Lawrenceville School Goes River-Friendly

Alex Noviello ’23 and Sonia Ivancic ’25 recently led The Lawrenceville School application process for the River-Friendly Certification Program offered by the Watershed Institute in Hopewell, N.J. The River-Friendly program standards focus on educating students about local watersheds and the challenges facing them.

The program consists of three entities: participating schools, River-Friendly coordinators, and a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The TAC is comprised of local experts in various water-related fields (such as water quality, soils, wildlife, and environmental education), staff from the three River-Friendly partner organizations (New Jersey Water Supply Authority, Raritan Headwaters Association and The Watershed Institute), and representatives from the business, golf course, and school sectors. The TAC meets approximately four times a year and provides an independent review of the certification of each River-Friendly applicant. It has final jurisdiction to determine if an organization is certified as River-Friendly.

To be certified “River Friendly,” each school is required to teach lessons on local water quality, water conservation, and wildlife habitat. Lawrenceville is implementing these lessons in Honors Environmental Science, Environmental Science, Inquiries in Biological and Environmental Sciences (IBES), Sustainability Seminar, and the Leopold Scholars in Ecology and Ethics.

As part of the Tsai Field House project, Lawrenceville’s plans to reduce storm water runoff into the campus creek from the adjacent parking lot, which will also help the School advance toward certification. The original parking lot was constructed in the early 1950s before modern design standards for runoff were developed. The new lot will have recent innovations in the form of bioswales, rain gardens, permeable pavement, and tree islands to both reduce runoff and increase groundwater recharge.

Finally, the School has an active student Sustainability Council, which publishes a quarterly newsletter outlining such sustainability efforts on campus as well as national and international developments.

For additional information, contact Lisa M. Gillard H'17, director of public relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.