Everything we do at St. Andrew’s College relates to education, whether it’s through formal in-classroom teaching, during extra-curricular activities, on the fields or in the School’s hallways. That’s why our goal is to incorporate awareness of environmental sustainability issues into all aspects of student and community life at SAC and to cultivate ecological citizenship among every Andrean.

Starting with student orientation, we introduce new Andreans to the School’s Environmental Creed and inform them about the essential behaviours, such as respect for the environment, which we expect of the boys. This ranges from the basics like recycling properly, turning out the lights when leaving a classroom, and not wasting food in the dining hall, to participating in community service projects that contribute to local environmental sustainability.

In the Middle School, the student Green Committee works on projects to educate and raise awareness in the Middle School about environmental issues. This involves practical projects, such as no idling campaigns and classroom energy audits, building student awareness through assemblies and presentations, ensuring teachers and students are as environmentally friendly as possible each day by turning off the lights, recycling properly, and using scrap paper when possible. Additionally, they hope to carry out research into school greening initiatives, such as the possibility of getting renewable energy on campus.

The focus of the Middle School Green Team is to build awareness through 'Little Acts of Green.'  By helping the Middle School students recognize that one person can make a difference, this can cause a chain reaction of environmental awareness amongst their friends and family. If everyone changes little things - taking shorter showers, changing light bulbs, or drinking from reusable water bottles - this can still have an environmental impact, and it will influence others to do the same. According to David Suzuki, if every household in Canada replaced one lightbulb to a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL), it would save up to $73 million a year in energy costs and reduce greenhouse emissions by nearly 400,000 tonnes!  Little Acts of Green can make a big difference!

Faculty and staff are also expected to model the behaviour that the School expects in terms of environmental responsibility. They are all expected to use reusable mugs and water bottles, limit their paper use, print double-sided, turn off lights and the projector when not required or in use, and incorporate environmental sustainability into their teaching practice.