CT Green Scene

The Green Harbors Project—A Community Effort

The Green Harbors Project is an initiative that is aiming to address and solve urban harbors environmental challenges that lead to habitat degradation and the loss of biodiversity, as well as human health concerns. Dr. Anamarija Frankic, director of the Green Harbors Project and founder of the Biomimicry LivingLabs, as well as an internationally-recognized researcher, professor and leader in the field of biomimicry, is leading a team of students from UMass Boston that is focused on designing and testing greener products and solutions that imitate nature to mitigate and restore our urban harbors. The team has established Biomimicry LivingLabs across the world, including Zadar, Croatia as well as many sites around Massachusetts, including Savin Hill Cove, Nantucket, Wellfleet, Mystic River, Neponset River and Pier 5 in the Charlestown Navy Yard.

  The Green Harbors Project is a community oriented effort with local businesses stepping in to help. Here in Massachusetts, for example, Spencer-based FLEXcon, a manufacturer of engineered films and pressure-sensitive films and adhesives, has donated materials so that the team can design and test a solution that will prevent biofouling—one of the many environmental issues the team is tackling as part of the Green Harbors Project. Fouling is the accumulation of unwanted organic material on solid submerged surfaces such as the underside of boats, pilings, nets and other harbor infrastructure. Not only are removal costs very high, but the materials that are used (such as formaldehyde) are detrimental to the environment and humans alike. Dr. Frankic and her team are working to create sustainable alternatives.  

 

UCONN at Avery Point Tackles Climate Change

By Ben Hastings

 

The Long Island Sound is among the most treasured areas in Connecticut, and is home to the UCONN Avery Point campus. Unfortunately, this area of the state has fallen victim to the effects of climate change many times over the past few years in the form of hurricanes and unheard of amounts of snow. The Connecticut shoreline is truly a special place to be for vacationers and residents alike, which is why certain preventative actions against climate change need to be taken to preserve a valuable part of our great state.

 

Those of us who live in CT know all too well about the destruction that Tropical Storm Irene and storm Sandy caused the shoreline. They also realize if we don’t begin to build more resilient communities and take action to mitigate events like these, the state of Connecticut will be in trouble. Sandy alone caused $360 million in damage to our state, and cost 4 people their lives. A disaster like this one requires action by a wide range of stakeholders including companies, community, political leaders, and academia. Their input is needed so that we can better understand how a catastrophe like storm Sandy can be prepared for, and look at the bigger picture that is climate change.

A Climate Change research center will soon be a part of The University of Connecticut at Avery Point. The new Institute for Community Resilience and Climate Adaptation is now a reality. On January 24^th 2014, Governor Daniel Malloy and other CT officials gathered together at the beautiful Branford House at Avery Point. The funding for the center will be coming from the $2.5 million result of a lawsuit between Unilever and The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. A grant from NOAA will also contribute $500,000.

 

It was only fitting that the press conference took place at the Branford House, which was looking over the sound as the CT and UCONN leaders made their statements. Molloy said that we will be facing more storms of this magnitude as a result of the changing climate, and reassured the audience that Connecticut was doing its part to slow climate change. The quote of the day was from Senator Blumenthal who said, “Put simply, the mission of the center is to save the world, so no pressure."

 

Additional leaders who came out to show their support were Dan Esty, commissioner of DEEP, Rep. Courtney, as well as representatives from the EPA and NOAA.

 

Although the fine details about what the center might do have not been completely established, statements from the speakers gave me hope for what a great resource this could truly be. This facility would be a source of information for homeowners, businesses and students alike that want to learn how to mitigate the risks that go along with living on the shoreline, especially with the more frequent storms that our region has experienced. Also, this could be viewed as a revitalization of the UCONN Avery Point campus itself. The campus was referred to by Gov. Malloy as, a jewel in the UCONN system that has been underutilized.

 

The buzzword that I kept hearing over and over from the speakers was, “resiliency.” It seems that the Institute for Community Resilience and Climate Adaptation will be the hub for Connecticut communities to get the information they need to know about climate change events that affect us all. With the diligence and hard work of the folks over at UCONN Avery Point, this center could change the way in which we think, and react to the impacts of climate change on the shoreline. Only time will tell if we have mitigated these disasters properly.

Learn more about the Institute for Community Resilience and Climate Adaptation and this historic day here.

September 20th - Bike to Work or School for a Free Breakfast!

 

 

Who: Elm City Cycling and Cold Spring School

What: Free breakfast for all bicyclists & pedestrians!

When: Friday, September 20th. 7:30 – 9:30 a.m.

Where: Pitkin Plaza, Orange Street between Chapel & Court Streets, New Haven, CT.

for more information contact Elm City Cycling 203-287-9811 or elmcitycycling.org

 

April 2, 2013 NERC Textile Recovery Workshop

2 April 2013

8:30 AM-4:30 PM

Registration Fee Depends on Status

Nathan Hale Inn & Conference Center

Storrs, CT

    The Northeast Recylcing Council is hosting Collecting Textiles: Make it Work for Your Community at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT. This event will offer municipalities, recycling coordinators, schools, colleges, universities, and civic groups an opportunity to learn key information about key players in the textile reuse and recycling industry. The even will also include practical information on how community leaders can set up textile reuse/recycling programs that can work for them. For a full schedule of the day, feel free to check out the agenda here.

*Registration Ends March 19, 2013: So Register Now

Registration

NERC Member (Board or Advisory Member): $285

Non-Member: $385

Students, Nonprofits, Municipal Employees: $100

For More Information: http://www.nerc.org/ 

To Register: http://www.nerc.org/registration/indexSpg13.php

 

6th Annual Global Environmental Sustainability Symposium: Transportation, Human Mobility, and Sustainability at CCSU

April 4th, 2013

9:45 AM-7:15 PM 

FREE, Registration Required

Central Connecticut State University

New Britain, Connecticut

The CCSU Global Environmental Sustainability Action Coalition invites the public to learn and to teach one another about the actions that we, as human beings, must take to ensure that we live in such a way that we are able to satisfy our needs while ensuring that our children and grandchildren will be able to satisfy their own. The symposium will offer 3 classes, two performances, a panel discussion, a tour, and an optional attendance at the town meeting, as well as opening and closing notes from distinguished professionals in sustainability. This event is FREE: anyone can register online to show up. *Exhibitor tables are still open.

Schedule

9:45-10:00 AM: Symposium opening and welcome with Dr. Charles Button and Dr. Jack Miller (tentative) at Alumni Hall

10:00-10:45: Transportation, Migration, and Sustainability in Four Worlds Alumni Hall

Dr. John Kelmelis expands upon a possibility raised by the United States National Intelligence Council when they published Global Trends 2030: Alternative World. This work explores four very possible future worlds. Dr. Kelmelis will explain what each of these worlds might mean for our future as well as what strategies we might use to make the most of each circumstance at the local, regional, national, and global levels. 

