Savanna+Rafto

=Topic:=

5 things that a business or family can do to help reduce their waste, water and electric.
Last year in, I was in Mrs. Anderson's class, and for our Project Citizen topic we chose fossil fuel reduction. We were really into it. We got really far on our topic and we presented our topic with a lot of information. I chose reducing waste because I feel like I can do so much more and get more information to people so we can cut down on water and electricity. We might have covered Sea-Water Air Conditioning, but that was for large scale businesses or buildings that are close to shore. I feel like I have to do something to help other families reduce their waste. I don't really know that much about reducing water and electric waste, I only know that there are certain small things that you can do to help make a difference, such as changing light bulbs to more efficient bulbs, re-using water that you can, and turning off lights when you are not using them. Even with all this small information, I still want to learn what my uncle's business can do to help reduce. I also want to help other businesses and families do their part. Currently 90% of all energy is coming from imported oil. On Maui, the wind farm has generated power for 11,000 homes and that alternative energy has taken the place of 236,000 barrels of oil that would have been imported. media type="youtube" key="WQHJbXO95C4&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425" This youtube video is showing the wind farms on Maui.  =__Research__=

Resource 1
__Saving Energy http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/saving_energy/index.html__//______________________

Summary
This website is about different ways that you can save energy and how you can save energy. It has easy steps to help show you how to save energy quickly.

Reflection
This website is focused on how you can help and how kids can help to save energy. This is really easy to do things.

Resource 2
The Natural Handyman http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infenergysavers/infconserveenergy.html________

Summary
This article is about the benefits of using less energy in you household. This man that wrote this article has a stand-alone power system with sixteen solar panels, a steam generator, and a wind jenny. The author tells about how his house is totally eco-friendly and how he manages to run a house on 3 kilowatts of power everyday.

Reflection
I thought that this article was a good article on how we can run an eco-friendly home, even though we love to run the AC, for example.

Resource 3
There's Much More To Saving Energy http://www2.peterli.com/spm/resources/articles/archive.php?article_id=1963________

Summary
This article is about the efficiency of school energy use and how it can be reduced. Even thought this article has to do with schools, some of these ideas can be applied in homes as well.

Reflection
I really liked this article because we come from a big school which is trying to become more sustainable. I also think that this article is a good article on how you can make and build a more sustainable school and other ideas that you can apply to homes as well.

Resource 4
Isles power up clean-energy agreement http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20081021_Isles_power_up_clean-energy_agreement.html#fullstory____

Summary
State and utility company leaders said yesterday they have agreed on a plan to accelerate the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative - designed to position the islands as a renewable energy model for the country. They are going to have 70 percent of energy will come from clean sources by 2030. There is going to be an underwater cable that will link 4 islands onto the grid that will supply energy.

Reflection
When I first read this article, I was really excited. The government is taking the steps that we need to be cleaner and more efficient with the energy we have.

Resource 5
Hawaii's Energy Future http://www.hawaiisenergyfuture.com/Articles/Solar_Energy.html________

Summary
This article has the different types of solar energy and what their voltage is. There is also information on how to get a federal refund. On the main site, there are links to the other types of renewable energy and how those work as well.

Reflection
I think that getting the word about the different types of alternative energy is good because no one will switch to a renewable if they don't know what the advantages are and what they are supposed to cost.

Resource 6
Opala http://www.opala.org/solid_waste///food_waste_recycling.html

Summary
This website is a site that is trying to reduce the waste in the environment. They have links, addresses and phone numbers of companies that will pick up the waste, and take it to another company that recycles that kind of stuff. They have very good information on how much food waste a restaurant wastes compared to hotels or hospitals.

Reflection
The website is a good idea because it can help to get the information that we have out there. Also the site helps people that don't really know what to do with something they need to recycle, find a company that can safely recycle it for them.

I am meeting with Mr. Randy Overton on F-day next cycle. It is during long homeroom. Randy Overton runs maintenance and works on-campus.

Interview
I interviewed Mr. Randy Overton on F-day. Here is a picture of him. Mr. Overton is the Director of Punahou's Physical Plant. I asked him about the energy savers and energy consumption on-campus.

  Comments from Ms. Y: Savanna- You have found some relevant articles. However, your summaries & reflections are very brief (supposed to be a paragraph each). It seems like your focus still isn't clear (some articles are helpful for schools, some for homes, others for Hawaii in general). Do you feel you have clarity? Perhaps this might be some of the problem- you still haven't found your "hook". Please see me if you'd like to discuss this and brainstorm. Also, it would be good if you would post the rest of your questions, even if you didn't get time to ask them all. Also need to post his responses. Lastly, Randy Overton is the Director of Physical Plant.

