EFS 4 - HBS, Hajj Bahaa Eddine School
Question:
One of the ways to be an ecofriendly person is to save energy. Communities can protect their environment, save energy and at the same time consume it to increase people standards of living.
The world resources are being depleted and some of these resources will remain to generate energy after a certain period of time. Starting from your schools, you can save the earth resources from depletion and save the environment.
- How “ecofriendly” do you consider your school to be?
- Can you come up with solutions on class / school level to decrease depletion of earth resources?
- How can you save energy ain your school / homes and at the same time increase people standards of living?
Answer from EFS1
ANSWERS
- We consider our school to be exceedingly eco-friendly, because we promote environmental awareness through morning announcements, signs, posters, clubs, teams, notices, and our general actions. For example, we have a box in each of our classrooms entitled ‘G.O.O.S’ paper, which is an acronym for ‘good on one side’. If we use one side of a paper, we place it in the box for others to use so they don’t have to waste another sheet of paper.
Each morning for announcements, the announcer comes up with an eco tip which students can follow. For example, replace paper napkins with cloth/fabric napkins.
Outside our school, we have a grand notice board advertising our important dates, as well as eco-friendly tips. For example, ‘reduce car emissions’.
Each classroom also has two recycling bins, each student takes home his or her garbage, and students must have litterless lunches. Each month, our school gathers for an assembly. A ‘Golden Garbage Can Award’ is awarded to the classes who have earned the most points by demonstrating a careful use of their recycling/garbage bins, turning the lights off when they don’t need it, and keeping the floors and tables clean.
We have signs outside our school by the parking lot notifying car drivers not to idle their cars.
Our school has also won multiple valid awards for our school’s demonstration of an eco-friendly school.
One of our grade eight and seven classes uses technology rather then paper for their learning habits. Instead of writing on paper, they use laptops. They are called the ‘Paperless Classroom’.
Throughout our school, we have posters and signs reminding others that we are an eco-friendly school.
- There are several solutions to preserve our natural resources, such as fresh water, oil, fossil fuel, lumber, minerals, metals, and agricultural land. We could find alternatives. These alternatives come from earth’s natural resources. We could use kinetic energy, solar panels, and wind turbines to liberate heat and electricity, instead of using oil, fresh water, and fossil fuel. Instead of using lumber, we could use composite lumber, or reclaimed/recycled wood.
Also, instead of using our taps, sinks, showers, and hoses at school and at home, we could use a rainwater collector for water, a solar panel to generate heat, and a water or wind turbine to generate power. Even turning off your lights, computers, and heaters/air conditioners can save great amounts of energy.
Here are pictures of a rainwater collector, windmill, and a solar panel.
- We could save energy in our school/ homes and at the same time increase peoples’ standards of living by investing in natural resource energy. Several ways we could save energy in our school and in our homes, are to invest in solar panels.
The sun’s heat/light will be converted into energy, which we could use for electricity to power lights, heat water and so on. We could also use rain water collection and a purifier so we can drink and wash our hands using the filtered water.
We could also use geothermal heat to save money on the heat bills and save more energy. Other than that, we can use kinetic energy from wind and water to produce electrical energy to power much of our school’s equipment, such as computers and light. After investing in these, we’ll save many years of heating costs. We'll also make sure our new equipment such as laptops are energy efficient in order to save energy for the future. We could also get all new renovations that make our school an energy producing as well as an energy saving school.
For example, to positively increase someone’s standard of living, families and individuals can save their money, by:
a) Buying an eco-friendly car (the Hybrid), which will save gas money over time. Hence, after a year or two, he or she can use saved money for personal luxuries.
b) The government can increase ones standard of living by making the society/community better. For example, our government can spend more money ti build recreational parks with lots of trees, buy solar panels, and rain water collectors.
Answer from EFS2
On a scale of 1-10 on how eco-friendly our school is, we consider ourselves a rating of 7. For our school to be eco-friendly we have to have minimal impact on our environment while maintaining or improving the standard of living. We do make an effort to contribute, but we aren’t the most eco-friendly school.
We recycle plastic and paper and if a piece of paper has one blank side we put it in a bin called the G.O.O.S. Bin. G.O.O.S. stands for good on one side. We can then reuse the paper instead of using a new sheet. In the G.O.O.S. bin, you can get scrap paper for things like brainstorming, planning and math calculations.
