Idle Free School Zone?

Want your child to breath fresh air at school?

Please consider to turn your engines off to pick-up and drop off students. Not only does turning off our cars improve the air in the immediate surroundings, it also reduces the formation of ground-level ozone, the biggest air quality problem in Central Texas!

Idling your vehicle emits harmful pollutants, wastes fuel, and contributes to climate change. Many areas have anti-idling laws, generally for health reasons. And most of the “justifications” given for idling are myths. Here are a few facts:

• Idling a car for more than 10 seconds uses MORE fuel than turning the engine off and back on.
• The best way to warm up your car in the winter is to drive it slowly. This warms up the transmission, wheel bearings, and any other moving parts. Idling only warms the engine.
• Idling a cold engine (i.e. just after turning it on in the winter) produces more than twice the normal harmful emissions.
• Excessive idling damages your engine by depositing residues from incomplete combustion.
• Every two minutes of car idling consumes the same amount of gas required to drive approximately one mile. If a driver idles for one hour, one gallon of gasoline is wasted.
• The United States contains less than 5 percent of the world's population but produces 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
• Every gallon of gasoline burned—for driving and idling—releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, making the transportation sector responsible for about a quarter of overall US carbon dioxide emissions.

And remember, as long as you’re idling your fuel economy is ZERO [1] [2]

[1] http://brighterplanet.com/personal-actions/20-avoid-idling-your-car

[2] http://www.greenyour.com/transportation/car/car-driving/tips/avoid-car-idling

Connecting with Bryker Woods Elementary school

We had a wonderful morning at Bryker Woods Elementary school (close to Central Market north) and were amazed at their green projects. This school, teachers, staff, students, and their parents are just amazing.
Here are a few outstanding things we saw:
- solar cells: they provide power for 1 entire classroom, how cool is that??!!!
- compost: the school has reduced lunch waste from 17 bags to 3 everyday, amazing!
- no more plastic cutlery in the cafeteria
- party pack and compost bucket to borrow for school parties or birthday parties
- walk and bike to school with a log in system for students who bike to school, this way parents know when their child arrived at school safely
- waste free school family picnic

I am all inspired by Bryker Woods elementary school.
We can learn a lot and I hope we will see some changes at BCE in the next school year!

It needs a whole school to go Green. Let's get moving to Green!!!

Did you know?

Did You Say BOW WOW?

Did you know that the City’s Child Safety Program has a program called

BOW WOW?

It stands for Bike on Wednesday. Walk on Wednesday. And it applies to all campuses in Austin!

One of the biggest environmental, energy security, & health decisions your family makes takes place every morning before 8 am. Motorized transport represents 28% of the nation’s carbon footprint.

We are already 60% reliant on other nations for our petroleum needs, and this number is growing. Walking at least 1 mile a day is a top recommendation for all Americans, burning roughly 100 calories, or an 8 oz glass of 1% milk.

Idling a car for more than 10 seconds wastes money while exposing the motorists and nearby children to far higher levels of carbon monoxide, fine particulate matter, and other forms of air toxins that are contributing to record levels of asthma and associated disabilities. (And exposure is actually highest inside your vehicle.) Two minutes of discontinued idling should get you a mile of added travel.

Walking & biking to school is COOL! Please help your kids & families become accustomed to new travel habits that can become healthy lifetime habits. You’ll feel better about your family’s carbon footprint.

If you live too far to bike or walk, you can drive part of the distance, and walk the final half mile. If you do have to drive into campus, please turn that engine off for any stops of more than 10 seconds (this can include red lights).

Carpooling also helps eliminate car trips.

Did you know that 5 out of every 10 trips in Sweden & the Netherlands are by walking or biking? And 4 out of every 10 in Italy & France. Somehow it’s just 1 out of every 10 here in the U.S. We possess 3% of the world’s oil reserves and 5% of the world’s population, but consume 25% of the planet’s oil supply. We can (and need to) change that. It starts here, with you & your terrific children!

No matter where you live, please pick at least one day every week to walk or bike in: get fit, protect the planet & have fun.

Further reading: Jacobsen PL. (2003) Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling. In the journal Injury Prevention 9:205-209.

Other items to note (from www.walktoschool.org & cleanairforce.org):

· Children are at highest risk to air pollution exposure because they breathe faster than adults & take in more air per pound of body weight.

· In 1969, 42% of American youngsters walked or bicycled to or from school – versus just 16% today.

· Under 50% of those who live within a mile of school walk or bike to school even once a week.

· In some cities, up to 25% of morning rush hour traffic is school-related.

· Childhood asthma rates more than doubled between 1980 and 1995, and they remain very high. Asthma is a top childhood disease and a major cause of childhood disability.

