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| April 2009 Volume 3, No. 8 |
Celebrating Earth Day: Messages in Honor of Our Planet
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by Sarah Lynn Cunningham
How can we fix our broken economy, get our unemployed people back to work, and rein in our greenhouse gas emissions? The Louisville Climate Action Network sees an elegant solution to these daunting—and intertwined—challenges: improving energy efficiency and expanding the use of renewable energy.
We Kentuckians are almost fully dependent on carbon-based, fossil fuels: We burn mainly other nations’ oil in our automobiles. We burn coal for our electricity—too often after destroying our coalfields and their economies.
Burning fossil fuels pollutes our air: Particulates cause asthma attacks, mercury impairs kids’ neurological development, carbon dioxide overheats the climate, and more. The need to replace fossil fuels causes some people to worry about coal-industry jobs and impacts on utility bills. Here, too, the challenges and solutions are intertwined.
Wouldn’t you rather pay once for improving energy efficiency than pay higher bills indefinitely?
Few would fail to repair a window if a wayward baseball were to break it out. Yet most Kentucky homes, offices, stores and schools have equivalent gaps in their walls and attic. Most walls and many attics lack insulation. As summer heat leaks in and winter heating leaks out, utility bills grow. Think of the jobs that we could create and the money we could save by weatherizing and insulating walls and attics.
Most of our major appliances—furnaces, air conditioners, water heaters, refrigerator-freezers, washers and dryers—waste energy, too. Think of the jobs we could create and the money we could save by manufacturing and installing more efficient models.
Most of us drive inefficient automobiles. Think of the jobs that we could create and the money we could save by building more efficient models.
Most of us drive automobiles everywhere we go. Think of the jobs that we could create and the money we could save by building sidewalks and bike paths and expanding bus service. Burning more calories wouldn’t hurt us either!
Most students could ride buses to school, but many parents drive their children to and from school. Think of the fuel and money we could save if we made riding the bus cool.
Kentucky has dozens of dams on its rivers. Think of the jobs we could create and the pollution we could avoid by retro-fitting them with hydroelectric power plants.
Kentucky receives more sunshine than does Germany—now the world’s solar energy leader. Think of the jobs we could create and the money we could save by building and installing solar water heaters and photovoltaic panels.
These green jobs, among others, could exist all over Kentucky. They’d pay decent wages. Most couldn’t be exported overseas. Coal-industry workers could be retrained to do them.
Besides creating jobs and saving money, each of these smart-economics efforts would also cut our greenhouse-gas emissions and reduce climate change.
Louisville CAN lead the way for Kentucky. We hope that grown-ups will show young people how their school work could prepare them for green jobs—and that students will see a place for themselves in the economy after they graduate.
Sarah Lynn Cunningham is the director of the Louisville Climate Action Network.
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by Charles R. Fleischer Jr.
My staff and I have been privileged to be a part of developing and implementing new programs at JCPS that have a positive impact on the environment. In the year 2000, we were able to begin daily operations on a paper and cardboard recycling program at all schools that is still collecting as much as 200 tons per month. This saves thousands of trees and thousands of gallons of process water that would normally be used to make new paper. In housekeeping we have studied cleaning products, taken bids and are actively transitioning to all green cleaning products this year. We also began a program this year to completely recycle computers and electronics with some return in revenue. This program keeps electronics and their associated chemical pollution out of local landfills and prevents them from third world dumping. We are working to expand the recycling stream at JCPS to further utilize existing recycling dumpsters. We have recycled thousands of gallons of heating oil that is no longer used. We have recycled thousands of fluorescent bulbs and batteries. We care about the indoor air quality of our schools and have one of nine top-rated programs in the nation to be recognized with an award from the EPA as being a National Model of Excellence. We operate a pest control service that controls pests with little to no chemicals in the schools as an effort to reduce asthma triggers. We have set safety standards for chemical use in science laboratories, set limits on the amounts of science chemicals in the district and set up an environmentally competent program to legally dispose of hazardous chemicals. We have also endeavored to help the community at large by serving on the Partnership for a Green City with Louisville Metro Goverment and the University of Louisville to pool our knowledge and services in waste and recycling. We have served on air pollution task forces to control community-wide air quality and fine particles in the air. In review, we are trying to maintain our positive contribution to the environment, while having students and staff participate in the learning process which is central to education.
