Sustainability Initiative
We’ve raised $264,000 for our solar field.
$0 still needed: we did it! Thank You to everyone who made it possible. With some cost savings at the end of the project, we came in exactly where we hoped to be. We’ve already received some gifts toward the barn solar project for 2024!
We are pleased to share our plans to build a field of solar panels that will produce the amount of electricity Glen Brook uses each year. Here are four reasons we are so excited about this project!
Sustainability: The solar field will lower our carbon footprint by more than 100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. Glen Brook won’t just be carbon neutral, but with the preservation of our forest and work on our biodynamic farm, Glen Brook will be carbon negative, helping to heal the planet.
Accessibility: We are excited to share that we are going to take the $20,000 of savings that these solar panels generate every year and invest that money into our campership fund. We are going to use sustainability as a tool for accessibility so that campers in need have more access to Glen Brook in perpetuity.
Education: We want to model sustainability in every form. These solar panels will provide an amazing educational resource, and show people a great way of producing clean energy that will power our campus, and eventually our vehicles.
Regeneration: At Glen Brook we produce so much of what we use here to model a regenerative relationship with Earth. We harvest our own food from our farm. We harvest our own lumber from our forest. And now we’ll be producing our own energy with solar panels.
WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON
Click here to read more about the sustainability work we’ve done in the last decade.
| Project | Cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Solar Field at White Meadows | $276,000 | COMPLETE |
| Barn Solar Panels with battery back-up | $50,000 | 2024 |
| Electric Vehicle Chargers | $10,000 | 2024 |
| Replacing our vehicles with Electric Vehicles | $50,000 per year | 2025-2030 |
| Additional Greenhouses for more biodynamic food production |
$30,000 | 2025 |
| Wind Power | $30,000 | 2026 |
| Passive Solar Greenhouse for seed starting with no fossil fuels |
$80,000 | 2026 |
| Two new off-grid cabins to house Gap Participants, summer campers, spring student groups, and additional staff |
$250,000 | 2027-2028 |
| New Barn for Animal Housing | $600,000 | TBD |
We could not do this project without the support of our community! Our plan is to build these solar panels in the fall of 2023. If you’d like to support this project or learn more, please click below, or email mark@glenbrook.org
