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The
Go Green Initiative
Movement in Syracuse
List-serve edition #11
September 25, 2007
Coming full-circle as we begin
our second year
What’s
in this edition:
NEW
ACTION ITEMS:
these highlighted articles are projects for green teams, please
respond!
GGI Syracuse weighs
in – our collective resource savings will astound you
Action Item: A Unified
Syracuse GGI team takes on new initiatives district wide:
recycling with 3 bins, and cafeteria waste reduction, and BIG
NEWS!!
News:
Syracuse is the GGI 2007 big city of the year!!!
Educational Tidbit
of the Month - Recycling water bottles; why its better to
drink from the tap
Highlighted School
of the Month: Huntington k-8
Inspirational Story
of the Month: Amelia Nigro of Henninger High School is a
true humanitarian dedicated to environmental excellence
Action Item: Do you want to
be in the paper? Send photos of green team in action with
student names and a quick write up of what’s going on -
Mission Statement
GGI
Syracuse weighs in:
our collective resource savings will astound you!
Wow! Thanks to all of the GGI teams who
collected, weighed, tracked and reported their recycling this
last quarter. The end of this last quarter, June 15th,
marked the first full year of recycling data collection and
diversion by the unified Syracuse Green team. Thanks to all for
your fantastic effort! Attached is the compiled data from the
district – 2006-2007, see how your school weighed in !
Together as a unified GGI Syracuse team we
diverted 175,349 lbs (or just under 88 tons of paper from the
waste stream. Our efforts amount to the following resource
savings:
 40,
744 (gal) oil
 360,800
(kilowatt hrs) energy
 616,000
(gal) water
 264
(cubic yrds) landfill space
 1496
trees
 74,800
(lbs) CO2 / year
Reminder: the
next Quarterly Progress Report is due on December 15th,
2007.
Action Item: A
Unified Syracuse GGI team takes on new initiatives district
wide: recycling with 3 bins, and cafeteria waste
reduction and GGI GOES CITY WIDE!
Last week,
Mark Naef and I met with Superintendent Dan Lowengard and Head
of Facilities Nick Dibello. It was a GREAT meeting! Mark and I
talked about the various initiatives that we were planning to
introduce to the GGI Schools, and both the Superintendent and
Mr. Dibello were very supportive. AND in case you haven’t yet
heard, the GGI is now CITY WIDE! All schools are members of the
program and will actively be working toward building their own
personalized, dynamic GGI programs throughout the 2007-2008
school year. We have been trying to form a city wide Green team
since the beginning – with a unified team we can accomplish so
much more, so much more efficiently – THIS IS BIG NEWS!. Thank
you to those who have been with us since the beginning and
welcome to new members! Below outlined are 2 new initiatives
that I have spoken with most of you about already. Please review
these initiatives and send me your feedback – I welcome your
opinions!
New
Initiatives:
Recycling Initiative: Recycling could be
better – but how? That’s a question I was asking myself at the
end of the school year after meeting with a few Syracuse Green
teams, and hearing over and over again that they knew that
recycling could be better if more people would participate –
Together we decided that we can up participation if we make
recycling easier after all people want to do the right thing.
With the support of Nick Dibello and Dan Lowengard, the goal is
to work with OCRRA to put more, well labeled bins in the
classrooms. We will have 1 trash bin, 1 blue bin for paper
recycling (labeled “paper recycling”), and 1 blue bin for
container recycling (labeled “container recycling.”) We are
looking to establish recycling stations in every classroom.
This is an
ambitious endeavor! I will need the help of the Green teams to
distribute and label these bins in all of the classrooms. Please
contact me asap to set up a date to distribute and label bins.
8 GGI Syracuse schools are also taking
steps to reduce cafeteria waste. By utilizing recyclable paper
bags rather than styrofoam trays at breakfast schools are not
only taking steps toward reducing waste and helping the
environment but also saving the district money in purchasing and
disposal fees. The following schools have already signed onto
the cafeteria waste reduction initiative and will be using paper
bags to serve breakfast, during the first semester.
Bellevue Elementary, Blodgett
K-8, Edward Smith Elementary, Huntington K-8, Levy Middle,
Meachem Elementary, Roberts K-8, and Solace Elementary School.
Keep in mind that a typical school
breakfast consists of a prepackaged bowl of cereal, a carton of
milk and a carton of juice – therefore a paper bag is adequate
to carry the goods from the lunch line to the table. Schools
will be provided with styrofoam trays, for use when hot
breakfasts are served. Sign your
school onto the cafeteria waste reduction initiative today! –
email
greenupny@yahoo.com
News:
Syracuse is the GGI Big City of the year!
Thanks to the spectacular efforts of the
Syracuse City Schools, the Green teams, and the City of Syracuse
- Syracuse will be honored as the 2007 Big City of the year,
this year at the GGI world summit in San Jose, CA., on November
2ndd. And 3rd. The 2008 world summit is
going to be in Syracuse! I’ll keep you posted as time progresses
– congratulations everyone!
J See
www.gogreeninitiative.org for more information on the 2007
world summit.
Educational
Tidbit of the Month – –
Did you know that nationally only 23% of
bottles purchased are recycledd
* The NYS Bigger Better Bottle Bill extends
the .5 cent deposit currently only on carbonated beverages in
NYS to non-carbonated beverages and allocates unclaimed deposit
money to the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF).
Check out the following facts on why tap is
superior to bottled:
- Throwing away a single aluminum can,
versus recycling it, is like pouring out six ounces of
gasoline. Last year, Americans recycled enough aluminum cans
to conserve the energy equivalent of more than15 million
barrels of oil.l.
