Sustainability

List of 7 frequently asked questions.

• Cleaning / Housekeeping

  CA prioritizes sustainability in all of its cleaning practices.

  • Cleaning chemicals used at CA are 100% bio-degradable and safe for the environment.
  • CA paper products are comprised of the highest possible recycled content and/or derived from rapidly renewable resources.
  • CA employs hands-free technology in all restrooms, kitchens, and classrooms for its sinks and paper towel and foam soap dispensers—reducing waste and the spread of germs by 65%.
  • Coreless toilet paper eliminates cardboard roll waste.
  • CA housekeeping staff hand sort each 3-bin (recycling, composting, landfill) disposal system nightly. This intentional focus results in a diversion rate of 90%—meaning only 10% of disposed items end up in a landfill.
  • The Upper School Environmental Club works alongside custodial staff to create waste management signs that are authentic to the CA community and promote proper sorting of waste. 

• Transportation

  CA encourages bus ridership for families through our extensive bus service program, serving households from 82 Denver-area ZIP Codes.

  • Ten metro-wide bus routes are offered to families, which alleviates hundreds of daily single-family car trips to school.
  • CA bus ridership has increased in 2022-2023, with at least 40 fewer vehicles coming to campus daily, compared to 2021-2022, saving 272 barrels of fuel per year.
  • CA's diesel buses and campus vehicles use 20% bio-fuel—the maximum percentage allowed by engine manufacturers.
  • CA has a full-size 65-passenger hybrid bus in our fleet.
  • CA participates in a program piloted by the Regional Air Quality Council, which provides funding for retrofitting older buses so that they meet today’s stringent emissions standards.
  • Members of the Upper School Environmental Club are researching the impact of idling cars on the environment. Students created an interactive skit to perform in front of the Lower School and Upper School drop-off circles to educate the community about carbon emissions produced by cars. 
  • CA is partnering with Way to Go SchoolPool to encourage carpooling as another alternative to our bus routes, further reducing traffic, cars, and emissions.
  • Next steps: CA is looking to add electric buses to its fleet and install EV stations on campus.

• Buildings

  CA has implemented these green best practices to create healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving buildings:
  

  • Building envelopes are designed for energy-saving heating and cooling. These include:
    • Variable frequency drives in all newer buildings
    • High-quality windows and insulation
    • Siding materials enhanced for Colorado conditions
    • Net zero, thermally tight air infiltration
  • Low VOC paint and flooring are installed in all buildings, improving indoor air quality and learning conditions.
  • CA uses high-efficiency, LED lightbulbs, and has installed occupancy sensors to automatically turn off lights.
  • CA buildings take advantage of daylight harvesting—using skylights and strategically angled windows and ceilings to alleviate the need to turn on lights.
  • Light-colored roofs reduce the heat island effect, keeping spaces cool and saving energy.
  • Restrooms in all buildings employ low-flow toilets and waterless urinals to conserve water.
  • All CA buildings offer water-filling stations, eliminating the use of single-use plastic bottles.

• Grounds

  To mitigate energy usage on its 94-acre campus, CA has adopted these green policies: 
  
  IRRIGATION

  • 100% of water for lawns and grounds is drawn from Woody's Pond.
  • Woody's Pond ditch water is non-potable and chemical-free.
  • Unused irrigation water flows into creeks and ditches for downstream neighbors.

  LANDSCAPING

  • CA plants 50-100 trees per year, adding to the diversity of species and offsetting CO2.
  • CA prioritizes replacing blue grass in strategic areas with native grasses and xeriscaping that require little or no water.
  • The Upper School Environmental Club continually researches water consumption on campus and explores ways to reduce water usage through xeriscaping and other means.
  • The school selects low-water-use ornamental flowers for pots and beds.
  • CA purposefully plants honeybee and butterfly-attracting flowers and shrubs all over campus. Several honeybee colonies thrive on campus and serve to encourage awareness of pollinators and their different roles in promoting a healthy environment. Additionally, the campus is home to a number of wild beehives.

