Sustainable Agriculture and Conservation

The Lawrenceville School is surrounded by hundreds of acres of School-owned forests, wetlands, and farmland that offer boundless educational and ecological potential. The School employs ecological principles to forest stewardship, agricultural practices, habitat protection, and conservation. These include sustainable farming practices for soil and water conservation, and new measures to improve and protect campus waterways. This is especially evident at the School’s 30-acre Big Red Farm that uses organic methods to produce a variety of crops and meat for the School dining hall, School Camp, and area food pantries. Furthermore, a partnership with the Stroud Water Research Center of Avondale, Penn., will involve long-term monitoring of the campus watershed as part of practices aimed at reducing runoff into campus waterways. As a tributary of the Delaware River that provides drinking water for millions downstream, measures to improve water quality of the Shipetaukin Creek here on campus will serve those in nearby cities and towns in need of clean drinking water.

Recycling, Compost, and Waste Programs

Lawrenceville students have recently revived recycling and compost efforts. For recycling, students are working in partnership with our recycling facility, All County Recycling of Trenton, and hauler, Waste Management, to reduce the amount of trash that ends up in recycling bins. Lawrentians are also leading efforts to compost food waste from student plate scrapings in the dining halls to avoid sending those materials to the landfill. A large rotating composter at the Big Red Farm receives vegetable-based plate scrapings and, when combined with leaves for a carbon source, turns the materials into a soil amendment for the Farm. Finally, students are making efforts to reduce landfill contributions with new initiatives for reusable plates in Houses and club offices, and for reusable water bottles in athletics instead of single-use sports drink bottles.