Alumni Panel Addresses Environmental Sustainability at Upper School Assembly

Many thanks to three Hawken alumni who served on the Environmental Sustainability panel for the upper school assembly last week: Barry Benjamin ’68, founder and owner of Benjamin Environmental Sustainability Team, a consulting company that performs sustainability assessments for individuals, organizations, and companies; Richard Bole ’60, co-founder and owner of Recycle Midwest, a 10,000 square foot environmental firm that has provided recycling services for businesses, non-profits, schools, apartment buildings, and communities in Northeast Ohio since 1989; and Nancy Pignolet Sauer ’80, senior environmental manager in the Environmental Business Line at URS Corporation, one of the foremost environmental consulting, engineering and remediation organizations in the world. Rachel Brenner ’11, a senior representative on the Alumni Board, posed questions addressing sustainability challenges, alternative energy, wetlands recovery, single stream recycling, wastewater treatment, economics and ethics.

Given that Hawken students are charged with becoming responsible and engaged citizens of the world, this topic is of particular interest to our community. The discussion enabled a much broader and deeper understanding of the various and complex social, economic, environmental, and ethical issues associated with sustainability.