Our garbage cans are around 10 times smaller than the average school can. The normal garbage cans can hold about 70 L, but the garbage cans used at Redstone hold around 7.5 L. They are red and somewhat cute.
In some classrooms we have vermi-composters. A vermi-composter is a bin with red wiggler worms that specialize in eating our organic food waste. In the staffroom, we have a green bin for food waste that will be picked up by the waste management company every Wednesday. This food waste is allowed to compost turning into garden soil and fertilizer.
During lunch time at Redstone, we have something called “Boomerang lunches” (litterless) where we bring our lunches in reusable containers and bring most of our scraps home.
We have motion detecting sinks that turn on when you wave your hand in front of the sensor. Our water fountains have buttons you have to keep pushing to keep on.
One of our classes is a paper-free classroom which means they use laptops instead of paper to do assignments. We have online websites to assist them and give them assignments. The only classes that they do have to use paper for are French, math, and art.
There is a club in our school that promotes eco-friendly actions and has students known as the eco cops (police), that go to every classroom to inspect how clean and tidy they are, during break.
No idling is allowed in our parking lot and there are several signs to remind parents to turn their vehicles off.
Our student council continuously encourages us to be eco-friendly. This is what we have been doing to try and be more eco-friendly at our school. You should try them too!
We have researched a few ways our school and others can use to decrease depletion of the Earth’s resources.
- Use scrap paper for jot notes and planning ideas. A G.O.O.S. bin greatly helps collect scrap paper.
- Walk, bike or carpool to school. That way you can save gas and energy.
- When not in use, turn off computers, laptops, lights, fans etc. to reduce energy as well.
- Try to get the whole school to bring litterless lunches. The school and families will both reduce waste.
We can save energy by turning off unneeded lights and other electronics. Sometimes when it’s a sunny day, we open the blinds and let the sunlight stream in so we don’t have to turn on our classroom lights. This way we can also get vitamin D from the sun. If we turn off the air conditioner/heater or lower it, we can save some extra energy. A little cold or heat never hurt anyone! That way we can also help students get used to the harsh weather of Canada and other places, and there is not a lot of difference between outdoors and indoors.
Answer from EFS3
One of the ways to be an ecofriendly person is to save energy. Saving energy just 10% can save thousands of dollars a year.Starting from our school we can save the earth resources from depletion and save the environnement.
In our school many ecological activities are done (see previous eco-activities section for details).
2-We have many solutions a school or a home more ecological:
At home
- Don't leave lights on when no one is in the room. If you are going to be out of the room for more than five minutes, turn off the light.
- If you know of a light that everyone forgets to turn off, make a sticker or a sign to hang next to the switch that says "Lights Out!" or "Don't Forget!"
- Where possible, use compact fluorescent light bulbs. Those funny-looking bulbs produce the same amount of light by using 1/4 of the electricity. Plus, they last for years and years without burning out.
- Don't leave on your computer, TVs, radios or games that use electricity when you're not using them.
- Wasting water wastes electricity. Why? Because the biggest use of electricity in most cities is supplying water and cleaning it up after it's been used!
- Did you know that Americans use an average of about eight batteries a year per person? Wow! Batteries that are thrown away produce most of the heavy metals - dangerous substances like lead, arsenic, zinc, cadmium, copper, and mercury - that are found in household trash. These metals are toxic. They can be harmful to humans and wildlife
In Your School
The energy-saving ideas you used at home can also be used in school. Consider creating a weekly "energy monitor" - someone who's job it is to make sure lights are out when there's no one in a room. He or she can also make sure that machines are turned off when not being used.
- Recycle, recycle, and recycle. If we all do a small part, like turning the water off when we're brushing our teeth or clean out a jar of jelly and keep loose change in it or just turning off the lights in rooms that no one is in or maybe ridding a bike to school/work and if you're not a fan of biking, make a carpool with your friends! There are still more that a billion ways to save the planet, and if you want to see your own children grow up on this earth, just do a small part, just a tinny little part once every day and if everyone else does too, slowly but surely, we'll save the planet!