11:00-11:45: Panel Discussion: Electric Cars and Alternative Vehicles Alumni Hall

The president of the New England Electric Auto Association (Dave Oliveria), an environmental writer and speaker (Jim Motavalli), the Senior Associates Autos Editor for Consumer Reports (Eric Evarts), and a natural gas car owner (Joe Booth) all come together in one place to talk about the real value that hybrid, extended hybrid, and electric vehicles hold. This is a special opportunity to discover what users and reviewers genuinely think about these alternative vehicles.

12:00-1:45 (*with second free registration): Water Wars Performance and Lunch Alumni Hall

While you enjoy your lunch, the Sonia Plumb Dance Company will be performing Water Wars. This is an emotionally charged piece of art that exposes the very important and very tenuous relationship that human beings have with one of our primary sources of life: water.

Finally, a good school lunch

We've talked about school lunch before on this site. We feel strongly about what our kids eat, what we eat, and the quality of sustainable foods and farming. This site also reported on the topic a couple of months ago when lawmakers considered pizza a vegetable serving because of its two tablespoons of tomato paste per serving. 

Reuters reported today that the USDA has done a small overhaul of school nutrition to include more fruits and vegetables and skim milk. They have also mandated a child-size portion and lower sodium, among other things.

About time, isn't it? See the excerpt below.

More fruits, veggies in school lunch rules
By Ian Simpson and Lisa Baertlein | Reuters – 59 mins ago

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. school children, accustomed to a steady diet of pizza and French fries, will find more fruits, vegetables and whole grains on their trays under new government rules announced on Wednesday.

The new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules aim to boost the nutritional quality of the federally funded meals consumed by roughly 32 million U.S. school children.

The rules represent the first major revision of school meal standards in more than 15 years and are intended to combat the nation's childhood obesity crisis -- nearly one in three children in America is overweight or obese.

The revamp comes just months after U.S. lawmakers protected pizza's status as a vegetable and killed proposed limits on weekly servings of starchy vegetables like potatoes.

OPERATION TRASHDOWN: It All Adds Up!

by Ilene Moyher

Back-to-school time brings about new schedules, new clothes, and new school supplies. Why not incorporate a few new habits that will certainly help our children’s futures? We all need to be more environmentally-responsible when getting ready for school. But being ‘green’ can take on many forms.  Here we’ll focus on reducing what ends up in landfills and at the bottom of our oceans by creating less trash (see here for just one story on where discarded “stuff” ends up: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch).

1. Lunches: Pack ‘no waste’ lunches by buying food and beverages in bulk and putting them in reusable containers. This will also save you money on wraps and individually-packaged items. Encourage your child’s school to move toward reusable (not disposable) trays, dishes, napkins, and utensils. 
2. School Supplies: First, check your inventory at home and reuse or recycle what you can. For new items, there are many durable, refillable, and eco-friendly options for notebooks, paper, pens & pencils, art supplies, and more. (See a previous article on this site about Naked Binders.)
3. Encourage Kids to Take Care of Things and Reuse Them: Ideas include using scrap paper, limiting printing or print on both sides of a page, and adopting any other habits based on concern for resources and the Earth. By living a less disposable lifestyle, you’ll save money, too! 
4. Consider the Packaging: Try to buy based on the amount of packaging, whether it’s made from recycled content, and whether it’s recyclable.  “Waste from packaging accounts for more than 30 percent of all the waste generated each year. Use school supplies wrapped with minimal packaging; use compact or concentrated products; or buy products that come in bulk sizes. Save packaging, colored paper, egg cartons and other items for arts and crafts projects.” (from EPA’s Tips for a Waste-Less School Year)

It all adds up! Just imagine all the garbage that can be eliminated from reducing use of juice boxes and sandwich wrapping alone!

School Supplies: A Recipe for Disaster?

In only a few weeks, the kids will be back to school in full swing. So every August the push is on to load up with school supplies. But what the Center for Health, Environment & Justice would like you to remember is that a huge percentage of school supplies contain one of the most toxic substances to human health: polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Anything and everything from backpacks to lunchboxes can contain the material. See the excerpt below from Environmental News Network:

Toxic School Supplies pose Threat to Children's Health
Center for Health, Environment & Justice, press release dated August 8, 2011

A new 2011 study found PVC is the most widely used hazardous plastic in the world.  Children are particularly vulnerable to the harmful health effects of toxic chemicals, such as phthalates, lead and dioxin, that are released by the PVC lifecycle. These chemicals are linked to chronic diseases on the rise in children including learning and developmental disabilities, asthma, obesity and cancer.

“Parents have a right to know about toxic chemicals in children’s products,” said Mike Schade, PVC Campaign Coordinator for the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ).  “Unfortunately, many school supplies are made out of PVC or vinyl plastic, the most toxic plastic for our health and the environment.  This plastic can contain a toxic stew of phthalates, lead, cadmium, and organotins-it’s a recipe for disaster.  Thankfully parents can now find safer and affordable products for their children with our 2011 Back to School Guide to PVC-Free School Supplies.”

Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) contains dangerous chemical additives such as phthalates, lead, cadmium, and/or organotins, which can be toxic to a child’s health. Over 90% of all phthalates are used to soften PVC products.  While phthalates have been banned in toys, they are still used in children’s school supplies and other PVC products. PVC is also a major source of dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known to science.  Dioxin has been targeted for international phase-out by a treaty signed by over 170 nations across the world.

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of Examiner.com.

Kids and PCBs

Think your kids are safe at school? According to this article in The New York Times, they may not be. Many of the schools in New York City have been found to contain harmful levels of PCBs. As a result, a growing number of parents are opting to keep their kids home. With medical evidence suggesting the physical and mental impairment caused from long-term exposure to PCBs, they have cause for alarm. See the excerpt below.

Parents Seek More Action on PCBs in Schools
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: February 3, 2011

"As the father of an 8-year-old attending Public School 36 on Staten Island, Richard P. Ghiraldi was alarmed to learn that students were being exposed to a known carcinogen.

Last month, Mr. Ghiraldi and hundreds of other parents kept their children home from school for four days after tests showed that lighting ballasts — the devices that regulate electric current for fluorescent lights — were leaking the highly toxic chemical compounds known as PCBs onto the light fixtures and floor tiles.

'I was surprised they still had these old ballasts in schools,' said Mr. Ghiraldi, a paralegal. 'You’d think the custodians and the teachers would think it’d be a danger.'

Yet as he and other parents in New York City press doctors and government officials on the risks from the aging classroom fixtures, which remain in some 800 of 1,200 city school buildings, the answers have been frustratingly vague. Adding to the parental stress, the Bloomberg administration has disputed the urgency of replacing all of the T-12-style fluorescent lighting, estimating it would cost about $1 billion. Its negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency continue.

There is no immediate health risk from PCBs lingering in schools, all are told, yet with one important caveat: the longer the exposure, the higher the risk."

Click The New York Times link above to read more.

