Sustainability

A critical concern of our time is ensuring that Earth's resources can sustain human society and the quality of life, long into the future. We believe schools have a responsibility to carefully and honestly educate students about challenging, interrelated, and complex sustainability issues such as energy, water, climate change, agriculture, demography, and resource economics. These topics are woven into our academic curriculum as well as extracurricular and outdoor activities and student projects. Our goals are to encourage innovative thinking, prepare students for emerging careers, help them become them informed citzens, and empower them to have an impact on the world they will inherit.

Orme students have traditionally lived close to the land, where resource limitations and human impacts are readily apparent. Born in the Great Depression of the 1930s, the School has a long tradition of self-sufficiency which we are seeking to update for the 21st century, while espousing the values of simplicity, frugality, hard work, and living within one's means that were promoted by the School's founders.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) Cooperation

Orme has recently entered into a cooperative agreement with NAU's Landsward Institute and Sustainable Energy Solutions group to provide research opportunities for both Orme and NAU students. In January, NAU graduate students installed a sophisticated 30-meter (100 foot) meteorological tower which will allow Orme students to analyze data on wind, solar energy, and other atmospheric phenomena, helping to map Arizona's renewable resources. The School has also acquired has a small research photovoltaic panel (pictured at top left).