- Preserve habitats! Stop bulldozing land for parking lots and shopping malls!
- Plug in the water when washing dishes.
- Don’t let water run without you there.
- Start a protest about saving the Earth !
Answer from EFS5
1.
We think our school is eco friendly, but there is still much to improve.
There are many good things, for example that we turn the lights off when the classroom is not used or during a break. Our school does not make use of sun panels or windmills on the roof of the school. We recycle also our paper, which is a giant amount every day. I think it is the perfect solution, for the environment and the students, to close the school for a few more weeks to save energy! ;D
2.
More use of sun-energy by sun panels because now we aren’t using that and we think that if you use it lots of electricity can be saved. Maybe you can’t run the whole school on sun-energy but there are also other energy sources like small windmills on the roof, it doesn’t matter if you can’t run the whole school on it but if you use this, you will save energy of other sources. Another thing we could do is drain the rainwater because it rains a lot in the Netherlands and we could use it for flushing the toilet because that will save a lot of water every day.
3.
We think we should have more digital lessons on sun-energy, because you can save energy with it and directly you don’t have to use so much paper. If you are not using much paper, you don’t have to cut down so much forests, so indirectly this would help saving energy and also keeping the rainforests alive. Maybe this is a little bit expensive but for students it is easier to save everything they make on a laptop or computer than keep everything in notebooks. That saves time and students have everything they need on their laptop.
Answer from EFS7 - Elde College
1. Personally I think it’s difficult to answer those questions based on my own knowledge and experience. However, I consider our school ecofriendly on some parts. In our school for example, we have a kind of small farm, where some animals and plants are located. Our school is built next to a park. In the ‘farm’ department, some students learn to take care of the land, animals and help creating a nice environement. So on this aspect, we’re quite ecofriendly.
However, when we look at water usage in our school, I think we’re not on the right track yet. This doesn’t mean we are spoiling a lot of water, there’s just no attention to it yet. When it comes to printing and copying paperwork, we have quite some printers in our school. We’re using these a lot in my opinion.
2. On school level, we could just create a project in which we ask the older students to teach the younger ones about the environment, and concrete solutions and awareness on our water usage. When it comes to taking care of our environment, we’re already doing fine I think.
3. For our region I guess it’s difficult to answer, because everybody has different standards of living. We could for example make use of solar panels more, or make it obligitory for people who build new houses to put one or two on their houses. This way we create awareness as well as concrete results at the same time. It could also be an idea for our school to add some solar panels on the roof.
Answer from EFS8 - Libanon
1.Our school is not very good for the environment, because our school is a monument and we are not allowed to change things without permission. We already thought about a windmill or solar panels on our roof. It’s a pity we can’t do this because we are a monument. There are more things we cannot do, for example: double glazing and improved sanitation. Still we are very busy and trying hard to make our school better.
2. For example, we can try at our school to use less energy through the lights, computers and v turn off the heating system during the breaks and when there is nobody in the class room. Also, the candy vending machines in the cafeteria are still not taken off at night because it’s often forgotten. If we did that, it would save much energy. We can also save water by the crane to place a special purification system, but it is also very expensive. We can’t place wind turbines and solar panels because our school is a monument. Example, we can turn off the lights during breaks and when the sun shines. We can also replace our lamps by energy saving lamps. Also we can set the heating 1 °C down, which shows a lot of impact without any effort. What also gives a lot of result is when you use a lighter packaging. If something weights less , then less fuel is needed for transport. We can also make a rule that everyone goes to school by bike, by foot or by public transport to school (we can introduce these rules to our class, because many people live near by the school). Also we can make a rule that each teacher as he/she leaves the room closes the windows, because if you don’t do that at night, a lot of heat gets wasted.
3.To save water we have thought about using gray water (recycled water) to flush the toilets. We are now investigating whether this is possible.There is only one problem: the water from the taps (where people drink out) and the water for the toilets are connected. So if we want to use the gray water, we have to separate the two water streams and make a new sewerage and that is forbidden, because we are a monument. To save water, we want to replace the faucets by taps that turn off automatically. In the canteen we already have these taps, but they are not allowed in the school because the school is a monument. The canteen is situated in an newer extension of the school, which is not a monument. In the canteen we can make a lot of improvements that are not allowed in the rest of the school.
