ate would go into the “wet” bin, while anything the worm rejected was headed to the “dry” bin. Other students cobbled together bird houses, made water filters and cut out makeshift helicopters that twirled to the ground when dropped.
“I thought that this was a really cool buddy program, especially since we don’t do very many at middle school,” said Tasha Moorjani, grade 8. “I liked it a lot, for the most part, and my favorite bit was when I realized that the kids were genuinely interested, because it made me really excited to teach them.”
Harker celebrated Earth Day 2016 in a big way on April 22, with activities across many grade levels, highlighting Harker’s schoolwide dedication to sustainability.
At the upper school, Earth Day celebrations began as early as the previous week, as students, faculty and staff engaged in the Green Challenge. Using an app called SJEnvironment, participants made note of and “buzzed” each act of sustainability they performed over a weeklong period. Simple actions such as refilling water bottles, minimizing shower time, turning off lights and appliances, and taking public transit could all be recorded in the app for points that were later tallied. Participants were awarded with prizes from Starbucks, Sports Basement, Summer Winds Nursery, Aqui Restaurant and other businesses.
“Our hope is that through participating in the Green Challenge, everyone learned how many simple actions we can each take every day to help promote sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint,” said upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss, who is also the upper school representative for the Harker Green Committee.
Upper school biology teacher and Green Committee member Kate Schafer added that it “challenged our students to think about their actions and modify those actions and learn about why it’s important to modify those actions.”
The upper school campus was also the location of the final Eagle Buddies event of the year, in which grades 3 and 10 teamed up to make special flags with imprints of leaves and other objects found in nature.
Lower school students celebrated at special Earth Day-themed stations set up by BEST staff. Students in grades 4 and 5 gathered at a table to make crafts from recycled materials, while second graders made potted plants from plastic bottles and string. Kindergartners dressed up as “Earth Jedis” and trekked about the lower school campus picking up trash and recyclables.
The preschool campus was the center of much activity, despite rainy weather consigning it to the indoors. Grade 8 students visited their preschool friends in the Eco Buddies program. In a number of cottages, the middle schoolers set up stations to demonstrate various ecological concepts. One station demonstrated the concept of solar power by having a solar-power operated toy car move around when light was shone on it. At another station, eighth graders used a sock puppet (a stand-in for a worm) to explain Harker’s “wet/dry” waste disposal program: anything that the worm ate would go into the “wet” bin, while anything the worm rejected was headed to the “dry” bin. Other students cobbled together bird houses, made water filters and cut out makeshift helicopters that twirled to the ground when dropped.
“I thought that this was a really cool buddy program, especially since we don’t do very many at middle school,” said Tasha Moorjani, grade 8. “I liked it a lot, for the most part, and my favorite bit was when I realized that the kids were genuinely interested, because it made me really excited to teach them.”
Harker celebrated Earth Day 2016 in a big way on April 22, with activities across many grade levels, highlighting Harker’s schoolwide dedication to sustainability.
At the upper school, Earth Day celebrations began as early as the previous week, as students, faculty and staff engaged in the Green Challenge. Using an app called SJEnvironment, participants made note of and “buzzed” each act of sustainability they performed over a weeklong period. Simple actions such as refilling water bottles, minimizing shower time, turning off lights and appliances, and taking public transit could all be recorded in the app for points that were later tallied. Participants were awarded with prizes from Starbucks, Sports Basement, Summer Winds Nursery, Aqui Restaurant and other businesses.
“Our hope is that through participating in the Green Challenge, everyone learned how many simple actions we can each take every day to help promote sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint,” said upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss, who is also the upper school representative for the Harker Green Committee.
Upper school biology teacher and Green Committee member Kate Schafer added that it “challenged our students to think about their actions and modify those actions and learn about why it’s important to modify those actions.”
The upper school campus was also the location of the final Eagle Buddies event of the year, in which grades 3 and 10 teamed up to make special flags with imprints of leaves and other objects found in nature.
Lower school students celebrated at special Earth Day-themed stations set up by BEST staff. Students in grades 4 and 5 gathered at a table to make crafts from recycled materials, while second graders made potted plants from plastic bottles and string. Kindergartners dressed up as “Earth Jedis” and trekked about the lower school campus picking up trash and recyclables.
The preschool campus was the center of much activity, despite rainy weather consigning it to the indoors. Grade 8 students visited their preschool friends in the Eco Buddies program. In a number of cottages, the middle schoolers set up stations to demonstrate various ecological concepts. One station demonstrated the concept of solar power by having a solar-power operated toy car move around when light was shone on it. At another station, eighth graders used a sock puppet (a stand-in for a worm) to explain Harker’s “wet/dry” waste disposal program: anything that the worm ate would go into the “wet” bin, while anything the worm rejected was headed to the “dry” bin. Other students cobbled together bird houses, made water filters and cut out makeshift helicopters that twirled to the ground when dropped.
“I thought that this was a really cool buddy program, especially since we don’t do very many at middle school,” said Tasha Moorjani, grade 8. “I liked it a lot, for the most part, and my favorite bit was when I realized that the kids were genuinely interested, because it made me really excited to teach them.”
