The Environmental Stweardship Steering Committee (ESSC) is the primary group on campus responsible for leading the school toward more environmentally sustainable practices as a community and institution. Its purpose was further refined by its recent assignment as an oversight committee of the school's governing board, the George School Committee (GSC). This means that the committee will switch from an action-oriented agenda to an agenda more focused on establishing green policies and helping the community progress toward environmentally sustainable habits.

To that end, the ESSC conducted a school-wide survey to measure attitudes, beliefs, and practices regarding energy use in the school. The findings of the survey help the committee target education and encouragement of energy conservation among different groups in the community, conduct comparative studies with future surveys to determine success of interventions, and distinguish when changes in individual energy conservation can make a difference and when changes in systemic energy conservation (such as through physical plant) are necessary.

George School participated in the Green Cup Challenge, a student-driven interschool competition that encourages schools to measure and reduce electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions, to recycle, to conserve water, and to raise awareness about resource conservation. The following actions were taken as a part of the Green Cup Challenge:

		Going trayless in the dining hall saved us 1,440 gallons of water (plus chemicals and electricity) during the competition and, as we continue the practice, yields us similar savings every month.
		Dining in the dark every Wednesday during the challenge and conducting a blackout of Marshall during performances helped raise awareness about energy conservation.
		Signs were posted in dorms and in Marshall, regular email blasts were sent to the community, and a public service announcement, created with the help of Paul Kim ‘11 and Scott Hoskins, was broadcasted encouraging the community to reduce energy use.

Additionally, George School has seen improvement and growth in the following areas of environmental stewardship:

		Composting. The dining hall composts all of its napkins and food waste. The compost is now being used to enrich the soil of the school’s own garden and of the new community garden plots.
		Recycling. The school continues to recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, and glass.
		Farm-to-school Food. The kitchen now gets a full 50 percent of its food from local farms. Our dining hall services firm Culinart has also formed a partnership with Philadelphia Fair Food, Philadelphia Common Market, and PAISBOA, as well as other food service providers, the aim of which is to research the possiblity of a local food purchasing consortium for the members of PAISBOA.
		Organic School Garden. On campus food production in our garden has expanded. The garden co-op had four students, and gardening was listed as a Physical Education elective available to ten students. Lastly, the garden has been expanded to include eight raised beds for faculty to use.
		Environmental Services. We have selected an environmental services provider that has made a commitment to going green and now uses chemical-free cleaners, micro-fiber mops (which require less water), micro-fiber rags (which require no chemical cleaner), and other “green” products (e.g., natural floor finish and multi-purpose cleaner).
		Physical Plant. Meters have been installed on all dorms (except Brownhouse), making our goal of tracking energy use by dorm a reality.
		Student leadership. Student leaders included Caitlin Brimmer, Aly Weiner, Andrea Lindsay, Kevin Simone, Willa Rowan, Xina Graham-Vannais (Student Council representative.), and Bryce Miller (Student Council representative).