Charles R. Fleischer Jr. is the director of Safety and Environmental Services at Jefferson County Public Schools.
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by Brent Fryrear
The Kentucky Department for Energy Development and Independence (DEDI) details in its recent report Intelligent Energy Sources for Kentucky’s Future: Kentucky’s 7-Point Strategy for Energy Independence, that the state's plentiful coal resources have led to coal-fired electric generation. As a result, we enjoy some of the lowest electric rates in the nation. These low rates attracted energy-intensive industries to our state and led to some of the highest residential per capita consumption rates in the United States.
There are issues looming nationally and globally that will likely increase electric rates by a significant amount. Foremost, it appears that a cap-and-trade system or similar program of carbon offsets or credits, which would in essence be a carbon tax, may be imminent at the federal level. These will place additional costs on electric generating utility companies; the utilities, in turn, will pass these costs to the ratepayers.
The cheapest and cleanest energy option that everyone can participate in is energy efficiency, which offers a variety of important benefits. From household budgets to the budget lines in school districts, businesses, commercial facilities and industry, lower utility and automotive fuel bills yield dollars that can be directed elsewhere. At home or at work, upgrading heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment and improving the building envelope – insulating buildings, installing energy efficient windows and doors – creates and preserves local jobs and infuses money in the economy. Becoming more efficient with energy use also decreases the need to burn more coal, which would lead to decreased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Energy efficiency requires a change in behavior. Most people develop new habits over several weeks that will increase their efficiency both at work and at home; some are obvious and others take just a little work.
Plug-In Efficiency
- Check for vampire loads – What is plugged in that uses power all day every day?
- Unplug appliances like coffee makers, microwaves, toasters, etc., when not in use.
- For ease, use a power strip/surge protector and turn it off before leaving.
- Use a “smart” power strip/surge protector with computer and equipment. When the computer is turned off, the auxiliary equipment has power cut to them.
- A “smart” power strip/surge protector works for entertainment centers with all the items that draw constant power.
- Set computers to hibernate after 10 minutes of no use.
Lighting Efficiency
- Use lights when there is not enough outside light through the windows.
- Use compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or energy efficient fluorescent lighting.
- Turn off lights and other equipment when leaving a room.
HVAC Efficiency
- Use a programmable thermostat – Condition the air when people are present.
- Set reasonable temperatures for the seasons.
- Remember that routine maintenance (like changing filters/cleaning) improves efficiency.
Transportation Efficiency
– Walk, ride a bike, carpool or take the bus.
Behavior change accounts for about a 10% reduction in utility costs, and there are many who have mastered energy efficiency. You can too! To find out how to increase your efficiency, take the energy pledge at www.partnershipforagreencity.org
Brent Fryrear is the director of the Partnership for a Green City.
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by Donna Griffin
Each day greets us with new evidence of the damage we have done to our environment and the on-going behaviors that seem sure to doom our world. How is it that this self-destructive behavior can perpetuate given the human instinct to survive? Even my brother, a Harvard educated scholar, complains to me frequently that the global climate change crisis is not the result of human activity, that we only play a small part in a climate cycle that ebbs and flows over eons. What ever the reason we are in this boat is irrelevant. We have to respond to it not just analyze it.
As another Earth Day comes and goes, the environmental issues facing us are exacerbated by our society’s appetite for excess, and the unwillingness to see where our excessive consumerism is leading. Falling into a global recession may be the heads-up that is needed. Finally, a reality check emerged that exposes the danger of basing an economy on unsustainable growth, and careless use of natural resources. But, can we fend off the need for immediate gratification in order to secure the survival of the planet?