Image courtesy of Seton.com. 

GVI: Where are they now?

by Eileen Weber

Last May, I wrote an article about the Westport Green Village Initiative (GVI) that was making headway by spreading their sustainable word to other towns like Ridgefield and Fairfield. With grassroots movements in community gardens, recycling, energy and water conservation and a very green message, their hope was to grow an idea from the ground up one town at a time.

That concept started with one Westport businessman, Dan Levinson. He has been the catalyst for the GVIs in the area. Claire Carlson in Ridgefield shared his vision and she has taken that town by storm. With a film series and lectures at the town library and the Aldrich Museum as well as organic gardens in the school system, she has single-handedly started a green movement in that section of Fairfield County.

The hope was that Fairfield would follow in Ridgefield’s footsteps. But unfortunately, it never did. A town that has organic gardens in almost every school in the district couldn’t seem to get it together to create their own GVI system. When Levinson questioned this, he was told the politics in the town were too stiff. He was left with the strong impression that he should look elsewhere.

Silly Trend

If you have school-aged children, then you know all about Silly Bandz. These rubber bands made from silicone and die-molded are coveted by boys and girls alike. They trade them. They collect them. They fight over them. All of this much to the chagrin of teachers across the country. In fact, many schools have banned the little suckers from their classrooms. They come in an array of shapes including animals and electronic gadgets like iPods and MP3 players. And when they break? Hey, just throw them out, right? Just one more silly trend adding to our garbage pile. See an excerpt from an article in The Boston Globe below.

Bandz in Boston
The Boston Globe
By Beth Teitell
Globe Correspondent
Posted June 3, 2010

"'I really don’t know why I like them,’' said Casey, 10, shrugging cheerfully as she chatted with other girls who were similarly decked out. 'I figured other people liked them.'’

She figured right.

The rubbery bands, which come in a multitude of collectible shapes — cowboy boots to monkeys to Wally the Green Monster — are so trendy that if they were a person, they’d be Justin Bieber.

Silly bands meet all the requirements of a modern craze. They’ve nabbed the top-selling spots on Amazon’s toys and games category. Kids can’t stop talking about them. Parents are fighting over limited supplies, according to one manufacturer. Schools are banning them. A-list celebrities are reportedly requesting customized packs for fans. And, of course, there’s the requisite Facebook page, Twitter feed, and YouTube videos.

Seen stretched out on the wrist, the bracelets — known generically as silly bands, but sold as Silly Bandz, Zanybandz, Stretchy Shapes, and Goofy Bands — don’t look that special. It’s off-wrist that the genius of the product can be appreciated. They come in such a wide variety of shapes that there may not be a human alive who couldn’t find something appealing."

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of Sillybandz.

Fuel for Learning

by Eileen Weber

Last night, the Fairfield Board of Education (BoE) held a meeting to hear a number of issues. Not least of them was a presentation by the Fuel for Learning Partnership, an organization sponsored by the PTA Council that advocates school lunch nutrition.

Michelle McCabe, who heads up the organization, gave a 20-minute speech detailing all the reasons why we need to take notice of what our kids eat for lunch. You may think your child is eating healthy when chicken tenders and broccoli are on the menu. But chances are, the kids aren’t eating the broccoli. They are, however, eating the chicken tenders processed with too much sugar, salt, fat, and preservatives.

Most alarming, McCabe gave a comparison between a standard school lunch and a meal at McDonald’s. Guess what? McDonald’s has fewer calories and less salt than the popcorn chicken your child ate yesterday. (McDonald’s still wins in the fat category, but not by much.) What planet are we living on when a Happy Meal is a healthier option than lunch in the school cafeteria?

Green Grads

by Eileen Weber
 
Thanks to about 23 plastic bottles, the cap and gown your grad will be wearing this year may be a whole lot greener. Colleges and universities across the country are ordering environmentally friendly graduation garb for their students. The students can rent the wardrobe and turn them in after graduation for next year’s use. How’s that for Reduce-Reuse-Recycle?
 
The material is made from recycled plastic bottles. The bottles are broken down into plastic pellets. The pellets are melted down, extruded, and spun into fabric. Et voilà, a cap and gown!
 
What is significant here is that traditional pomp and circumstance has caught up with the rest of the world. For years, polyester ruled campuses everywhere. And they still do. Only 100 schools opted for eco-friendly caps and gowns while the remaining 1,500 stayed true to the shiny synthetic. With the green gowns, students can rent their cap and gown and return them for use another year. And for schools that have made a move to be environmentally friendly in other ways—recycling, green building, and local, organic produce in their cafeterias, among other things—this is a perfect way to end a green year.

GVI

by Eileen Weber

Have you heard? There’s a food revolution going on and it’s happening right here in Connecticut. Three towns in Fairfield County have all started their own GVIs. For those that can’t crack the alphabetical code, GVI stands for Green Village Initiative. That means organic school and community gardens. It means films and lecture series about sustainable living. It’s about renewable energy, not using harsh chemicals, and recycling. It’s everything “green” stands for and then some.

So how did this happen? One man: Dan Levinson. A Westport resident, business owner, and green entrepreneur, Levinson saw a way to bring his strong sense of environmentalism into the mainstream while simultaneously bringing his community together. And he’s brought it not only to Westport, but also to Ridgefield and most recently Fairfield.

“The act of completing a project creates a buzz,” Levinson said today at a GVI meeting at the Westport Library, “It’s what sets us apart.”

Dress Yourself in Garbage

by Eileen Weber

Trashy Fashions. It’s a cute little quip for a great idea: Repurpose what we throw out as something we wear. Around the country, school kids have been bringing in their garbage and making a wardrobe instead.

For the last four years here in Connecticut, the Trashy Fashions group in Fairfield was born from two local teachers who saw the educational value in getting their students involved in an environmental cause.

“It’s not really about the recycled material,” said Nancy Malafatopoulos, who teaches at Fairfield Warde High School. “It’s about the construction. These kids use braiding and pleating of these materials. I’ve seen some of the kids take newspaper and crunch it up over and over again to make it more like a fabric.”

Kroon Hall Makes Top Ten Green List

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected Yale University’s new Kroon Hall as one of the top ten examples of “sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment.” Centerbrook Architects collaborated on the project with Hopkins Architects of London and an all-star team of consultants that included ARUP engineers, atelier 10, Nitsch engineering, Kalin Associates, and Olin Partnership.

The new home for the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the 66,818-square-foot building was designed to use 81 percent less water and 58 percent less energy than a comparable baseline structure and to generate 25 percent of its electricity onsite from renewable sources.  It was recently certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council and has won more than a dozen design awards.

A Healthier Future

by Courtney Dumais

The “Food For Thought” Expo on Saturday got me thinking about the country’s youth.  After all, if we fail to responsibly protect the Earth’s resources, our children and their children will suffer from our negligence. For me, these future generations are a large driving force behind the need to keep the Earth clean, healthy and safe.

