“How Menlo is Conserving Water”by Amanda Crisci ’17

The California drought has caused many schools to cut down their water usage, and Menlo has taken a number of different approaches to help conserve water. According to the Pacific Institute, a water policy organization based in Oakland, all Californians should be aiming to reduce their water use by 20 percent to ensure that there is a sustainable reserve of water. Menlo has taken this statistic into account and is actively finding new solutions to cut our usage. Director of Sustainability Kevin Connor listed a number of ways Menlo has actively cut down water usage. “We have low flow fixtures in all sinks and toilets on campus, which keeps our water use very efficient,” Connor said.

Actively striving to keep the grounds neat and healthy, Menlo’s facilities team has long recognized the need to reduce water. To keep the grounds healthy, Director of Operations David McAdoo has placed a priority on using native and drought resistant plants to reduce the use of water. “Most of all, water use is for irrigation, so ensuring that we use plants that don’t need a lot of water makes a huge difference,” Connor said.

Menlo’s sustainability team has placed emphasis on the message that students should be actively trying to shorten their water usage inside and outside school. “[Cutting down our usage] is what we as a campus are striving for and that is what each Menlo student should do at home,” Connor said.

It is currently unknown when the drought will end, but until it does, conservation of water will be a top priority of Menlo’s sustainability and facilities teams. “Our efforts alone will certainly not solve the problem, but we all have to do our part,” Connor said. Students are encouraged to save water by preforming small acts of conservation such as making sure their sink faucets are turned all the way off so they don’t drip.

While Menlo has made a significant effort to reduce the negative effects of the drought, we still have not addressed this issue openly as a school, which leaves room for improvement.