GGNY listserve #7

· Earth Day field trips to Naef Recycling and to Solvay Paperboard SIGN UP today!

The Go Green Initiative program is helping to unite environmental education efforts district wide. Syracuse is home to 28 GGI schools (more than any other urban school district.) The Syracuse GGI welcomes the following 2 new schools to the Go Green Initiative family -

Congratulations and a BIG thank you to all who reported their quarterly progress report numbers to me last quarter! Collectively, the 24 reporting GGI Schools recycled 88.25 tons of paper! This number is equivalent to having saved the following resources:

As a GGI school you are required to collect and weigh your recyclables – and to record your weekly recycling rates and submit them to me once each quarter. Recording these numbers and converting them to resources saved -by recycling- (and sharing them with your campus community) is a great way to put recycling into perspective. By showing students that they are making a difference we are taking steps to ensure that the next generation will grow up respecting and protecting the environment. These numbers are also used to show the progress of the GGI Syracuse program. By submitting these numbers to me, promptly, you are not only getting the word out about recycling – you are helping to ensure that the GGI Syracuse program will continue to have support and funding. Thank you for your participation and congratulations once again.

The numbers that were reported this period speak for themselves. Between Dec. 05 and Dec. 06, Go Green schools were able to keep the following out of the nation’s landfills:

- Nearly 3 million pounds of paper
- Over 223, 000 pounds of cardboard
- 30,000 pounds of aluminum
- 58,000 pounds of plastic beverage containers
- 1,971 cellular phones
- 10,906 printer cartridges
- More than 222,000 pounds of mixed recyclables
- 21,000 pounds of food waste

The environmental impact of all this hard work is what makes the Go Green Initiative such an exciting network for cities and schools to be a part of! Every can, every bottle, every piece of paper kept from the waste stream makes a difference. Collectively, Go Green schools are saving the planet’s resources. The reporting Go Green Schools saved:

- 22.9 billion BTUs of energy use
- 1,389 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions
- 10,234,000 gallons of water
- 555,560 gallons of oil
- 5,194 cubic yards of landfill space, due to paper recycling alone

To All Go Green Schools- (from the National GGI program) Keep up the hard work and always remember that you are part of a very powerful community that is making a HUGE difference!

The New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling is once again offering grant money to fund the implementation of the Go Green Initiative program. In exchange for a 500 word essay about your GGI program and a chart outlining how you wish to spend your grant funds, you will be eligible for $500.00 in grant money, to make your GGI program unique. Don’t waist anytime applying for this one, folks, the deadline is January 31^st, 2007! Visit www.nysar3.org for more information.

The Syracuse City GGI pages are set to begin construction very soon. Thanks to our sponsors these pages will be free of charge to you – all you have to do is send the information and our GGI Syracuse web designer will format your page. Your school pages will include information that you have sent to me, with very little editing. Please take the time to showcase your schools individual GGI program, for all it is worth. This is a great opportunity for your students to feel a sense of pride in what they are doing – as well they should. Please send meeting notes, 2007 GGI outlines / plans, photos, anything else you want to put on your GGI Syracuse webpage. Email information to Jennifer Spoor. If you are curious as to what you have sent me thus far, send me an email and I’ll send you everything I have. greenupny@yahoo.com

Students at Clary Middle School are making tremendous strides in environmental education with the Go Green Initiative. With the guidance of their fearless leader, Science teacher Mark Dubey, the 21^st century club has developed at an astonishing rate. In less than 3 months time the Clary GGI program has grown to include the following:

· E-ducation: each week Clary Middle School invites a speaker to talk about environmentally related topics.

· E-ducation: each week Mark presents his class with current events related to the environment. Students, in turn, make posters about these events and post them in the halls to help educate their school community. This week they made recycled poster-sized paper, from paper collected during their school collection. They used their hand-made paper for their weekly current event posters!

· E-valuation: Students meet daily to discuss the GGI program and to talk about routes for expansion. Clary Middle School has been consistent in submitting meeting minutes.

Clary Middle School is also looking into beginning vermicomposting. Already, in the past 6 weeks, students have collected 1,215 lbs of paper.! Congratulations and keep up the GREAT work!

The Recycling symbol means something; and it’s meaning goes beyond “recycle it.”

Recycling is a meant to be a closed loop process. It is very important to “close the loop” by not only recycling but also buying recycled products.

Giving back and honoring the Earth this Earth Day *Note, registration form attached

Help us nurture nature and grab some trash! This year we will be celebrating Earth Day with another county-wide clean-up on Saturday, April 28^th, 2007. More than 250 community groups will rally together to make our county cleaner and greener. Our combined efforts have removed over one million lbs of litter since this clean-up program began. For more information please email Cheri Zajac at czajac@ocrra.org, or call 315-453-2866. You can also sign up online, via www.ocrra.org.

The Go Green Initiative program has developed an excellent format for promoting, teaching and

conducting recycling at Syracuse schools. The Go Green Initiative model is keen on progressive

change, by way of waste reduction and environmental education.

A less-addressed challenge is fossil fuel energy use, increasingly recognized as a huge program and

priority. Besides utility bills, energy costs include defending oil & gas supplies, local air quality and

global climate change.  Conserving energy is a "least-cost" energy strategy, and renewable energy

offers stable investments in local clean energy sources.  Experienced and knowledgeable people are

teaming up and forming educational alliances, teaching people the importance of conserving energy

and using nonpolluting “alternative” energy sources.

Local energy resources:

On University Hill in Syracuse, a group of people are currently focusing on sharing energy

conservation ideas and resources. For more information please contact:

Steve Lloyd, Associate Director of Energy at Syracuse University

               Email: salloyd@syr.edu    Phone: 315-443-3088

Pete King, Senior at SUNY ESF, Global Warming Action Network

    Email: pdking@syr.edu    Phone 315-560-3019

We hope to expand upon the GGI’s educational message by involving students in

energy management, at once creating curriculum and teaching the importance of saving energy (and

implementing energy saving practice.) An excellent resource for energy education is the  New York

State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), a  public benefit corporation

created in 1975 by New York's State Legislature.

Todd Rogers manages Nyserda's K-12 Energy Education outreach, and helped design H.W.

Smith's recent “turn the lights off and let the math and reading juices flow” energy savings program.

Todd can be reached phone: 1-800-658-5753, email: trogers@need.org.

Naef Recycling and Solvay Paperboard are teaming up with OCRRA to offer GGI Green team free field trips to see recycling in action. Elementary aged students are invited to visit Naef Recycling and Middle School and High School aged students will be attending Solvay Paper recycling facility. OCRRA is picking up the tab for the cost of buses. The facilities are allowing up to 300 students (total) to attend the event. No more than 20 people (including faculty and staff) can attend from one single school. Don’t miss this chance! Please register with me today – and reserve your school’s spot. Contact Jennifer Spoor for more information – For more information about Naef Recycling visit www.naefrecycling.com

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.

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

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