Granted I have only inhabited the planet for a mere twenty years (and am not a parent), I have nonetheless, witnessed a variety of significant transformations, many of which resulted from important technological advancements. In my lifetime, these advancements entered the home in the form of computers, cell phones and genetically modified foods. For my parents, televisions and microwaves invaded.

Many Americans have difficulty imagining life without these things, certainly most children cannot fathom life, or even a day, without a cell phone, television, game-cube, X-box, Cheez-Its and so on. Despite my mother’s best efforts, my little brother arrives home from school, grabs a box of Trix and proceeds to engage in violent wars on the latest and greatest gaming system. I am in no way saying all the above should be eliminated, rather examining how such things will alter the future.

Four-Day School Week

by Eileen Weber

Today’s Headline News reported Illinois school districts were considering a four-day school week. This was a move, in part, to save money for some starving school budgets. But, it was also stated that there would be a side benefit to one less day for school children: Energy savings.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) and their EnergySmart program, schools spend more of their budget on energy costs than any other expense besides personnel. They estimate that the average school district spends $175 per student on energy costs per year. By being more energy-efficient, a school can cut its costs by as much as 30%. Can cutting one day a week serve that purpose, or present more problems?

The U.S. DOE will tell you that energy is one of the few expenses a school can reduce without sacrificing educational quality. The sad thing is, most school officials don’t realize that. Making energy-efficient choices in lighting, heating, and water usage can go a long way.

More to the point, schools that are energy efficient can use that to their advantage as a teaching tool. What better way to build future environmentalists than to start their learning process in an environmentally friendly school?

Electric Bus

by Eileen Weber

Getting from Point A to Point B may be a little greener these days for some schools and universities. Hybrid buses are being used for transportation here in Connecticut and as far away as Wyoming.

According to IC Bus, an Illinois-based subsidiary of Navistar, Inc., the largest manufacturer of school buses in the country, the average school bus uses over 1,700 gallons of fuel annually. The average hybrid, however, uses less than half that at 600 gallons. The hybrid buses also reduce emissions up to 40%.

Here are some other amazing statistics IC Bus would like you to know: The daily fuel cost of transporting a child to school by private vehicle costs $3.68 while the same child taking the bus only costs 73 cents; One school bus has the capacity to take 36 cars off the road, with a total of 17.3 million cars every year; If 10% more children rode the bus, another 300 million gallons of fuel would be saved annually.

These quick, little facts may not pop into your head when you see a big yellow bus belching exhaust in front of you at the stoplight. But many school officials are seeing buses as a way to be greener and cleaner.

Fairfield University Goes Green

by Courtney Dumais

For the last five years, students, teachers and administrators at Fairfield University have joined together in an attempt to reduce the school’s carbon footprint. A major step took place in about three years ago with the installation of a Cogeneration power plant, known on campus as the “COGEN.” The plant, referred to by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as a combined heat and power plant (CHP), cleanly and efficiently generates and produces power and thermal energy. In the University’s case, the COGEN produces almost enough electricity to power the entire campus.

As a result of the COGEN, Fairfield University has reduced its’ emissions of three major greenhouse gases: sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide.  The plant is an integral part of the University’s sustainability initiatives and it successfully embraces the Jesuit mission to be good stewards of the Earth through social awareness and moral responsibility. 

In a previous article on this site, we discussed the Jesuits commitment to the environment with their recently renovated residence. The building incorporates closed loop geothermal heating and cooling system 400 feet underground, a roof garden that can absorb up to 95% of rainfall, and sustainable bamboo flooring.

Live Green—Win Green

Earlier this month, West Hartford’s Conard High School won the praise—and the People’s Choice Award—from Connecticut Light & Power for their video and essay submitted to the Live Green—Win Green contest. The contest is meant to be a venue for students to explore sustainable and environmental projects that could create revenue for their school. Students were also encouraged to think of ways their school could be greener in the future.   

Meatless Mondays - Coming to a School Near You

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

I often wonder how old my son will have to get before his peers notice he's a vegetarian. He's in kindergarten, and so far, no one's the wiser that his "turkey sandwich" is made from spelt and soy-beans and his "hot dogs" are SmartDogs. It was no big deal last year when I could afford to send him to Waldorf, but this year we headed to, gulp, public schools.

Even so, I keep thinking that with a little luck (and global warming + overpopulation = not enough land for raising animals) being vegetarian will become the norm and he won't have to cope with being seen as different (doesn't every family have a bug relocation program?) Well, the Baltimore school system is one of the first to introduce Meatless Mondays, where they'll serve 80,000 kids up an all veggie menu. 

And they're not stopping there. From The Green Fork, "BCPS has teemed up with local farmers and distributors to provide students fresh, locally raised fruits, vegetables and milk. They’ve also introduced Great Kids Farm, a 33-acre teaching farm, home to chickens, goats and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Educators on the farm teach kids and adults how to produce home-grown fresh food, even in an urban setting."

I'm staying the course and letting the tides turn - and if they don't, he can go to therapy like nearly everyone else.

Trash-Free Lunch

by Eileen Weber

I don’t know what it is. Every year when September starts to roll around, I suddenly feel the urge to dash out and buy a pack of loose leaf paper and a pencil box.

It’s the pencil box that makes me giggle. You know the kind—it has a pair of scissors that won’t cut dirt but a compass with a point so sharp you can kill a horse. Add to that a protractor for all that geometry homework assigned in kindergarten and you’re starting the school year off right.

Back-to-school always means shopping for supplies. And most importantly, some of those supplies will go in your child’s lunch box.

Now there’s a can of worms. If you give your child a homemade lunch, too often your child is throwing away excess waste with plastic bags and tin foil. If you allow your child the hot lunch from the cafeteria, you’re dealing with a sticky issue about the actual nutrition your child receives. Those lunches consist of processed foods with way too much sodium and high fructose corn syrup, which only adds to our juvenile diabetes and obesity rates. School lunches are not so easy.

Ready or NOT!

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

I'll be the first to admit that I'm extreme when it comes to what I feed my kids. Whole food, organic, local, vegetarian, no sugar, non-GMO...the whole nine yards. Grandparents and friends have long since given up trying to convince me that I work too hard at keeping my 5 and 4 year old children in a "bubble," but in less than a week, I'll be forced to let them venture off to (gulp) public school and POP, the bubble will go.

Thanks to the film, Two Angry Moms, its group site and the example of other moms who have forged ahead to become advocates of healthy school food, I know I'm in good company. But the truth is, I'm scared.

While I know nothing will improve unless a squeaky wheel garners attention, creates a plan and rolls up her sleeves to encourage action, I'm not shy to admit that I want someone else to do it. After all, why would any mother in her right mind want to be the fall guy or risk having her child labeled as the kid with the vegetarian, tree hugging mom who complains all the time?

Love.

So here I go, jumping head first into school food advocacy, with the same "can't turn back now" attitude I summon when cliff diving.

