The green campus: cutting cost and carbon at once

For most schools, the road to a greener campus ran through the bursar’s ledger rather than any environmental mission. Solar arrays cut a punishing power bill, rainwater harvesting tamed the water account, and a kitchen garden trimmed the cost of feeding a boarding house.

What began as thrift has become identity. Pupils run the recycling, the agriculture class tends the garden that supplies the kitchen, and the savings are visible enough to defend at a board meeting. The schools furthest along treat sustainability as curriculum as much as plant, and find that the two reinforce each other.