Gilman Greener?

The Gilman Greenhounds Club, led by Mateo Garzo ‘26, says their mission is “to help steward our local environment and spread environmental awareness throughout our community… and to promote climate-conscious actions.” But what do they actually do besides cutting vines near Stoney Run and the famous Pennsylvania Challenge?

As of last year, Teo and former President Nick Lutzky ‘24 reached out to energy consultancy company BithEnergy in hopes of running a carbon audit of Gilman, which Teo and Nick believed would help Gilman become more sustainable. Running a carbon audit or one’s “carbon footprint” figures out how much energy an organization uses, what that energy is used for, and the total amount of carbon the organization emits. Audits also include recommendations and suggestions for how the organization can become cleaner and more energy-efficient. Nick and Teo believed that Gilman, with this information, would easily identify ways to reduce its energy consumption and lower Gilman’s carbon footprint. Teo and Nick connected BithEnergy with the Gilman administration to discuss such an audit. 

Recently, Gilman’s Chief Operating Officer Wes Hummer and Director of Facilities Kelly Harrison discussed a potential audit. The administration met with BithEnergy and determined their services were unnecessary because the energy consumption information BithEnergy would provide Gilman is already provided by BGE, Gilman’s energy provider. “[BGE] monitors our usage for both gas and electricity… in real time,” explained Ms. Harrison, and they provide this information to the facility’s operation team for review. Gilman can use this information to determine if any building is using more energy than it should and “immediately make adjustments to bring that energy usage down.”Some of these suggestions, short- and long-term,  have already been implemented, such as replacing old incandescent lights with energy-efficient LED lighting, using motion sensors to determine when a room's lights should be on or off, and programming the heating system to be lower during school holidays.  

Mr. Hummer and Ms. Harrison also shared that Gilman is currently buying or generating only clean energy. Gilman pays a premium to BGE to provide Gilman with only clean energy, meaning all energy BGE provides Gilman “comes from a solar power grid somewhere,” said Mr. Hummer. Additionally, Ms. Harrison told the News, “The Lower School has solar panels on it, and it's pulling about 20% of its energy usage is from the solar panels.” Gilman has even looked into building its own solar farm outside the city to directly provide the school with clean energy. Right now it is more economical for Gilman to purchase the clean energy from BGE. 

It is clear that Gilman has sustainability goals, as its work with BGE has proven effective. However, Ms. Harrison stated that she and the administration always encourage and support students to start their own sustainable initiatives and help drive the community to become more involved and more environmentally responsible. But, “at the end of the day, if it's your project, we want you guys to run with it,” she explained. So, I encourage all of you to contribute your part, however small that may be. Be first-class citizens, pick up some trash the next time you see it, don’t waste food at lunch, throw proper foods in the compost or trash, or maybe even join the Greenhounds Club. Movements start from the bottom up, and if we want to initiate real, sustainable change here at Gilman, it starts with us.