Green Soil

by Eileen Weber

Composting. It’s a great idea. Lots of people do it. But these days, students eager to spread their environmental wings are taking the process of composting seriously.

Take these Staples High School students from Westport, for example. Casey Richardson, along with her friends Molly Pieper, Sasha Bern and Venetia Stanley, became environmental entrepreneurs founding the Soil Yourself Composting company. Richardson, the mastermind behind the project, focused her junior year research paper on the subject, which sparked the idea for their business.

“Even though what we are doing is on a very small, local scale, I know what we are doing is really making a difference,” said Pieper. “It's great knowing that I am doing my part to protect my earth.”

With a little financial help from their parents and an investment of $600, they bought composting tumblers to deposit food scraps and other organic waste. They turn the material over a few times a day to keep it aerated. Scraps like eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds and corn cobs supply a nice ratio between carbon and nitrogen-rich elements to the soil.

While these young women have gotten phenomenal responses from the community in support of their project, they haven’t seen the fruit of their labors yet. “Our first food scrap pick-up was June 22,” said Pieper, “so about two months from then will be our first compost delivery.”

A Green FROG In Connecticut

by Eileen Weber

The Watkinson School in Hartford, the city’s only independent school founded in 1881, had a ground-breaking for their net-zero science facility on May 27th. San Francisco-based Project FROG designed the school’s Center for Science and Global Citizenship. This school building will be the first of its kind in New England. The construction date is scheduled for next week.

“The building [will be] as smart as the students and teachers in it,” said John Bracker, Watkinson’s Head of School. Some of the key elements in the design are a geothermal heating and cooling system as well as solar panels. Large glass windows will be incorporated into the design to trap in heat in the winter and block it out in the summer. The windows will also provide lots of natural light to cut down on electricity costs.

Bracker said that the school looked into updating its science building about five years ago. But conventional methods were too expensive. When the concept of going green for less money came up, the Board of Trustees gave the go-ahead.

“This will not only augment the way we teach but change the way we teach. The building will be as much a part of the curriculum as any other teaching tools,” said Bracker. In other words, in order for the school to teach about sustainability they have to be sustainable.

Local School Wins Award

by Eileen Weber

The Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School (LOLMS) was recently acknowledged for their green initiatives in the School of Future Design Competition. On May 1st, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the Council of Education Facility Planners International Foundation (CEFPI) sponsored the event as well as the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the American Institute of Architects along with over 30 associations and private companies. They announced the winners of the competition, which kicks off at the beginning of the school year, in Washington, D.C.

Students from across the country participated in the competition. Given the task to redesign their school in an environmentally friendly way, they were judged on sustainability, technology and community involvement in their projects. The event was part of School Building Week from April 27th through May 1st.

"Successful schools build successful communities." said Sue Robertson, CEFPI president in the company’s press release dated the last day of the competition. "Today's students, tomorrow's green builders, are committed to creating healthy, high performing schools and communities. Let's supply them with all the tools they need to improve the places where children learn. And then, let's really listen to them—because they have some really good ideas!"

Study: Americans buy green to save environment

Published by Yale Daily News
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
By Amy Ramirez
Contributing Reporter

Despite the current economic crisis, its seems Americans are willing to spend green to go green.

A study conducted by Yale and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change and Communication published last week found that Americans are taking an extremely proactive stance on global warming prevention — that they are willing, for instance, to boycott companies that do not sell green products, pay more for green products and pressure the government to pass green legislation.

The study, conducted by Anthony Leiserowtiz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change, and Edward Maibach and Connie Roser-Renouf of George Mason, was a pilot study for a long-term study aiming to build a panel comprised of the participants of the study and their children. The team will follow the 2,164 American adults surveyed to determine whether and how their beliefs on climate change and green behaviors change over time.

Roser-Renouf said the study’s results were fairly counterintuitive.

“One thing that was extremely surprising from the results was the high proportion of people who are already engaging in consumer activism,” she said. “They are choosing green products and are spending their money at companies that they feel are trying to do something to reduce the climate change.”

Edible School Gardens

by Eileen Weber

We have an epidemic. No, it doesn’t involve an incurable virus or Dustin Hoffman in a Hazmat suit à la Outbreak. However, it does involve kids, their parents, and the schools they attend.

Edible school gardens are growing at a rapid pace. Increasingly, school districts are making the gardens part of their curriculum. The Edible School Gardens Workshop at the Unitarian Church in Westport, sponsored in part by the Westport Green Village Initiative in partnership with Amy Kalafa, founder of Two Angry Moms, featured an expert panel of school garden organizers. With a room filled almost to capacity this morning, parents, farmers, gardeners, and school officials alike listened intently about how to start one in their own school system.

Dorothy Mullen, founder of the Riverside Elementary School gardens in Princeton, NJ, discussed how she got the project underway in her district. Only a few weeks post-9/11 in November 2001, she wanted to make a change in the school lunch system by introducing fresh food.

She noted how nutrition positively or negatively affects the body. “The brain is the most sensitive organ to poor nutrition,” she said. At the very least, kids can have a loss in concentration that prevents learning. “When the brain is out fuel,” she said, “we can’t learn correctly.”

Mullen, who is also an addiction counselor, said she started small by taking kids on a walking tour to her backyard garden. Then, the concept grew. She wanted to take it to the school. This was one way to instill the benefits of nutrition. She pointed out that, with a garden, there is a teaching opportunity for other subjects: science, math, food and nutrition, and art. From an environmental perspective, conservation in composting and water usage is a valuable lesson as well.

No Lunch Left Behind

Published by The New York Times
February 20, 2009
Op-Ed Contributors
By ALICE WATERS and KATRINA HERON
Berkeley, Calif.

This new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to be a poor investment. It should be redesigned to make our children healthier.

Under the program, the United States Department of Agriculture gives public schools cash for every meal they serve — $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced-price lunch and 24 cents for a paid lunch. In 2007, the program cost around $9 billion, a figure widely acknowledged as inadequate to cover food costs. But what most people don’t realize is that very little of this money even goes toward food. Schools have to use it to pay for everything from custodial services to heating in the cafeteria.

On top of these reimbursements, schools are entitled to receive commodity foods that are valued at a little over 20 cents per meal. The long list of options includes high-fat, low-grade meats and cheeses and processed foods like chicken nuggets and pizza. Many of the items selected are ready to be thawed, heated or just unwrapped — a necessity for schools without kitchens. Schools also get periodic, additional “bonus” commodities from the U.S.D.A., which pays good money for what are essentially leftovers from big American food producers.

What’s For Lunch, Mom?

by Eileen Weber

The alarm rings. Another school day. Get up. Feed the dogs. Make the breakfast. Set out the lunchboxes. A few minutes later, my three daughters bound down the stairs in their fuzzy pajamas. Still shaking the sleep from their eyes, I hear, “Mom, can I have hot lunch at school today?”