On Earth Day 2016, grade 8 students paid a special visit to their preschool friends for the very first Eco Buddies event. In a number of cottages, the middle schoolers set up stations to demonstrate various ecological concepts. One station demonstrated the concept of solar power by having a solar-power operated toy car move around when light was shone on it. At another station, eighth graders used a sock puppet (a stand-in for a worm) to explain Harker’s “wet/dry” waste disposal program: anything that the worm ate would go into the “wet” bin, while anything the worm rejected was headed to the “dry” bin. Other students cobbled together bird houses, made water filters and cut out makeshift helicopters that twirled to the ground when dropped.
The Eco Buddies event – the largest preschool buddy event to date — was set up by preschool science teacher Robyn Stone, who is also the preschool representative of the Harker Green Committee. Emboldened by the success of the upper school STEM Buddies program, Stone decided to reach out to middle school science teacher Kristin Morgensen to help kick off the Eco Buddies program. It is notable for being the first preschool buddies program to have 3-year-olds meet students from another division. “Eco Buddies is unique because it is a program for all of our preschoolers, even the youngest ones,” Stone said.
“I thought that this was a really cool buddy program, especially since we don’t do very many at middle school,” said Tasha Moorjani, grade 8. “I liked it a lot, for the most part, and my favorite bit was when I realized that the kids were genuinely interested, because it made me really excited to teach them.”
Based on the success of the Earth Day event, Stone would like to see the engagement between the two divisions continue. “Now that Preschool has buddy programs with the other three divisions, I hope that the older students are inspired to continue engaging in these buddy programs as they progress at Harker,” said Stone.
Harker’s Green Committee has not been letting the grass grow under its feet. Here are some of the group’s activities that are coming to fruition. But first, a special thanks to the advancement department, which pioneered using potted Christmas trees in lower school classrooms instead of cut trees. Once big enough, the organization Rent a Living Christmas Tree will plant them in city-designated areas. The 4- to 5-foot tall trees arrived Nov. 30 and will be picked up for replanting Dec. 18.
Earth Day plans across all four campuses are evolving. This year, the big upper school spirit rally and Earth Day fall on the same day, so the campus’ Green Team – led by president Akshay Battu, Karen Tu and Annie Zhou, all grade 12, and Kshithija Mulam, grade 11 – and Harker Spirit Club leaders Arben Gutierrez-Bujari, grade 11, and Layla Walker, grade 12, have joined forces to make the day momentous!
Meanwhile, the water-use reduction program is really driving down usage. Check out this graph!
Water Reduction compared to same period previous year (> 4/1/15)
Saratoga
Blackford
Bucknall
Union
May
45%
53%
68%
73%
Jun
54%
74%
75%
64%
Jul
50%
70%
52%
56%
Aug
30%
54%
42%
23%
Sep
16%
60%
40%
43%
Average to Date
39%
62%
55%
51%
Janet Rohrer, our facilities and hazmat safety coordinator, has led the development of a pest management program across the four campuses that will reduce the use of harmful pesticides and herbicides.
One of the most important, but little noticed programs, is the No Idling on Campus effort. The student-run Green Team had signs made reminding upper school drivers to turn off engines while waiting for students or at the red light; the signs will move to the lower school campus in December to expand that campaign.
The committee is happy to note that Harker kitchens are now using eggs from Glaum Egg Ranch, a local, family farm with cage-free chickens.
Finally, the dining area at the upper school’s Manzanita Hall was retiled using materials sourced from Azuliber, a company specializing in eco-friendly flooring.
Each year grade 9 students participate in the annual Freshman Community Service Day as an introduction to community service. This year marked the first time that the entire class performed its initial service day at one location: the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy in San Jose.
Some 196 freshman participated in the service learning project, which included a trail cleanup and nature walk, as well as an educational component. The outing kicked off what promises to be a meaningful year of local outreach work for the ninth graders. Throughout the school year, the students will have the opportunity to fulfill a variety community service jobs at a number of organizations.
The Guadalupe River Park Conservancy provides community leadership for the development and active use of the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens through education, advocacy and stewardship programs.
According to conservancy representatives, who welcomed the visit from the upper school, the learning portion of the student’s day included activities at three stations: “macroinvertebrates, dichotomous key for tree identification and a bio blitz.” The service experience, which immediately followed, focused on litter pick up.
This article was first printed in the Summer 2014 Harker Quarterly
The San José City Council honored The Harker School at the Dec. 9, 2014 council meeting for “dedication to environmental stewardship and successful implementation of the wet/dry collection program.” Chris Nikoloff, head of school, along with the teachers who spearheaded the new wet/dry initiative – Katherine Schafer, Diana Moss, Gerry-louise Robinson, Enni Chen and Margaret Huntley – accepted the recognition on behalf of the school. The real payoff is that, thanks to the entire school’s efforts, Republic Services reports that Harker’s diversion of waste from landfill has gone from 15 percent to 70 percent. To read more about Harker’s wet/dry program see Harker Quarterly, Summer 2014, page 16.
