Greening Up Eudora Schools
Every day brings with it a great opportunity for Eudora Schools employees to make a difference! Greening Up Eudora Schools is a collaborative effort between teachers, staff and students to help conserve resources. One of these resources, as we all know, is district funds. Making an effort to save energy in our buildings will free up more money in ways that can have a direct impact on students and staff.
But this program is also about conserving natural resources. Taking action now means setting a good example for the young people in our schools, as well as preserving more of the earth’s riches for future generations.
Energy conservation
The most powerful energy conservation happens one person at a time. Flip your light switch off when you leave the room. Turn off your laptop when you go home. It doesn’t take time or effort — it just takes forming a new habit. Research shows that it takes between three and six weeks of consistent effort to form a new habit. Start today, and you'll be surprised how quickly your routine will adapt.
Here are just a few examples of the potential for savings:
- Every classroom with lights left on overnight costs the district around $1.75. If you extend that out to all classrooms, we could save some $1,200 at the middle school — in just one month.
- Every 50 computers in a building costs the district about two dollars a day in energy. One computer left on – not in sleep mode and not shut off at night or on the weekends – will use nearly 500 dollars in energy in a year. Set it up to go to sleep mode after 10 minutes, and it will use one twentieth of the energy. Or turn it off whenever you go home, and save even more.
- Even the appliances in our work rooms and break rooms can hold a key to energy conservation. A microwave with a digital clock uses about 30 dollars a year in energy when it’s not in use. Fridges can’t always be unplugged when they’re not being used, but be sure someone empties and unplugs it before long breaks.
Recycling
For every ton of paper recycled...
- 30,000 tons of water is saved
- Enough energy is saved to power a three-bedroom house for a year
- 95 percent less air pollution is caused, compared to using virgin wood
While a recycling program requires a certain level of organization and responsibility among students and staff, there are programs in place that will help it pay off in both the short term and the long term.
Honey Creek Disposal has public recycling bins for aluminum,paper and #1-#7 plastics. The bins are available for school and public use, and Honey Creek will pay each school for every ton of recycling gathered from the containers.