Hot lunch. I say those two words through gritted teeth. They signify a whole plateful of unsaturated fats and triglycerides with a side of high fructose corn syrup. I silently wonder if my daughters will see a vegetable today.

The nutritional content of school lunches is a topic that has been on many parents’ minds across the country. Last week, Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley and author of such titles as In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and Omnivore’s Dilemma, was interviewed by PBS’s Bill Moyer. Pollan spoke about the school lunch issue in relation to last month’s election of Barack Obama.

“I think we need a food policy czar in the White House,” he said during the November 28th broadcast. He went on to say that agriculture in this country directly affects public health, energy, climate change and education. He made the point that, if the Surgeon General talks about the dangers of type 2 diabetes, it is not acceptable to then subsidize farmers who produce high fructose corn syrup, a main contributor to obesity in this country.

Organic Turf Care Workshop November 20th

Want to Understand Your Carbon Footprint?

by Tracey Finch

Then read the Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon (Orchard Books/Scholastic $15.99 and worth every penny).  Oh yeah, and don't forget that this is supposed to be a children's book. But the book should be required reading for all kids 8-100.

This colorful and nicely designed book is a must read for children and yes, even adults who could use an easy-to-read primer on today's environmental problems. If we want to educate ourselves and our children, this book covers the science of global warming, the effect on our weather, the impact on plant and animal life and the many steps we can all take to help reverse global warming.

When asked about her favorite green products, author Cambria Gordon said, "My favorite green products are bio-bags . They are completely bio-degradable and great for lining trash cans in the house.  I also can't live without my SIGG stainless steel water bottle.  Mine says "Simply ECO Logical."

Connecticut Schools Go Green

by Eileen Weber

There have been several reports about colleges and universities that have gone green. From sustainable projects to eco-design to organic gardening, environmentalism continues to grow on campuses across the country.

Connecticut College in New London has been a leader in environmental awareness since they first offered a human ecology major in 1969. “The whole campus embodies the commitment to environmental sustainability,” said Amy Cabaniss, Campus Environmental Coordinator.

Today, they have an on-campus composting process, a student initiated light bulb exchange program to switch out energy inefficient bulbs, and students can pay an extra $25 per year to support renewable energy at the school.

The college will also engage in an energy audit at the end of this month as a means to further reduce energy waste. Among other things, the audit will assess their overall energy use, water demand, recycling habits and transportation practices. “We think we’re green but how green are we?” said Cabaniss. “This is one way for us to find out.”

Submit Comments for Healthy School Lunches by 10/15!

Read more posts on motherhood and the environment on Eco-Mamas.com

My last post, before the haze of a holiday weekend set in, focused on the reauthorization of The Child Nutrition Act in 2009. I asked readers to comment on the USDA's public comment website to make their voices heard. We want fresh fruits and vegetables! We want increased funding! We want standards for "snack line" foods! And, then I got to thinking. I asked all of you to comment, I commented, but then I stopped there.

Today, energized by a sunny holiday weekend spent with my children, I realized I could do more. Did you comment? Do you want to take it a step further? To quote someone very politically relevant - YES, I CAN! Today I wrote a letter to every member of the school board as well as my children's school principals and some powerful PTA women that I know that can really get the job done. It was so simple and so quick. Visit your school's website, scout out the email addresses and type a quick letter. No time to write the letter? Here - take mine! Just don't tell the kids how quick and easy plagiarism can be!

Dear Members of the Board,

My name is (your name here), a mother of x, y, z attending the (ABC) Consolidated Schools. I am writing you today to request your attention to an important matter:

The Child Nutrition Act - a major piece of federal legislation that helps determine school food policy and resources – will begin reauthorization in 2009. Amazingly, this act has been unchanged since the 1960's and besides being outdated, it doesn't address many issues facing students today, such as: obesity, diabetes, cholesterol levels, allergies, working parent households, religous beliefs and many other factors not present in the 1960's. In addition, the current act doesn't contain any standards for so-called "snack-line" foods such as brand name items, fast food chain selections, sodas and marketing gimmicks.

The good news is the USDA and the government are accepting the public's comments on the reauthorization of this act, but the comment period ends very soon - October 15, 2008. I understand this email is reaching you during the busiest time, right at the beginning of a new school year. However, I am only asking for a moment of your time to pass the word along to your fellow colleagues, the schools and their PTAs and the food service department.

For those who are limited on time, simply visit the website I provided below and enter your comments. The website address:

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=09000064805f47dd

A basic set of comments are as follows (please feel free to cut and paste these comments into the comments section if you wish!):

• Increase funding for school meals and provide incentives for schools to offer healthier foods.
• Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Improve nutrition standards for school meals so they align with the most recent dietary guidelines.
• Establish standards for food sold in schools outside of the school meals programs such as that sold at snack bars and cafeteria a la carte lines.

Back to a Greener School!

By Heather Johnson

Most of you teachers are gearing up for the school year and getting the classroom ready and we've come up with 50 different ways to go green in your classroom. Parents, teachers are always looking for great ideas, so read on!

Class Projects

1. Recycle Competition: Many classrooms already have recycling barrels next to the trash can, but you can start a competition with your hall to see which class can save the most newspapers, soda cans, water bottles or any other recyclable item.
2. Compost heap: If your school isn’t willing to start composting, you can create a mini compost pile outside your classroom to get rid of some of your garbage, though it’s probably a smart idea to make sure it’s cleared with the administration and fire codes.
3. Start a garden: Use the compost to fertilize a class garden. You can grow vegetables or flowers, and let the students sample what you grow.
4. Recycle technology: If you’re lucky enough to be getting new computers this fall, invite your kids to join the Goodwill and Dell Reconnect program, which recycles computers and other electronics.
5. Go Green Database: Browse this database for fun eco-friendly projects that encourage awareness.
6. Plan an end-of-the-day room check: During the last few minutes of the day, have your children make sure all the water faucets are completely turned off, blinds are closed, lights are off and windows are closed. You can give different groups a checklist for each part of the room.
7. Adopt a rainforest: This project works with any unit you’re teaching. Your class can adopt the rainforest, whales, a block on your street or any other place you want to make a difference.
8. Use real plants for class pets: If your classroom has a pet turtle, lizard or fish, use real plants instead of synthetic or plastic plants. It’s better for the greater environment, as well as your little friend.
9. Calculate your carbon footprint: You can use this calculator to calculate your classroom’s carbon footprint, or the combined effect all of your students have on the environment. Then, discuss ways to minimize your effect on the environment.
10. Take an eco-friendly field trip: Walk to a nearby park to examine the local ecosystems without using extra gas.
11. Start a class website: Older students will respond to a class website, where they can get homework help, submit discussion questions, and play with interactive study guides, all of which save paper.
12. Raise monarch butterflies: This teacher started a class project to raise monarch butterflies in order to teach her students about natural ecosystems and the developing stages of life.

School Supplies

It’s time to reevaluate your school supply closet and figure out how to introduce safer, more environmentally friendly pens, paints and tissues into the mix.