Bauke Spoon and Danique Osinga VW1K Libanon Lyceum Rotterdam
Answer from EFS9
How “ecofriendly” do you consider your school to be?
In general, we consider our school quite ecofriendly, in many aspects:
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Recycle & Reuse – We separate papers, bottles and leftovers, and then recycle or reuse them.
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Water saving devices – We have water-saving toilets (2-stage flushing device) and faucets (shutting automatically a few minutes after you press the button/ water won’t come out unless the sensor on the faucet detects hands under the tap/ a special device being put in the outlet of the tap to reduce the amount of water flowing out)
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Greening - Though our school is small, we have a lot of plants. Plants can help cool the air, so we don’t have to turn on air-conditioners frequently.
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Air conditioner recharge card – In our school each classroom is equipped with one air conditioner. If students want to turn on the air-conditioner, they have to use recharge cards. This would make students use air conditioners more efficiently to save money and protect the earth.
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The use of reusable chopsticks – Nearly every student in our school bring her own chopsticks and spoons from home and the school provides the plates. In this way, we can reduce the amount of disposable tableware.
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Vegetarian diet – Eating meat produces more hydrocarbons, which is the major cause of global warming, so our school sometimes provides vegetarian diet.
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Turn off lights at lunch time –We always turn off lights during lunch time because there is enough sunlight in the afternoon.
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Going to school on foot, by bikes, or by public transportations- Many students in our school make full use of public transportations or their “feet” to school.
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Going upstairs and downstairs on foot instead of taking elevators.
Can you come up with solutions on class / school level to decrease depletion of earth resources? How can you save energy in your school / homes and at the same time increase people standards of living?
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To cool the classroom, we can open windows instead of turning on air conditioners. Let the small narrow classroom fill with fresh air!
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Decrease the amount of paper, applying computational technology to school education. For example, students hand in their homework online or teachers announce things on the internet
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Give second-hand books or uniforms to students who need them or who can’t afford new ones.
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Planting more trees- planting trees not only help clean the air but beautify the environment.
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Get into the habit of turning off the lights when you leave.
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Use ecofriendly reusable bags, chopsticks, and etc.
Answer from EFS10
Answer1.
In general, we have a very comfortable campus.
Environment: We have lots of plants, one tree for 5.3 persons on average. When we are in the campus, we breathe the fresh air and enjoy the shade.
Food: school restaurant provides all-vegetable meals for those need them. On the one hand, the need for meat is reduced; on the other hand, the cost of transportation is cut down.
Electricity: the school authorities ask each class to turn off the light at lunch time.
Education: though seldom, we began to reuse some textbooks. For example, we can get the books about computers when we are in computer class. We don't have to buy and get them ourselves. After using it, what we have to do is just put them back for the next users.
Facilities: there is a section in the campus, where we gather the recycled resources. In our school, each one is required to sort the garage and recycle it anytime anywhere.
Answer2.
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class
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Our class always washes many classmates’ tableware after lunch, which actually wastes much water. Therefore, we can improve the process of washing dishes.
To begin with, all the eating utencils are put together. We can first rinse the tableware soaked with dishwashing liquid in one bucket.
Then, before we clean the tableware thoroughly, another bucket is put for further cleaning.
At last, each dish eating utencil is thoroughly cleaned. By doing so can we save a great amount of water.
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school
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In our school, the consumption of paper is quite amazing. Teachers copy teaching handouts for students. Each department uses paper for all kinds of things. However, we can reduce the use of paper in many ways.
Teachers can make the most of technology on teaching. They can project their teaching materials on the screen so that students take notes on their own books. Take another for example. They can post their homework on the Internet and students can e-mail their assignment via the Internet.
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Answer3.
school
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In our school, each classroom is equipped with ceiling fans and air conditioners. However, we should avoid overusing the air conditioners.
First, if the weather is hot, we should open the windows so that air can flow.
Second, the use of ceiling fans consume less electricity than that of air conditioners.
Third, we only turn on air conditioners on condition that the temperature is quite high. Besides, we have to turn it off when the weather turns cooler.
If the weather is cool and breezy, we can open all the windows in the classroom.
Next, we can put on the curtains so that the heat or strong light can be blocked.
