Riverdale’s Most Promising Next Step: Creating a Climate Action Plan
Following New York City standards, the Stone House group, a firm involved in energy management, has graded many Riverdale buildings F’s in energy efficiency. Though Riverdale may declare its facilities sustainable, it is clear there is still major work to be done. Students in this year’s new Climate Change elective believe creating a Climate Action Plan is imperative.
For some educational context, the phrase, climate change, which continues to dominate news headlines and public discourse, refers to the long-term changes in global climate patterns. For the past two hundred years, these changes have been fueled primarily by human activities. The burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, in addition to other industrial processes, release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses into our atmo- sphere, trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere. This excess heat leads to the commonly as- sociated consequences of global warming such as rising sea levels, severe weather, and health issues. This crisis belongs not to just one country, but to our planet—and we must act. Climate change’s impacts can feel dooming and irreversible; however, humans have the ability to save and protect the planet. Through actions including investments in renewable energy, policies to manage companies’ waste, and education, we can work towards giving every human and organism a sustainable place to live.
This crisis and its growing threats will not be solved overnight, but Riverdale’s past and current dedication to combating climate change demonstrates the power and importance of community-wide action.
Since 2010, Riverdale has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to mitigating climate change. Alumni Stephen Moch and Michael Volpert worked with Mr. David Patnaude, Riverdale’s past Director of Plant and Sustainability, to install solar panels on the roof of Mow in 2010. This installation kickstarted the beginning of Riverdale’s sustainability journey, and although the solar panels have been broken for the last few years, the panels will be replaced this May in multiple locations across our campuses, including the Aquatic Center, Student Center, and the Lower School Gym.
Looking at student-led initiatives, the Students for Electric School Buses activity founded by senior Joel Grayson in 2021 has worked to make Riverdale the first NYC private school to start transitioning to electric school buses. Although this pioneering project is challenging due to the lack of incentives that are currently only available for public schools, meetings with SuperSelby and electric bus companies like Blue Bird are consistent and ongoing. Additional efforts include the transition to electric leaf blowers also led by Grayson and the establishment of a green clothing donation bin outside 9/10 by the Sustainability Club.
Among all these initiatives, the creation of this year’s new elective, Climate Change: An Unnatural History, by History and English Teacher Mr. Andrew Kingsley and Director of Outdoor Education and History Teacher Mr. Jake Crowley-Delman, is an especially powerful and crucial step in helping Riverdale to make significant strides in environmental stewardship. The course focuses on an interdisciplinary curriculum, using literature, art, and psychology, among other subjects, to help students understand how humans perceive and have driven climate change. The curriculum primarily revolves around a single question: What will it take to engage in work toward climate justice for the long haul and not just react with fear and pessimism to today’s news of injustice and forecasts of apocalypse? By the end of the semester course, students are equipped to imagine themselves thriving in a climate-changed world and to effect positive change in their current and future communities. The class culminated in final projects focused on bringing climate conversations and knowledge to Riverdale’s campus. Six groups tackled various projects, from a documentary to report-card-like posters. Two groups, one composed of seniors Kiri Jensen, Rachel Sporn, and Cleo Michel and another composed of seniors Jeremy Negrin and Jack Gelder, focused their final projects on researching existing climate action plans at high school and college campuses. Climate action plans serve as comprehensive roadmaps in educational institutions across the country to outline specific tasks and objectives needed to reduce emissions and waste. After weeks of research, interviews, and data analysis, these groups each created a concise presentation on what it would mean and require for Riverdale to have a climate action plan.
Negrin and Gelder reflect, “A major focus of our project was finding a model that could serve as a climate action plan for Riverdale.” They researched low, target, and high reach schools which they categorized by endowment, population, and acreage. The group identified Ursinus College, a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania with an endowment of $127 million as a target candidate. “Riverdale won’t be able to achieve the large climate action plan of some of the top colleges with an endowment of $50 billion,” Negrin shares, “but a small impact is still an impact.” He adds, “If we shoot for smaller campuses like Ursinus College we can still decrease our emissions every year by a significant amount.” Not only is creating an action plan possible for a school like Riverdale, but necessary.
In the second phase of their research, Negrin and Gelder focused on the question, “What defines a good action plan?” Two of their major takeaways were the importance of promoting accountability and avoiding greenwashing, which is the overstating of the environmentally conscious elements of a firm or institution, while understating their real carbon footprint.
The second group shared similar takeaways: “The importance of accountability was stressed among the universities we researched,” Jensen says. Michel adds, “Riverdale has a number of initiatives, but we are not holding ourselves accountable unless we have an action plan.” With a concrete plan, we can set goals and unify our initiatives for short and long term progress.
The role of community engagement was another major component of both groups’ presentations. In their research process, the groups interviewed Ms. Toddi Steelman, a member of Duke’s Board of Sustainability, and Ms. Sara Keleman, a student writer of the University of Maine’s action plan.
On campus, the groups spoke to a number of Riverdale faculty, including Coordinator of Hill Campus Sustainability Ms. Angela Costanzo, Director of Food Service Mr. Andrew Benson, and Director of Facilities Mr. Mike Galligan. After these rich conversations, it was clear how crucial collaborative efforts are to completing and succeeding in this task. Sporn shares, “We found that faculty are very willing to share what they know in terms of climate change; we just have to cross the bridge to ask them.” In the process of creating the action plan itself, Gelder suggests “having open meetings, where anyone can come in and provide feedback to be incorporated into drafts.” Creating a task force of interested students and faculty is an effective way of getting the ball rolling on Riverdale’s climate action plan.
Reflecting on their experiences in the Climate Change elective last semester, each group feels empowered by the knowledge they have gained—not only the facts and solutions, but also communication strategies and climate psychology. “I learned so much from that course and became so much more aware,” Michel remarks. Both teams agree that implementing topics of climate change into various school curricula is a meaningful next step.
Riverdale is and will continue to take steps forward in building a more sustainable and climate-aware school community. However, it is not until writing a climate action plan that Riverdale can streamline its initiatives, achieve concrete progress, and hold the community and administration to their words. Additionally, as a campus with our population and resources, Riverdale could be a leader in this initiative, hopefully inspiring nearby school campuses to begin the same.
“Although it can be difficult, it really is worth it,” Negrin shares; “When we look at colleges with action plans, these plans make big impacts in reducing emissions and last 15 or 20 years.”