13. Use water-based paints: The Green Guide recommends using water-based paints for a non-toxic creative project.
14. Green art projects: This list of green art projects are all good for the environment, and some utilize natural ingredients and products like clay and wood.
15. Use green tissues: These Seventh Generation brand tissues are chlorine-free, so they aren’t a threat to the ozone layer and have no dyes or artificial fragrances.
16. Make your own cleaning kit: Free your students of breathing in harmful chemicals and help the environment by whipping up your own batch of non-toxic, environmentally friendly cleaning supplies.
17. Stock your room with green school supplies: If you or your school’s budget can afford it, stock your room with green school supplies, like recycled notebook binders and biodegradable corn starch pens.
18. Write with recycled pencils: This number two pencil is also made of recycled wood.
19. Acid-free glue stick: For all your art projects, use acid-free glue stick, which is less messier than liquid glue and better for the environment.
20. Send efaxes: For permission slips and progress reports, send out electronic faxes that don’t require extra paper or electricity.
21. Recharge batteries: Rechargeable batteries can save the earth from harmful metals and compounds that can’t be broken down when you toss out old batteries.

Join the Yogurt Brigade!

It appears my plea for finding a use for yogurt cups was heard... once again by the innovative folks TerraCycle.

In conjunction with Stonyfield Farm, TerraCycle's Yogurt Brigade is collecting 6 and 32 oz yogurt containers from the Northeast part of the country and arranging to have them reused as disposal planting pots! Brilliant! You can get rid of all those pesky, lidless yogurt cups!

The second brilliant part of TerraCycle's scheme? For every pot you send, they'll donate 2 or 5 cents (more for the biggies!) to a charity of your choice! You just need the Tax ID number!

There are certain guidelines for the Yogurt Brigade so be sure to read their FAQs before signing up.  For any questions, send an email to [email protected] or call 609-393-4252 x 36.

Be sure to read about TerraCycle's other brilliant brigades for Drink Pouches and Plastic Bottles.
 

CT-Based BuildGreenSchools.org

An amazing Web site, buildgreenschools.org, has launched!

A few things to check out:

Spotlight on Green Schools Advocates: As the name suggests, this will be our opportunity to highlight your successes. Please keep us posted on your advocacy efforts: speaking engagements, green school victories and other noteworthy milestones.

Resource Library: This is only a preliminary list. We intend to expand this section considerably. If you know of a Web site that belongs on this page, please email me with the site address and a 2-3 sentence description.

Contact: Those interested in joining your Green Schools Advocacy Teams will be able to link directly to you. Please go to this page and click the Green Schools Advocate link that corresponds to your region. Confirm that your email address is correct or if you would like to use a different email address as a contact, please let me know and I will have it swapped out right away. Also, note that your regional chapter coordinator will be copied when someone sends you an email from the Web site. This will allow us to gauge the volume of emails going to different regions and provide you with additional resources and support where necessary. Get ready to start plugging interested individuals into your Green Schools Advocacy Teams!

MySpace profile and discussion group: We have created a discussion group through MySpace for all who are interested in promoting green schools to get together and share their vision! Hopefully, the discussion group will foster some great dialogue. To participate you will need to create a MySpace account which is free and only takes a few minutes. Added benefit: If you have teenagers, this will earn you cool points.

The Web site is a work in progress and I encourage all of you to offer feedback as to how we can make improvements. I would encourage you to become familiar with the content of the site so that you can refer others to appropriate information and resources. LEED for Schools 101 Online course, Generation g, LEED for Schools checklist and Rating System and the full Green Schools press kit can all be accessed from buildgreenschools.org.

Check it out and let's get green schools booming in Connecticut!

Kids Campaign: If You're Stopped for More Than 10 Seconds...

Alex Scaperotta and Jordan Reichgut noticed that many people in the school pick up lines idle their cars.  They learned through research that unnecessary idling wastes gasoline and releases CO² into the atmosphere, which accelerates global warming.  They thought that a good place to start would be to get parents of Cider Mill School students to commit to not idling their car in the pick up line or anywhere else. Their message is simple:  IF YOU IDLE YOUR CAR FOR TEN SECONDS OR MORE, YOU ARE USING MORE GAS THAN TURNING YOUR CAR OFF AND ON.  In addition, they learned that idling is unnecessary to “warm up” your car (the best way to warm it up is to drive it) and idling is in fact harmful to engines – causing more gasoline residue to build up in the engines, exhaust system rusting, and more.

Student Forms Environmental Group at West Conn

Twenty-one-year-old Mercedes DeMasi of Redding, Connecticut, has formed a group called Students for Environmental Action at West Connecticut State University. Top on her to-do list--a proposal detailing how the University can reduce its energy consumption by 10 percent within the next year by making small adjustments to day-to-day activities such as switching off lights, turning down thermostats and changing over to CFL bulbs. Her initiative and take-charge attitude also earned her a spot on the university energy council.

Students at Western Connecticut State University who want to join Students for Environmental Action can call Mercedes DeMasi at (203) 938-9016 or e-mail her at [email protected]

Start a Recycling Program at Your School!

It's Back-to-School and what better time to kick off a great year by starting a school-wide recycling program! Check out these tips from Treehugger.com

1. Find out who else in your school is passionate about recycling and is willing to help!

2. Decide what can be recycled in your school district. Items such as paper, plastic, printer cartridges, batteries or clothing are all fair game.

3. Form a recycling club to be responsible for the program.

4. Determine who will get the recyclables to the transfer station. Some potential candidates include custodians, parents, volunteers or in many areas the trash company or town itself.

5. Decide where to store your schools recyclables until transport.

6. Find out how many classroom, lounge and cafeteria recycling containers will be needed, and then raise money for their purchase.

7. Have committee or club members make presentations to each classroom about the importance of recycling.

8. Weigh and measure recyclables and post this information for the entire school to see to encourage more recycling.

9. Hold contests and competitions between grade levels or classrooms to see who can recycle the most.

10. Find fun things to do with the funds raised by collecting bottle-return money!

11. Write to CTGreenScene and let us know how you made out!!!

Parents and School Librarians Take Note!

Thanks to this post on Treehugger.com, we've discovered that our wish for kids books that deal with issues of sustainability has come true.

"There’s a couple of new books out for kids that have just been released by the Eden Project, gotten some great reviews, and may be a terrific addition to a school library or home collection. After all, what better than a classroom or bedtime story with a positive message about protecting the environment?

The first is George Saves the World by Lunchtime, by Jo Readman and Ley Honor Roberts which features a boy named George, his sister, dog, and grandfather. The message to kids being that yes, you can help save the world through simple everyday actions such as repairing items that are broken and recycling regularly as his grandfather teaches him throughout the book.

The second book being The World Came To My Place Today. It’s been written by the same pair of authors with the same set of characters, but discusses where everyday household items actually come from. And with most kids today probably suspecting all good things come from stores while completely missing the connection with the environment that actually provides them, I suspect that helping kids understand their personal impact on the environment is tops on the list of teachers and parents everywhere. Happy Reading!"