This story originally appeared in the fall 2013 Harker Quarterly. Harker’s ongoing commitment to improving its environmental standards has led to the formation of the Green Committee, a group of faculty and staff working to formulate and execute a strategy toward making Harker a greener school both practically and culturally.
“The committee’s a way to … get people together to share ideas in terms of projects we want to do and how to carry out those projects,” said Jeff Sutton, the upper school science teacher who leads the committee along with fellow science teacher Kate Schafer.
The people who would eventually form the committee, which is made up of people from all of Harker’s divisions, first met in late 2012 to discuss a long-term plan for furthering Harker’s green efforts. The committee came up with seven areas in which Harker could improve: energy conservation, waste reduction, reducing the use of toxic chemicals, instituting more shuttles and encouraging carpooling to reduce pollution, improving water quality, creating greener schoolyards and improving student food choices in order to offer more healthy foods.
Prior to the forming of the committee, there were initiatives in place across Harker’s three campuses. “We wanted to bring all those initiatives together and really collect and collate our ideas and our efforts and make them unified across pre-K through 12,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school. “It was really more of a way of honoring a lot of good work and just trying to bring it all together to take it to the next level.”
The committee is currently working to establish a baseline that will offer them a better picture of what needs to be done going forward, with a focus on energy usage and waste reduction. “One of the things that we have realized that we need to do is get more details than we did in our initial research,” said Schafer. “One of things that we’re going to be working on, with the help of other Green Committee members, is conducting some of those audits.”
In the coming year, the committee hopes to conduct an audit of all the waste that is created on the three K-12 campuses over a period of 24 hours and determine 1) how much of it could have avoided being sent to a landfill; 2) how much could have been recycled or composted; and 3) what portion did not need to be created at all. One future goal is to purchase an industrial composter and start a pilot composting program at the upper school. This would allow the campus to reduce all biodegradable food waste, including all paper cups and paper products, and quickly break them down into compost instead of discarding them as landfill fodder. At a meeting in January, the committee decided to launch an energy reduction campaign in the spring of 2013 to encourage stu- dents, faculty and staff to turn off lights and close laptops in order to reduce energy usage across all campuses. According to Sutton, the campaign yielded “mixed results,” as the energy bills from those months were roughly the same as previous months. “From our little experiment, it’s not people having their laptops plugged in so much,” said Sutton. “I’m sure that makes a difference, but there’s something bigger, like an air conditioner or a refrigerant or a heater that’s causing the draw.” The committee is looking into software that will assist in discovering where Harker has opportunities to become more energy efficient. Some progress has already been made in the form of lighting upgrades at the upper school and preschool campuses. “Over the course of the summer and into the coming year, all four of our campuses will have gone through a lighting energy efficiency audit by an independent PG&E vendor,” said Mike Bassoni, the school’s facility manager. “Through grant monies made available by PG&E, we have to date received more than $40,000 in energy-efficient lighting upgrades.”
Similar upgrades are also in store for the middle and lower school campuses, pending review. The upgrades to the upper school and preschool campuses alone are expected to save the school more than $33,000 a year in energy costs. Another crucial part of the Green Committee’s plans is to get student buy-in and involvement for the initiatives. “Once we figure out as a committee what our goals are, then I’m going to be the one that goes to the kids and says, ‘OK, we want to realize some goals, would you like to join us?’” said Diana Moss, upper school Spanish teacher and dean of the Class of 2015. Moss is being joined by upper school math teacher and Class of 2014 dean Victor Adler in this effort. Representatives from other campuses, including middle school math teacher Margaret Huntley, middle school history teacher Andy Keller, lower school math and science teacher Enni Chen and lower school art teacher Gerry-louise Robinson, all plan to get students on their respective campuses involved. During the spring 2013 semester, new water fountains were installed at the upper school that dispense filtered water and have replaced traditional bottled water dispensers. These are also part of an ongoing effort to reduce paper waste by encouraging students and staff to bring water bottles to use instead of paper cups, which will supplement other waste reduction efforts such as paper recycling and cell phone and battery drop-off stations. Faculty and staff are also being encouraged to get into the habit of bringing coffee mugs to work. In addition, a new student group called Brilliant Organizers of Students Sustainability (BOSS) has been formed and will be working with the Green Committee on student-led sustainability projects.
Over the summer, Moss had the opportunity to research how students at other schools participated in their schools’ green efforts. “They’re doing some amazing things. Kids are fired up and they’re actually leading these initiatives,” she said. Part of her plan to increase student involvement is to have them network and share ideas with students at other schools. “Eventually I see the Green Committee as being a mixed group of student leaders and faculty and staff who are also interested in sustainability,” she said. The committee hopes that one day Harker can be certified as both a California Green Business and a Green Ribbon school. To do so will require fulfilling requirements set by both programs. “Schools are particularly challenging because they do so many different things,” Schafer said. “We have pools, we have food service, we have all of these different components. We’re almost a like a little mini-city in and of ourselves.” Even though their goals may be lofty, Sutton said that having “big goals” can offer a point of inspiration necessary to motivate the Harker community into making a big push to make the school more environmentally responsible. “That’s one of our major goals going forward, too: to make this Green Committee not a committee but an ideology, where it lives beyond the life of the people who are here now.”