On the Friday afternoon before February break, Harley was delighted to host a meeting of the Rochester Sustainability Collaborative. This group is a network of regional organizations that collaborate on projects and assist with the development of sustainability programs. Members in attendance represented RIT, U of R, SUNY Geneseo, SWBR Architects, the Nature Conservancy, Constellation Brands, Wegmans, Community Compost, and The Harley School. Meg Malone Sternowski (Harley graduate in 2006) is one of the coordinators for the organization, which is one way Harley became involved with the collaborative.

The first part of the meeting involved a presentation by Brent Arnold (co-owner with Steven Kraft) about Community Composting and their current work. Harley currently works with Community Compost to offer expanded composting services for our dining hall and full school. After Brent’s presentation, Seth O’Bryan toured the group through the Commons, explaining how the students and community work to help drive sustainability efforts at Harley. At the end of the tour, Seth asked those present to complete some homework, asking for their input (as captains of industry, and not necessarily N-12 education) on how they would use the resources in the Commons and identifying the content standards of sustainability (as outlined by Jaimie Cloud’s work) addressed in each space.