The second book being The World Came To My Place Today. It’s been written by the same pair of authors with the same set of characters, but discusses where everyday household items actually come from. And with most kids today probably suspecting all good things come from stores while completely missing the connection with the environment that actually provides them, I suspect that helping kids understand their personal impact on the environment is tops on the list of teachers and parents everywhere. Happy Reading!"

Connecticut's Bright Young Minds

"That’s right folks, Canon’s 2007 Envirothon just ended and a five-member team of high school students from Housatonic Valley High School in Falls Village, Connecticut, are the winners. And that’s no small achievement, as there were more than 260 teens from across the U.S. and Canada who came and studied environmental issues and resource conservation while competing for a piece of the $100,000 in scholarships and prize action. To win, they had to demonstrate the best overall skills at five testing and training stations. Those included soil and land use, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and current environmental issues. The theme of this year’s competition was Alternative/Renewable Energy, so the competing teams focused on the efficient use of energy generated from traditional sources and the development of renewable energy resources.

The winning team’s piece of the prize money was a cool $25,000 in Canon scholarships along with photographic equipment for their school to use in science education. The whole idea is to expose students to diverse environmental issues, ecosystems, and topography; and is hosted by a different state or province each year."

Source: Treehugger.com

The winning team’s piece of the prize money was a cool $25,000 in Canon scholarships along with photographic equipment for their school to use in science education. The whole idea is to expose students to diverse environmental issues, ecosystems, and topography; and is hosted by a different state or province each year."

Source: Treehugger.com

Green School in New Haven

It's no small potatoes for a Connecticut school to be the site of the largest solar installation at an educational institution in Connecticut; one of the largest solar installations at an educational institution in New England; the first Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED) Silver certified building in the New Haven school district; and the first school in New Haven to incorporate solar PV into its design. But the icing on the cake is the fact that thousands of students will enjoy learning within the healthy indoor environment associated with a "green" school.

Want to start a green schools initiative in your town? Visit the CTGBC and inquire about their Healthy Schools Initiative, contact Connecticut Clean Energy Fund to learn more about available funding, or start your own!

Connecitut College Is Exploring Wind

Last spring Connecticut College committed to purchasing green power. After seven months of buying green power for 50% of its total usage, the campus is now considering the next logical step--producing green energy. The college has begun a two-phase process that could bring wind power to this small Connecticut liberal arts school.

"In Phase 1, which began Sept. 18, GEC will determine the amount of wind available on campus and indicate what size of turbine, if any, is practical. Phase 2 will examine the regulatory, economic, engineering, environmental and aesthetic issues associated with such a project." Source: Connecitcut College

Balancing Your School's CO2 Emissions

By Dr. Herster Barres

Reforest The Tropics, Inc. (RTT) is a CT-based non-profit organization that works with schools to teach students about climate change.  The approach to learning involves teaching students the somewhat grim realities of climate change, but offers practical steps that students can take to feel a part of the solution.

There are four basic ways to deal with global warming: energy efficiency, energy conservation, new sources of clean energy, and sequestration of CO2--which is accomplished by trees that hold units of CO2 until they are cut down or die.  Working in the area of sequestration, Reforest the Tropics has developed a working model of the long-term sequestration of US CO2 emissions in sustainable tree-farm forests located in Costa Rica, where year-round temperatures are best for growing healthy trees.

As a part of the program, all participating schools receive science or math instruction with RTT staff or a local environmental group to achieve the following:

1)  Learn how to calculate the CO2 emissions of your school and home in order to track our success in reducing these emissions.  Student can do an in-class exercise each year to up-date their school's inventory.

2)  Sponsor a forest on a farm in Costa Rica, a forest dedicated to offsetting 25 or more tonnes of CO2 each year in a long-term contract with the farmer.  You can track the growth and sequestration in this forest through data and pictures taken by the RTT forester in Costa Rica and sent to your school's
e-mail address.

For more information, visit reforestthetropics.org or contact [email protected] in Mystic, CT.

Grant Money for Cleaner CT School Buses

EPA is making nearly $1.7 million available for clean diesel projects under the 2007 Northeast Diesel Collaborative Emissions Reductions Grant Program. Project applications are being accepted under two national clean diesel programs: Clean School Bus USA and the Voluntary Diesel Retrofit program.

Projects may include a variety of diesel emissions reductions solutions such as add-on pollution control technology, engine or vehicle replacement, idle reduction technologies or strategies, and/or cleaner fuel use. All projects must benefit the air quality in the geographic areas that include Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, the U.S. Virgin Islands and/or Vermont; and Tribal lands belonging to the federally recognized Indian tribes in these regions. The deadline for applying is July 31, 2007.

“Diesel exhaust contributes significantly to air pollution, especially in urban areas. The fine particles in diesel exhaust pose serious health concerns, including aggravating asthma and other respiratory symptoms,” said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office. “This new EPA funding will help northeastern communities to enjoy cleaner, healthier air. EPA and the Northeast Diesel Collaborative are working to make that black puff of smoke a relic of times past.”

More information:

Download the NEDC Emissions Reduction RFP (epa.gov/region02/grants/nedc_rfp_final_060707.pdf)

EPA’s Voluntary Diesel Retrofit program (epa.gov/cleandiesel/index.htm#voluntary)

Northeast Diesel Collaborative (northeastdiesel.org)

SOURCE: EPA Website

Fundraise Naturally

At least once a year, kids stop by my house to sell me junk food to raise money for their class. I hem and haw--and then lie and tell them I'm on a diet.

Well, last year a courageous group of 4th and 5th graders in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, boycotted a class fundraiser by refusing to sell the candy bars and potato chips they'd learned about in health class. Miles away in Westport, Connecticut, resident and owner of Natural Neighborhood, Rosie Haas, got an idea while reading an article about the students. "Customers of Natural Neighborhood were asking me if they could sell our natural and organic products to raise money for their kids' classrooms, I put two and two together and Fundraise Naturally was born," Haas recalls.

As of June 2006, schools in the U.S. have been required to form wellness committees to create and enforce nutrition in school-based cafeterias and other activities--such as the elimination of unhealthy products from fundraising programs. Haas says, "On the whole, schools are beginning to rethink the way they use their resources in the school environment and the impact on the greater community and that means seeking alternatives to fundraising as usual."

Fundraise Naturally only uses products that are eco-friendly, and are ethically made by caring manufacturers with the hope that as students experience entrepreneurship in an ethically-sound way, they will feel connected to their community and the planet, and get a real-life lesson in how small contributions can make a big difference.

Rosie Haas will be a keynote speaker at Fairfield County Green Drinks in September.   

To Do or Not to Do, That Is NOT the Question

I came across this video clip while reading the latest post on Colin Beaven's No Impact Man blog. It's an interesting argument and I'd love to hear what all of you out there think.