Budget Crunch: Green Ways to Save

Last week I attended a webcast organized the the US Green Building Council's (USGBC) Green Schools Advocacy Group. Tim Cole, the Sustainable Schools Project Manager for Virginia Beach City Public School (VBCPS) presented a slide show on VBCPS's successes in green building. Mr. Cole has been working with the school system for 8 years and his story is a wake up call in the midst of our budget crisis.

Guess how VBCPS saved $50,000 last year? They implemented a "no idle" policy for their fleet of buses. Guess how they saved another $75,000? They installed a program on their computers to automatically shut them down at 5:30pm daily (an over-ride is possible if a teacher or administrator still needed to work on a computer). An additional $500,000 was saved by adjusting the temperatures in their buildings. All of these changes are free or cost very little money.

To give you a sense of the size of school district we are talking about, VBCPS has 87 schools with about 70,000 pupils in attendance while CCPS has 64 schools with about 59,000 pupils in attendance. And while these dollar figures are small relative to the huge budget shortfall we are facing, they are not insignificant. Something to think about...and write about...and talk about!

Virginia PTAs Helping Schools Go Green

Lately, many of us have been focused on the CCPS and state education budget discussions. Unfortunately, there has not been much good news to pull from them.

But here is something to lift your spirits. Check out this article in the Virginia PTA newsletter. There are many good ideas about ways to make our schools greener without spending money- like a student-directed energy audit or a presentation to the students from the James River Green Building Council.

Also, check out the Green Schools website to see what other schools have done to make their buildings a better place to learn.

A Bag Tax?

I just read the article “Paper or plastic? Maybe neither:” in the Washington Post on Saturday, January 2. Washington D.C. now has a user fee on plastic and paper bags at stores that sell food and/or alcohol. If you need a bag from the store you will be charged five cents. It is one of the toughest measures in the country. But they hope to produce large revenue to help clean up the Anacostia River, where 21% of the pollution is plastic bags.

I have been using reuseable bags now for over two years. And I was encouraged to see that Target now gives five cents back when you use your own bags. Grocery stores have also been trying to use positive measures to get people to use their own bags, however I don’t think a large percentage of people are taking advantage.

I know it would be very controversial to have such a tax, but when I drive down a road like Midlothian Turnpike and see many plastic bags on the side of the road (usually across from Walmart), I think we need to do something more.

Karen Lawrence

BWE

Here are some interesting sites to learn more:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/washington-dcs-plastic-bag-tax-takes-effect-this-week.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/china-plastic-bag-ban-saves-1-million-tons-of-oil.php