Darlington School is pleased to announce the winners of the school-wide Environmental Impact Contest, which was made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. The first and second place student winners are senior Jawad Mazhir and sophomore Will Thoms. The first and second place faculty winners are Ashley Evans and Debra Myrick. All will receive a cash prize in recognition of their innovative ideas.
The six-member judging committee reviewed over 160 entries from Lower, Middle and Upper School students as well as faculty and staff. In their evaluation, they considered several factors including probability of implementation, potential savings, initial investment costs, ease of implementation, environmental impact and quality of the entry.
“The committee reviewed entries, like composting, that scored high in many of our categories but had almost no budget impact,” said committee chairman James Hutchins, dean of Middle School studies. “We also had other great ideas, like window replacement, where high initial investment costs and long payback period knocked them out of contention.”
Mazhir’s winning suggestion involves upgrading the school’s fluorescent lighting to a more efficient system of T-8 bulbs.
“This is the single biggest cost-saving measure we could take to positively impact our budget,” said Keith Raker, director of facilities. “Jawad had an extremely well thought out and detailed plan, and while his idea would necessitate a considerable initial investment, it would save the school tens of thousands of dollars per year. Studies have shown that payback on the initial investment costs would be two to three years.”
Thoms suggested the school install motion detector lighting in various rooms around campus, such as restrooms and closets, to save energy when these rooms are not in use.
“We have already installed motion detectors in the first floor of Wilcox Hall and in the restrooms of the boys’ houses that were renovated last year,” Raker said. “This is a much more energy efficient application of this technology than leaving the light switch on all day long.”
For the faculty, Evans’ winning idea focused on saving paper by tracking and reducing copying expenses. Not only would this reduce our paper costs, but it would also save money on toner and copier maintenance and repairs. The committee felt like this idea could be implemented quickly with very little, if any, investment and managed by department heads.
“Our main printer in the McCallie-Kennedy Library uses an ink cartridge that prints 40,000 copies, and we have to replace this cartridge approximately every two months. Multiply that by the number of months in the academic year, and you will see that we print about 200,000 copies in the library alone,” said Melinda Holmes, director of library services. “Dividing that number in half by doing something as easy as printing on both sides of a sheet of paper would have a great impact on the amount of paper we consume. What a win for the environment and for Darlington’s pocketbook!”
Hutchins agreed, “Ashley’s idea really hits home in regards to the amount of paper that’s wasted on a daily basis. The 21st Century classroom is being transformed into a learning environment that is focused more on technology and electronic exchanges. I don’t believe we’ll ever completely get away from using paper, but we can all be more responsible with the way we use it.”
Myrick suggested the installation of programmable thermostats in faculty and student housing that can be set to energy-saving temperatures during unoccupied hours just like the classrooms and offices on campus.
“This is yet another great way Darlington can cut costs and, at the same time, lessen our carbon footprint,” Hutchins said. “In our evaluation, the areas of the highest importance were probability of implementation and budget savings. We focused on ideas that would save the school money and could be implemented in the near future. After much deliberation, we all felt these four winning entries best exemplified the spirit of the contest.”