In The Evolution of Consciousness, Robert Ornstein explores the “hard-wiring” of our brain, and how our species developed the instincts to survive in the very early days. This instinct to survive manifested as the need to pro-create, generating more successors than needed to replace oneself, and essentially a drive for immediate gratification to satisfy the basic needs for life. This behavior has not changed. We are filling up this planet with more and more people, even though intellectually it is common knowledge that this is not sustainable. And, we are all behaving as our brain tells us by ensuring our survival through immediate gratification (new and bigger cars, houses, etc.). As a species we have not continued to evolve to meet the survival needs we are now faced with on a global level. How do we circumvent our own brains that tell us immediate gratification is necessary for survival, when this behavior will certainly be our end without intervention?
This is Ornstein’s point. We must take charge of our "evolution of consciousness." We must make conscious decisions that lead to long-term sustainable ends, over-riding our brain’s survival mechanism that is evolutionarily obsolete. I ask this year as we take notice of our dire environmental circumstances that you do two things: 1) read The Evolution of Consciousness by Robert Ornstein (Simon and Schuster) and 2) be conscious of the way you think about your place in the world. The self-discipline to address the serious issues facing us and threatening our survival as a species will require an "evolution of consciousness."
Donna Griffin is a resource teacher in the JCPS Center for Environmental Education within Analytical and Applied Sciences.
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by Cass Harris
Energy Efficiency is sometimes referred to as “the Fifth Fuel,” following coal, gas, nuclear and alternative energy. But Louisville Metro Government has put the Fifth Fuel at the forefront of its efforts to conserve energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard our climate and make the wisest use of public funds.
Louisville Metro is promoting energy efficiency both within its own portfolio of buildings and operations, as well as throughout the community. One of the primary tools on both fronts has been ENERGY STAR, a joint program of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy.
After Louisville Metro joined ENERGY STAR as a Partner, the program in 2008 selected Louisville as a Model City, and is working with and positioning us as a model for communities across the country. The ENERGY STAR Web site features a profile of Louisville and details of programs and activities to help other communities.
To kick off Louisville’s Model City agenda, Mayor Jerry Abramson launched a Public-Private Sector Partnership to promote ENERGY STAR and energy efficiency, and five commercial real estate associations quickly joined Metro to form the Louisville Energy Alliance. With assistance from ENERGY STAR, the LEA developed the Kilowatt Crackdown, a challenge to commercial buildings to increase their energy efficiency. Over 240 buildings representing all sectors of the community have enrolled in the Crackdown, and are working during 2009 to reduce their energy use and to become more efficient. 2009 Crackdown award winners will be announced early next year, and the challenge will begin again for 2010. ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager monitoring software is a key tool in the Crackdown.
Internally, Metro continues to benchmark its buildings in Portfolio Manager as well as to implement efficiency improvements. In February, Metro initiated an Energy Savings Performance Contract with Johnson Controls Inc. that will enable large scale energy efficiency and conservation measures in up to 27 buildings in the first phase, with the improvements financed by the anticipated savings.
Metro has extended its efficiency/conservation measures to its vehicle and heavy equipment fleets as well. In an effort to increase fuel efficiency by 5% by 2010, Metro has aggressively down-sized vehicles, and is also incorporating alternative fuels and technologies where possible. New additions include hybrids and high fuel efficiency models. All recycling and solid waste collection trucks and other heavy equipment run on B-5 biodiesel fuel. And by Earth Day, three hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles will be in operation.
Louisville Metro has also worked closely with the University of Louisville and Jefferson County Public Schools, its partners in the Partnership for a Green City. Through the Energy Use and Fleet Teams, the partners have explored areas such as new technology and equipment, renewable energy and alternative fuel sources, and have also initiated employee education programs.
Efficiency, conservation, innovation and partnership are truly the tools that will assist Metro Government in making the best use of its resources -- natural, built and fiscal -- and will help protect Louisville’s environment and its future.
Cass Harris is the enivironmental policy coordinator for Louisville Metro Government.
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Global Connections: Staying in Touch with Culture and Environment is a monthly publication of the JCPS Office of Equity, Diversity and Multicultural Education and the JCPS Center for Environmental Education. All submissions to the newsletter must be sent to Catherine Collesano, Editor, at catherine.collesano@jefferson.kyschools.us or fax (502) 485-3762 the Monday before the publication date. If you are interested in becoming a subscriber or a contributor to Global Connections, please contact the editor at the above email address.
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