About Falmouth Academy

A Green Campus

Falmouth Academy has been conservation-minded from its start in 1977, but when the school moved to its permanent campus near Beebe Woods in 1989 and Richard Sperduto became director of buildings and grounds, the teachers and students became active environmentalists and energy savers. That year Mr. Sperduto and long-time FA teacher Olivann Hobbie started the FARE program (FA Recycles for the Environment) to involve the entire school, and Falmouth Academy was a site for monthly recycling collections before the Town of Falmouth instituted its own recycling program.

Faculty and students use the FA recycling collection bins in our classrooms and halls. Falmouth Academy recycles 70-75 percent of our waste paper, cardboard, metals, Styrofoam and other packing materials, food and beverage containers and aluminum foil. We collect more than 2,000 pounds of food waste from lunches and school events each year for compost which we use on our gardens and fields. We use no chemical fertilizers, no herbicides, no pesticides, and only environmentally-friendly, non-chemical products for cleaning.

In addition, FA has motion sensors on bathroom, locker area and all classroom light switches, and energy-efficient fluorescent lights throughout the school. Our 10K wind turbine, installed in May 2007, provides a portion of the school’s electrical needs and supplies valuable meteorological data to student scientists. Thirty percent of the building uses radiant floor heat and energy-recovery ventilators. All of the building has double-insulated EnergyStar windows and programmable, energy-management systems to regulate heat and cooling.

A 77 KW photovoltaic system with 333 panels was installed on two of Falmouth Academy’s south-facing roofs in the fall of 2010. The system should provide up to one-third of FA’s electric power needs and long-term energy cost savings, and will also give students access to its production data. “The system will be useful not only in our math and science classes and for our electric bill, but it is another way we can demonstrate our commitment to conservation and using alternative forms of energy for our students,” said headmaster David Faus.


We also:

• Landscape with native and drought-tolerant plants throughout the campus.
 
• Collect used books to be redistributed through programs in the United States and overseas.


• Clean up Shivericks Pond, Morse Pond, Trunk River and part of the Shining Sea Bike Path every year.

These efforts to reduce FA’s waste footprint and to teach our students the value of environmental stewardship have been honored with the Institutional Recycling Award from MassRecycle in 2002, and the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Award for Excellence in Environmental Education in 2004. For his efforts to raise awareness about energy and the environment at Falmouth Academy, Mr.Sperduto was chosen by the Association to Preserve Cape Cod to be one of its 40 Environmental Champions 2008.

Back-to-School FARE tips:

• Pack your lunch in a reusable container.
Nylon or metal lunch boxes and cloth lunch bags are good.  Small coolers also work well and hold quite a bit. (Remember, we have two “lunch” breaks.) Also pack sandwiches, chips, cookies, and drinks in reusable containers. Cut down on baggies, cans, and bottles!
• Use a cloth napkin in your lunch.
• Use “real” silverware; avoid plastic utensils that will be thrown away.