- The EPA estimates that 75 percent of
what Americans throw in the trash could actually be
recycled. Currently, only 25 percent is.
- Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste
creates one job; land filling 10,000 tons of waste creates
six jobs; recycling 10,000 tons of waste creates 36 jobs.
- The national recycling rate of 30
percent saves the equivalent of more than five billion
gallons of gasoline, reducing dependence on foreign oil by
114 million barrels. This could be even higher!
- The aluminum can is 100 percent
recyclable and can be used to make new beverage cans
indefinitely – demonstrating recycling at is finest! “Every
can, every time!”
- According to the EPA, recycling,
including composting, diverted 68 million tons of material
away from landfills and incinerators in 2001, up from 34
million tons in 1990.
- Recycling 35 percent of our trash
reduces emissions equivalent to taking 36 million cars of
the road.
- Every Sunday 500,000 trees could be
saved if everyone recycled their newspapers.
Highlighted
School of the Month:
Huntington School is the newest member of
the Syracuse GGI movement and they are ON FIRE with passion for
the environment! The Following article was written by Shirley
D’Hollander, who Heads the Green team at Huntington.
WORMS! What is so big about a worm! Well,
a great deal actually. Last fall we began a worm-composting
project in 2nd and 6th grade classrooms
at Huntington. Worm composting, also known as vermicomposting,
is a way to collect organic waste and let worms decompose it
into compost. (Just the way nature does it anyway!) Upstate Worm
Farm, a local business dedicated to reducing garbage through
composting, supported this project. Its founder, Brenda Lotito,
spent many hours in our classrooms teaching the students about
worms and their role in the environment.
As the project progressed the many benefits
of it became evident. First, the students learned about the
physiology of worms and their role in decomposition. Second,
students learned about the trash problem facing our country and
the role of vermicomposting in reducing that problem. Third, 2ndd and 6th
Partway through the school year we began to
learn about the Go Green Initiative (GGI), a waste reduction
project endorsed by Superintendent Lowengard. Many Syracuse
City Schools were already members and we at Huntington began to
lay plans to join the movement. This planning has continued and
we are ready to be active members in the GGI beginning in the
07-08 school year. As participants in the initiative, students
and staff at Huntington will expand the school’s recycling
project. We will collect recyclables from classrooms, offices
and the cafeteria on a weekly basis. The recyclables collected
will be weighed so that we can track the recycling gains at
Huntington. Along with the recycling component Huntington will
continue its composting and education projects.
As we look toward the coming new school
year we are enthusiastic about joining GGI. Participation in
the Go Green Initiative and continuation of our vermicomposting
project seem to be important steps to enable Huntington to be a
responsible member of our environment. Each of these programs
are opportunities to teach our students, parents and staff how
we should and can take care of our world and its resources.
Keep up the great work Shirley – and
welcome to the GGI Syracuse team!
Inspirational Story of the Monthh
The following was written by Amelia Nigro,
and sent to me in an email. I am so inspired by her daily
actions and how devoted she is to environmental advocacy and
humanitarian causes – we should all be so thoughtful.
“Summer Activities” by Amelia Nigro
As I ride along our peninsula
along Lake Ontario & Chaumont Bay, I notice cans and bottles
carelessly tossed on the side of the road. I bring a plastic
bag with me and pick up the ones that are clean enough,
especially the returnables...for a very good cause. Americans
don't seem to value the 5 cent return from these uncrushed cans
& bottles, but in developing countries, 5 cents can save a life.
Each time I bag one, I tick off the amount of kids who can get a
Malaria inoculation for that small an amount! I did this last
summer. The money gained from bringing them to a bottle return
can be sent to agencies that provide these shots, or can be put
toward treated tents through
malarianomore.org to protect 5 people for 5 years as
they sleep in them. At the same time, you are beautifying
roadsides in the city and elsewhere! Try doing this for the
next 6 weeks and see how much you can accumulate. We can then
together send in the total and calculate the difference we made
in lives less lucky than ours. Also, there's a great
organization you can check out on the Net for interesting
projects and good information on earth friendly ideas. It's a
place my daughter did an internship at back in the 90s
...they're base is outside of Washington, DC. It's called
EarthForce and driven by youth. Check out
earthforce.org especially
the "Six Steps of Earth Force" to see what you think..
Action Item: – here is your chance to get in
on the action:
You may have read an article in the
Post-standard about the GGI program, last year. Press coverage
of the program has been fantastic and is about to get even
better. Are you interested in having your green team in the
paper? YES? GREAT!! JJ
GGI
Mission Statement:
The Go Green Initiative is a
simple, comprehensive program designed to create a culture of
environmental responsibility on school campuses across the
nation. Founded in 2002, the Go Green Initiative unites
parents, students, teachers and school administrators in an
effort to make real and lasting changes in their campus
communities that will protect children and the environment for
years to come.
Visit
www.gogreeninitiative.org for printable planning guides,
program information and testimonials.
You are receiving this email message
because you have expressed interest in the Go Green Initiative's
progression throughout Syracuse. If you would like to be removed
from the list please email greenupny@yahoo.com, and write
"remove from GGI list-serve” in the subject header.
Thank
you all for your participation! And as always, if you have any
questions/ comments/ meeting minutes/ ideas/ feedback of any
sort please don’t hesitate to call GGI coordinator Jennifer
Spoor at 315-558-0155 or email me at
greenupny@yahoo.com
Keep
truckin’
Until
next time – Happy GREEN-ing
Sincerely
Your partner in Greening
Jennifer Spoor |
