Isabel Perez
On a typical day at Polytechnic School, the sun blazes down on our open-air campus. Students move between classes, gathering in sun-drenched courtyards and walking across breezy pathways. Although heat drowns the campus for the majority of the year, I think I speak for everyone when I say the outdoors is still refreshing.
Poly’s outdoor campus undoubtedly offers countless benefits. Being outside improves mental health and lifts our moods, giving us a boost that indoor campuses don’t always provide. A 2018 study by the Frontier of Public Health, an online public health journal, noted that spending more time outdoors betters “attention and cognition, memory, stress and anxiety, sleep, emotional stability and self-perceived welfare or quality of life.” Fresh air is better for our health; moreover, the layout of a lot of Poly’s outdoor spaces, such as Arden and the intersections between the courtyards, which commonly hold all-school events, encourage interaction across grades, fostering a sense of community and connection.
According to 2025 insights from Centers U.S.A., an educational venue operator, open concept designs help blend social, academic and event spaces into an environment where students all across the school can come together. Madison Gaspard, a sophomore and Poly lifer, noted, “The patios help you spend time with your class and strengthen grade connections, while other lunch [spot] alternatives, such as Arden lawn, help cross-grade communications.”
But as the climate changes, the benefits of our outdoor campus come with increasing challenges. To protect student health and learning while reducing our own climate footprint, we need to adapt our campus to be both more weather-resilient and climate-friendly.
Weather challenges are becoming more apparent. Heat waves in fall and spring reduce focus and increase the risk of dehydration, and recent statistics from UCLA predict not only more frequent heatwaves, but much longer ones as well. It notes that areas that are typically hit by heatwaves, California included, are the climates that will receive the harshest effects from climate change. The return back to school is already difficult, with students struggling to return to the rhythm of academics, but the extreme heat in these past few weeks has significantly amplified our sluggishness, making it harder to return to the ideal focused mindset.
However, there are solutions. Planting more shade trees and greenery is a beneficial first step. Expanding greenery across campus would make the weather more manageable by providing shade and simultaneously making the campus more climate-friendly. Trees naturally absorb CO2 as part of photosynthesis, and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one tree can absorb the equivalent of nearly 100 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. Although this may seem insignificant to the trillions of pounds of CO2 in our atmosphere, taking small steps is a key part of our role in tackling climate change.
In addition, considering the very rain-heavy winter we experienced last year, trees really help with soil erosion due to rainfall. As an open-air campus, we have the responsibility to take care of nature despite what weather we may be hit with.
But frankly, Poly is already doing an excellent job. Arden lawn, the senior patio, and the junior patio are exemplary results, offering lots of greenery coupled with shade that makes them prime places to spend breaks. Additionally, although our lack of palm trees might make our school appear like it’s in Washington state instead of Los Angeles, our use of native oak trees actually comes as great news when it comes to the climate.
In 2006, the Los Angeles City Council decreed that the city should limit further planting of Mexican fan palms. Palm trees are very problematic, being flammable and very expensive to maintain while also lacking the benefits of alternative trees, given they are significantly less effective in absorbing harmful gases and don’t provide any shade.
So, all in all, Poly is setting a great example for a climate-respectful campus, but there is still room for improvement. A few places on Poly’s Upper School campus look a bit barren, such as the Brick Courtyard and Garland Lot, which has already sparked plans to plant more trees by the Climate Coalition, a student-centered club that focuses on Poly’s environmental impact. Laura Fleming, the Manager of Environmental Sustainability, explained these plans: “As far as adaptation and resilience, planting more trees for shade is one thing we can do, and ideally native trees like oaks that will grow to have significant canopies. Adding a solar canopy to Garland lot would shade the lot (and cars) and reduce the heat that radiates out toward campus buildings.”
Another solution to the root of the problem is the use of solar panels. Solar energy can cut electricity costs on hot days and reduce Poly’s carbon footprint. According to the Stanford Report from 2019, educational institutions account for approximately 11 percent of energy consumption by U.S. buildings and 4 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions, and the solution lies in solar panels. Although there has been a major solar energy project in the lower school, Fleming reported, “Poly still heats most of its buildings by burning gas. The school has committed to replacing gas heating units with all-electric options (heat pumps) as the units expire, but we have a lot of units to exchange. Being more energy efficient is something else the school community can do, which just means using less heat or air conditioning in the first place. Closing classroom doors to keep the heat or air conditioning in means that we’re burning less fossil fuels to heat and cool buildings.”
Terminating our use of gas heating and using solar is an imperative goal for Poly to minimize our environmental impact, but for the moment, we have to learn to be more mindful of the gas energy we are using and understand its effects on our environment.
As our climate changes, Poly’s outdoor campus can continue to help us thrive, but only if we take steps now. By planting more trees, expanding greenery and investing in solar energy, we can protect students while reducing our environmental impact, ensuring that each school day is one where we can enjoy the outdoors.