• Recycling / Composting 

  CA's commitment to recycling and composting is foundational to our environmental stewardship efforts. 
  

  • Bins for recycling and composting are strategically placed throughout campus.
  • Nearly zero waste is produced from our Dining Hall—95% is composted.
  • Dining Hall composting and grounds composting (leaves & grass clippings) have diverted 60,000 pounds of waste from landfills.
  • Guster—CA's industrial biodigester—made its debut in 2023. The super composter turns food waste into organic fertilizer for landscaping to keep our campus green. Read more.
  • Sodexo, our food service partner, is committed to sustainability and reducing its environmental impact. Read more and download their report.
  • Individual office bins emphasize recycling and composting with normal-sized receptacles, while landfill bins are noticeably smaller.
  • CA has eliminated many of its printed brochures, newsletters, and handouts, moving to digital communications.
  • Students receive instructions and homework on their iPads, and they complete and submit assignments electronically.
  • Removed individual office printers.
  • All printers now require access by ID to reduce unnecessary printing.
  • The CA Choral and Music Departments have transitioned to digital scores and sheet music reading apps.
  • Each Earth Day, CA organizes a campus-wide electronics recycling program where families can bring old electronics from home to be recycled.
    • Over the past two years, roughly 19,000 pounds of electronics have been recycled.

• Education

  Sustainability is taught in CA classrooms from Lower School through Upper School. Faculty and staff reinforce Earth-friendly best practices and bring environmental stewardship into the curriculum.
  
  Here are some examples:

  • The Upper School has an active and engaged Environmental Club, where students promote conservation by fostering collaboration, supporting a diversity of opinions, and setting achievable goals to create sustainable changes on the CA campus. 
  • The Upper School has created a lab-based course on Climate Change, providing a forum for students to deeply investigate this defining issue of our time. Read more about this course.
  • In the Upper School honors course Environmental Chemistry, students devise real-life solutions to environmental challenges. Review students' work here.
  • CA Eighth Graders completed a climate project called, We Are Not Doomed, which provides students' scientific solutions to some of our most pressing climate issues. 
  • In Lower School, students are taught about where trash goes, and learn about landfills and their significance in bringing seagulls to Colorado.
  • As part of a student-run project in experiential learning, Middle and Upper School students converted two CA golf carts used by maintenance/grounds staff to solar power.
  • The Middle School Future City team imagines, researches, designs, and builds sustainable cities. The CA teams have consistently won regional competitions.
  • CA science teachers created a Sustainability Leads program to identify ways the school can improve its efforts in this area. Review the 2023 Annual Report.
  • In Lower School, students learn about honeybees as part of their study of nature’s systems. CA's beekeeper brings live bees (safely contained) and other teaching aids from the field into the classroom to give students an opportunity to observe these tiny but important contributors to the global ecosystem.
  • Vermicomposting—indoor composting with worms—is an ongoing project in Pre-K through Grade 3 science classes. Students collect fall leaves, shred newspapers, and mix in leftover food waste to make bedding for new vermicompost bins. Through books, students learn the important role annelids perform in an ecosystem—recycling waste and helping the Earth. Learn more.
  • In the Grade 5 Capstone Project, Voices of Change, students tackle problems that are important to them—often these are climate challenges.

• Learn More & Do More

  CA recommends these books for families who want to bolster their sustainability efforts:
  

  • How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates
  • All We Can Save by Katharine Wilkinson
  • Drawdown  by Paul Hawkin

  Families may also wish to sign up with Ridwell, a residential program that makes it easy to recycle, reuse, and donate the items you no longer need. You collect, and Ridwell picks it up and works with local partners to put your donated stuff to good use.
  
  Interested parents are invited to be part of the Sustainability P2P Group that meets regularly throughout the school year. Look for notices in CA Today. Review the 2023 P2P Sustainability report.