The Warwick Academy Eco-Club is a student-based committee that aims to make positive contributions to the environment and educate Warwick Academy students about healthy living, sustainability, climate change and environmentally friendly technologies, providing them with the knowledge they need to positively impact Bermuda.

The Eco-Club has made incredible progress in the two-and-a-half years it has been in operation. It has focused on two main pathways in accordance with the internationally recognised Eco-Schools programme framework — reducing the school’s waste output and minimising its energy consumption.

In the autumn of 2014, in partnership with the Eco-Club, Warwick Academy’s International Baccalaureate students carried out the school’s first waste audit. The study determined the mass of waste that the school produced each week prior to the implementation of the Eco-Club’s waste-based initiatives.

As a result of these findings, the Eco-Club visually demonstrated the amount of trash the school produced per week by filling garbage bags with recycled newspaper and displaying them in one of the school’s quadrangles.

Warwick Academy agreed to set all of its printers to automatically print double-sided and teachers were encouraged to utilise scrap paper in their classrooms. Additionally, students decorated and implemented recycling bins throughout the school.

Last term, the Eco-Club carried out a second waste audit. The results showed that in one year, Warwick Academy was able to reduce its waste output by 27 per cent.

With guidance from representatives of Dragonfly Ltd, a local alternative energy company, the Eco-Club carried out an energy audit. Students analysed the school’s energy bills and held a secondary department assembly to involve the student body in reducing the school’s energy consumption. Members also launched a competition in the primary department, asking students to design posters illustrating different ways in which students could help to conserve energy.

When Warwick Academy announced its plans to construct a building for the new reception year programme, the Eco-Club submitted a letter to principal Maggie McCorkell, asking that specific environmental technologies be implemented into the construction of the new building.

Subsequently, LED lighting, double-paned windows, fans, blackout blinds and an on-demand water heater were all installed. The school also committed to never purchasing conventional fluorescent light bulbs again.

In 2014, the Eco-Club promoted the concept of reusing materials by organising a white elephant sale. The club asked members of the Warwick Academy community to donate second-hand items which were then sold to the public. The response was overwhelming and the sale was a resounding success.

This past December, the Eco-Club ran its first stall at the annual Warwick Academy Christmas Fair, where it sold donated, refurbished teddy bears with hand-knitted Warwick Academy scarves. The Christmas Fair stall was a huge success, with the public showing a great deal of interest in learning about becoming environmentally friendly. The Eco-Club has also held bake sales and a green grub day in an effort to raise funds. Funds raised from all events have been earmarked to fund future initiatives.

On Tuesday, January 19, Warwick Academy hosted an Eco-Schools event in its Phoebe Purvis Memorial Hall, welcoming guest speaker Lou Simmons, who spoke about the growing green economy and the countless ways to encourage biodiversity and healthy living.

The event was attended by numerous teachers, students and parents from schools across the island, and was an opportunity for them to explore different approaches to creating a sustainable island and an environmentally conscious world.

Warwick Academy continues to work hard to improve Bermuda’s natural environment and looks forward to earning its internationally recognised Eco-Schools Green Flag accreditation.

* The Eco Schools programme is part of the international charity, Foundation for Environmental Education. It’s delivered to 15 schools in Bermuda, courtesy of Greenrock.