· The walk or bike to school offers stress reduction, relief of ADHD symptoms in children, and increased cognitive and motor functioning. It also offers children an opportunity to spend time in the natural environment, while developing a sense of independence that is important for human development.

· You can very effectively teach your children about safety while walking & biking to school: Stay to the side of the road, watch out at driveways, look & listen, and make eye contact with drivers near your crosswalk.

Earth Week 2011

We are proud to report:
Lots going on at BCE during Earth week:
and a big thanks to all the BCE kids, parents and not to forget teachers and staff to make a difference and keeping our Earth green.

The Earth Day Grocery Project:
BCE students decorated grocery bags with environmental messages.
Shoppers at Westlake HEB will receive their groceries in a "Celebrate Earth Day" bag.
Here are some Kindergarten students with their decorated bags:

A little side note on plastic grocery bags can be found all the way on the bottom.

Our T-shirt drive is in full force!
Students are bringing in old T-shirts. The Open arms company, which employs refugee women, is reusing these T-shirts to make new products: 100% recycling of our students T-shirts. Cool!


Plastic bags [1]:

• 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide.
• About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.
• A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.
• The U.S. goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year.
• Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts (2008)
• Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down.
• Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

[1] from http://www.reuseit.com/

Your Laptop Lunch Ideas

Now what could be better? Prepare your kids lunch the day before, stack them nicely into your fridge and in the mornings just put those Laptop Lunchboxes into the carrying case and off your kids go with a healthy and nutritional lunch!!!

I pack lunches the day before
and mornings are (still a little hassle here and there) but lunches are a no brainer!
Laptop lunchboxes don't take up a lot of space in your fridge.
Here is a photo of how our fridge looks like with 3 Laptop Lunchboxes stacked on top of each other:
What to pack into your lunchbox? Those 4 compartments make it easy:
fruit, veggies, protein and carbs and you have a nutritious meal everyday.
I took a few photos of our lunches and I do hope to post lost of photos from all of you BCE parents. Inspire us with your lunchbox ideas!!!

1/2 hamburger, homemade potato fries, cheese cubes with organic ketchup in small container (top left), strawberries (top right), tortilla chips (bottom left), carrots and apple slices (bottom right)

1/2 hamburger (top right...this child does not like potato and cheese too much;-), apple and green pepper slices (top right), grape tomato with pretzel sticks and ketchup for hamburger in small container (bottom left), carrots and strawberries (bottom right).

Laptop Lunchboxes

Do you pack your child's lunch?...even if you don't, you might still want to check this out since making lunch with Laptop Lunchboxes is a piece of cake!

Did you know that on average you are spending $26 on ziplog bags in one school year?
Why not invest this money into a Laptop Lunchbox and help make BCE greener, save some money for yourself and stop adding more plastic to our landfills?

Containers Are...
	Safe: NO lead, BPA, phthalates, or PVC.
	Cost-effective: A set will pay for itself.
	Reusable: They last for years!
	Recycled & Recyclable: Made with recycled content.
	Easy to Clean: Dishwasher safe. (Top rack only. No heat boosters.)
	Waste-free: Eliminate tons of waste from your landfill or incinerator.

FAQs:

1. Can I see a Laptop Lunchbox before I order?

YES! There is a display sample, Laptop Lunchbox with Flower Carrying Case, just outside the BCE office (from April 15th, 2011 on for at least 2 weeks). Take a look.

2. How do I order a Laptop Lunchbox for my child?

The order forms were in your child's Thursday folder. Fill them out, place the order form with check into the provided envelope and have your child return this to the teacher.

2. When will I receive my Laptop Lunchbox?

Laptop Lunchboxes will be handed out during Lemonade Social in August.
One thing less to worry about! Cross the lunchbox off your to-do-list!

3. Can I fit a sandwich into the Lunchbox?

YES! A regular slice of bread, cut in half, will fit nicely into the square bigger container.

4. Should I order now?

Laptop Lunchboxes will increase in price after May 1st. BCE will run another order of Laptop Lunchboxes early next school year but you have to be prepared to pay 10% more unfortunately.

5. Another Booster Club fundraiser?

Not at all. The main reason we are doing a BCE school order is to get BCE waste free.
For you: a BCE order will save you money on shipping costs:
shipping is free with our school order!!!
Laptop Lunchboxes will give our school a 20% kick-back for our bulk order.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Thanks for visiting our school's RRR blog.
We would love to hear from you!
Suggestions and comments on how we can make BCE more green are much appreciated.

We would also love to post on this blog...
- your photos
- your projects
on how you: kids, parents and teachers are keeping BCE green!