I asked Mr. Overton 4 questions. I was only able to ask 4 questions because we ran out of time. Here are the questions.

1. How much energy (estimated) will Punahou save by putting in the solar panels? A. 2. Why did Punahou choose to put in the ice block system for air conditioning in the Case buildings? A. Punahou choose to put in the ice block system because over night the system freezes three blocks of ice, one for each building, and later, during the day, we just run a simple fan to cool the buildings. We freeze the blocks overnight because the energy is cheaper during the night than during the day. 3. Do you think that Punahou will ever be totally sustainable? A. I am hoping that Punahou becomes totally sustainable. That is one of the reasons that we are putting in the solar panels on top of the library and on top of Bishop. We are also hoping that others follow in our footsteps and strive to make their campuses less dependent of fossil fuel energy. 4. When do you think that sustainable energy will be more affordable or cheaper to the public? A. Sustainable energy has already become cheaper to the public. There are also state and federal rebates that you can redeem when you put in solar panels. There are also Energy Star products that use less energy.

5. What are some big things that families can do to reduce their energy use? 6. How much energy do you think these big things will do? 7. When do you think alternative energy systems will be more affordable? 8. Do a lot of people that you know use solar energy? 9. What other energy forms do you think are sustainable? 10. How much estimated energy will these options save?

=Action Plan= For my action plan, I emailed Mrs. Marsha Wright to ask her some questions. 1. What do we do with the food waste on campus? --Any leftover food is either frozen to be used another day, used to make homemade soup, sent out in a couple days as a dollar day special. 2. I heard that we used to give the food waste to pig farmers, do we still do that? --We have not given our food to pig farmers in years. 3. If we don't give the food waste to pig farmers, why did we stop? --We don't give the farmers food because they do not want slop, they feed their pigs grains. 4. Approximately how much food waste do we produce everyday? --The waste we have comes from what the students throw away from their trays, I did a weighing in November and estimated that on an average we are throwing away 90# a day from the lunch trays. Last year this time we were averaging 150# of waste a day. This average came from 4-6th grade trays. The average for the 1-3 has not been done yet for this year, last year we average 135# a day. By changing up the menu for the students to an offer not serve program and giving them more options to choose from,we have greatly reduced what they throw away. They are eating more of what they take. Some waste comes from the salad bar, mostly lettuce, the rest of the items are used in soups and sauces, but the lettuce leftover goes home with one or two of our staff for their animals.

With this information, I am going to see if we can get Aloha Harvest, a food collecting company, would pick up the food waste and use it for their needs. Aloha Harvest is a take off on City Harvest, a collection that is in New York City.

Aloha Harvest was not answering any of my calls/emails.

I have also emailed Mr. Glenn Martinez of Olomana Gardens. This is what he emailed back.

We would like to take it. We raise worms. We need to know the quantity, and how often, daily, weekly etc. How many trash cans? Wet food garbage is what we need to feed our worms. Aloha, Glenn Martinez Olomana Gardens I have also emailed The Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, but they have not emailed back yet.

__Final Comments:__ Savanna- Your project had potential, even with changing the focus midway through. However, I think you would agree, that you did not quite pull it together in the end. If you look at your wiki, (and as was evident in your presentation), your project abruptly changes focus. Your intro discuses a variety of topics from energy, waste, and more. Then your interview with Randy Overton focuses on Punahou's energy use. Then the next thing you write about is your interview with Marcia Wright about food waste, without stating what you were thinking with your Action Plan and how your course has changed. I know why your topic changed partway through and I supported your decision. However, on your wiki and in your presentation you don't discuss this change. Again, I think it is admirable that you are trying to find a practical and local solution to dealing with waste leaving our campus. And this is something that will need to be looked at as we try to meet our 2016 goals. However, as a final "product" it isn't fully clear where you were going and where you ended up (I think because you ran out of time and organizations were not responding to your inquiries, which frequently happens). It seems you never fully gained clarity with this project throughout its course. But who knows, perhaps this is the start of a solution for the future. Maybe someone else can take off where you left off (with Glenn Martinez) or maybe you will find a way to pursue this further sometime in the future? I still have confidence in your abilities, Savanna, and know you are capable of great things.