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home
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In daily life, we can look for more efficient and eco-friendly alternatives. For instance, we can try to ride a bicycle instead of the other transportation which emits lots of greenhouse gases. Riding a bicycle can lower not only the emission of the carbon but the use of energy. What’s more, we can have a good habit of exercising.
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Answer from EFS11
What makes a school green!
1. Water Efficiency
Low-flow sinks and dual-flush toilets reduce total water use by as much as 50%. Toilets that use harvested rainwater ,not potable water help with water supply. Students get a first-hand lesson in how to use water more efficiently.
2. Energy Efiicient Lighting
Adequate levels of the right kind of light can save energy and make learning conditions better. Adding remote sensors, individual controls and task lighting can greatly reduce electricity costs.
3. Daylighting
Skylights and large windows allow daylight to stream in, reducing energy costs and improving student concentration and performance. Adjustable blinds and shades reduce glare. Light shelves bounce sunlight deep into the room and provide even light distribution.
4. Recycling
Recycling programs teach students responsible environmental habits that they can apply at home.
5.Solar Panels
Roof-mounted solar panels turn sunlight into an alternative energy source for the school and provide excellent opportunities for hands-on learning.
6.Green Roof
Green roofs are cooler, save energy and provide a filter for storm water run-off. The natural habitat that green roofs afford for birds and butterflies creates an interactive learning environment for students.
7. Thermal Comfort
Comfortable indoor temperatures keep students more alert. Fresher, cleaner air can flow in with open windows or ventilation systems that provide constant supply of air.
8.Mold Prevention
Providing enough ventilation and keeping relative humidity below 60% stops mold growth. Mold leads to serious health problems, especially in children.
9. Low-Emitting Materials
Using paint that doesn't emit toxic gases and using wall systems and furniture made with non-toxic materials will improve air quality in the classrooms. High indoor air quality keeps students and faculty healthier.
10. Alternative Transportation Option
Alternative-fuel buses reduce CO2 emissions and DECREASE smog and ground level ozone. Bike racks and safe bike paths and sidewalks encourage an active lifestyle and decrease emissions.
Answer from EFS12
We agreed with you that to save energy is an important way to protect our environment. We spend almost 10 hours at school every day. If we students can think how to save energy and take an action at school, that’ll help a lot.
1. Our school has lot of tall trees. These trees can make the temperature of the classroom lower.
Our school classrooms and offices also have large windows that can keep the fresh air flowing. We use fans instead of air conditioners; even our principle office has no air conditioner. Though we try hard to save energy, we don't think our school is really eco-friendly. We found that our school doesn’t use natural energy well. For example, Kaohsiung is a city with rich sunlight. Solar power is common, but in our school there is only one solar panel. Now the government gives financial help to encourage schools, households and companies to use solar energy. We think our school can use the opportunity to build a solar power system.
2. We have some solutions to decrease depletion of earth resources.
(1.) Turn off the light when we don’t need too much light, such as break time, lunch time. It is the easiest one for us to do. In my school, during the lunch break and at the school finishing time, there is a broadcast to remind students to turn off the lights.
(2.) Share things with one another. For example, my school collects graduates’ uniforms for new students that are willing to wear old clothes. We also collect students’ reference books. Then the books can be used again. The process of production uses lots of energy and resources. If students can buy less and share things with one another, that’ll reduce waste of natural resources.
(3.) Do 3Rs. We recycle bottles, cans, paper, batteries, glass, and food waste at school. Reuse the water that is not really dirty to water plants and flowers. We put a bucket under the faucets, so we can collect the water to reuse after washing hands.
3. As for saving energy and at the same time increasing standards of living, first of all, we have to change our living habits. People should learn to live a simple life. As we mentioned above, at school we can have a good standard of school life without using too much energy. Besides, in Taiwan, we can buy household appliances, such as washing machines, refrigerators, with “energy label” on them. Now there are 4731 products with the labels.We can get high living quality without waste of energy.
Taiwan energy label
We can check the products on the website. http://www.energylabel.org.tw/product_en/product/list.asp
These products have the same quality as the normal ones, but use less electricity. Using eco-friendly products is a good way to save energy and keeps good life at the same time.
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