Sustainability
Throughout Fairport schools, you’ll find people dedicated to sustainable practices. The District is committed to creating a bright future for students and staff, and leading the way in making Fairport more sustainable. Fairport’s District Sustainability Committee has focused efforts on sustainable education and waste reduction, while continuing to support sustainable operations and responsible purchasing. This committee is made up of District administrators, staff, community members and students.
Below you will find information about the Committee’s four pillars of sustainability and the actions within each pillar.
OPERATIONS
The District combats e-waste through a "circular economy" model and rigorous lifecycle management:
- Extended Device Lifespans: To reduce replacement frequency, equipment operational life is systematically extended:
- Staff & Student Mobile Devices: 6+ years
- Network Equipment: 7–10 years
- Wireless Access Points: 7–9 years
- Standardization: Equipment is standardized (e.g., one laptop per teacher, one Chromebook per student) to streamline maintenance and minimize redundant hardware
- Component Harvesting: Functional parts are harvested from retired student Chromebooks to repair other units, reducing the need for new parts
- Refurbished-First Policy: "Certified refurbished" equipment is deployed first; new devices are only purchased if memory or hard drive upgrades cannot improve performance
- Responsible Disposal: All non-functional e-waste is recycled through professional partnerships
- Charging Retrofits: Charging cabinets are retrofitted with USB-C kits to eliminate the need for individual AC "bricks," a significant source of waste
SUSTAINABLE EDUCATION
The District has developed Green Teams/Environmental Clubs at all buildings.
- Organized initiatives
- Composting
- Recycling cans and bottles
- Mixed recycling
- Used book fair
- Garden/ Green Space preservation
- Organizing and educating about the following events:
- Earth Day
- Invasive Species Pull (every May)
- School Supply Drive (Collection: June and Distribution in Summer)
- Fairport Clothing Thrift opportunity
- Green Team Resources shared drive
- Audit of Science standards and where sustainability themes are interwoven into our district Science courses
RESPONSIBLE PURCHASING
All students have access to the TI 84 CE Calculator through their Chromebook, which reduces the number of graphing calculators to be purchased in the future and provides equitable access to technology.
WASTE REDUCTION
Waste Reduction Events – to be continued this school year:
- Terracycle boxes - pens, markers and pencils
- Green Team Recycling (bottles & cans)
- School Supply Collection and Distribution (June/ August)
- Collection and distribution of new to you Fairport Gear
- Composting
- DU/NS, JA & BH are all composting
- Trained all Cafeteria & Custodial Staff
- Assemblies for students and staff
- Regular communication with Impact Earth (our composting company) to ensure efforts are going smoothly
- Compost soil is returned to Fairport for our building Garden Beds- Impact Earth would like to schedule an event with our schools to celebrate this during Composting week
- Received Monroe Country School Waste Diversion Pilot program Grant. The grant is for up to $5,000 to support our composting efforts.
The Fairport Central School District is making significant strides in its sustainability efforts with the recent rollout of its District-wide composting initiative. The purpose of this video, played at the January 2025 Board of Education meeting and shared with residents and students’ families on FCSD’s social media, is to go behind the scenes of how this initiative from the FCSD Sustainability Committee came to life.
What began as a food waste audit quickly expanded to the implementation of composting bins for food scraps at all elementary school cafeterias. Student advocacy played a pivotal role in pushing the program forward, and our Food Services staff members help to minimize food waste by positioning compost bins next to trash bins at their meal preparation workstations.
The program has already demonstrated impressive results. As of June 2025, the District has diverted approximately 80,000 pounds of organics from landfills. This success is largely attributed to the engagement of our students, who have enthusiastically embraced composting.