Sprouts of Hope: Learning About Sustainability

Sustainability—Now a Part of Our Schools

By Maya

The Sprouts of Hope had the opportunity to meet with the Cambridge Public School’s new Sustainability Coordinator, Kristen von Hoffman. She has a lot of experience with environmental issues; before she took this job, she was the founder of Greenfox schools, a nonprofit organization that works to make schools green and sustainable.

One of the things that Kristen does is work with Meryl Brott to expand composting in the schools!

Meryl helped King Open to start a pilot composting program and now she and Kristen are working with other schools to make composting part of what kids do with food waste. The city’s Department of Public Works, where Meryl works, put

together a manual with Frequently Asked Questions that explains how to set up composting in a school cafeteria —and we hope all of the schools in Cambridge will be doing this soon.

So far, King Open, the 9th Grade Campus, and the Graham & Parks schools are composting their cafeteria leftovers. From September to February, these schools have composted more than 14,500 pounds and saved more than 14,500 lbs of CO2, according to Meryl and Kristen. That's equal to the weight of 1.75 elephants.

Kristen is now working to create and implement a sustainability plan for the school district. The five main categories she uses to look at the whole picture of the sustainability in the schools are energy, waste, food, products, and green space. She devised a report that outlines the major goals and she named the program, Cambridge Green Schools Initiative (CGSI).

She wanted to hear our ideas as she works to create a CGSI website. Here are a few we came up with:

Making a YouTube video

Advertising on Facebook

Drawing a logo

Posting photo albums and other visuals

Tying in with our blog—The Sprouts of Hope Kids

Advertising in areas around the high school

Holding contests to get kids involved

Thinking of a motto

Including sustainability projects in community service hours

Raffles

Having kids take a sustainability pledge

Including links to a group page

Anything else to engage the community.

We even started think of more acronyms for the five parts of sustainability — energy, waste, food, products and green space — and by the time Kristen left we had sketched a possible logo that she took home with her.

During the meeting we also discussed the importance of biodiversity, reforestation and, of course, sustainability. Population is increasing, so sustainability is vital. We all can and we all need to make a difference.

Kristen also told us about geo-engineering. Geo-engineering is about the way we look at changing the world while keeping in mind the big picture. Sustainability is one of the components involved with engineering the earth. A main focus is eliminating the effects of climate change. She told us about some of the earth-saving inventions, such as panels that deflect sunlight and how it ultimately deflects heat; naval ships that can do chemical reactions for climate change; and man-made trees that suck in carbon dioxide and transfer it into hydrogen.

We definitely learned a lot from the meeting and we are hope to have a chance to follow up on all the ideas we discussed to launch a great website for CGSI.

Sprouts of Hope: Collecting Socks for Homeless People

Being Part of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Sock Drive

By Eliza

For the second year in a row, the Sprouts of Hope decided to participate in the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP)’s sock drive. BHCHP is a city-wide nonprofit organization that provides health care for homeless people in Boston, and every year in the early spring, they have a sock drive.

Socks can reduce the risk of skin infections, prevent frostbite, and foster good hygiene. Many homeless and poor people do not have access t

o clean socks.

When we went to the sock drive finale and delivery party, we learned more about BHCHP and their yearly sock drive. We found out that last year, 13,000 pairs of socks were donated during the sock drive. That is a lot of socks, and hopefully this year there will be even more!

We listened as Cecilia Ibeabuchi, who works at the BHCHP clinic as a nurse, explained that homeless people aren’t allowed to take their socks off in shelters in order to prevent infections and bad smells. But this means that homeless people’s socks get really dirty. Often, this means they have to use plastic shopping bags as socks.

She invited us to come by the foot clinic so we could see how our socks are being used —and learn more about what she and the volunteers do when people arrive there with foot problems.

The Sprouts contributed 65 pairs of socks to the sock drive, and it felt great to be supporting people in need. We were able to exchange business cards with nurses and volunteers who work at BHCHP and we hope to continue our partnership with them in the future. Overall, it was an inspiring event and a cause worth learning about and celebrating.

Sprouts of Hope: Learning About Sustainability

Sustainability—Now a Part of Our Schools

By Maya

The Sprouts of Hope had the opportunity to meet with the Cambridge Public School’s new Sustainability Coordinator, Kristen von Hoffman. She has a lot of experience with environmental issues; before she took this job, she was the founder of Greenfox schools, a nonprofit organization that works to make schools green and sustainable.

One of the things that Kristen does is work with Meryl Brott to expand composting in the schools!

Meryl helped King Open to start a pilot composting program and now she and Kristen are working with other schools to make composting part of what kids do with food waste. The city’s Department of Public Works, where Meryl works, put together a manual with Frequently Asked Questions that explains how to set up composting in a school cafeteria —and we hope all of the schools in Cambridge will be doing this soon.

So far, King Open, the 9th Grade Campus, and the Graham & Parks schools are composting their cafeteria leftovers. From September to February, these schools have composted more than 14,500 pounds and saved more than 14,500 lbs of CO2, according to Meryl and Kristen. That's equal to the weight of 1.75 elephants.

Kristen is now working to create and implement a sustainability plan for the school district. The five main categories she uses to look at the whole picture of the sustainability in the schools are energy, waste, food, products, and green space. She devised a report that outlines the major goals and she named the program, Cambridge Green Schools Initiative (CGSI).

She wanted to hear our ideas as she works to create a CGSI website. Here are a few we came up with:

Making a YouTube video

Advertising on Facebook

Drawing a logo

Posting photo albums and other visuals

Tying in with our blog—The Sprouts of Hope Kids

Advertising in areas around the high school

Holding contests to get kids involved

Thinking of a motto

Including sustainability projects in community service hours

Raffles

Having kids take a sustainability pledge

Including links to a group page

Anything else to engage the community.

We even started think of more acronyms for the five parts of sustainability — energy, waste, food, products and green space — and by the time Kristen left we had sketched a possible logo that she took home with her.

During the meeting we also discussed the importance of biodiversity, reforestation and, of course, sustainability. Population is increasing, so sustainability is vital. We all can and we all need to make a difference.

Kristen also told us about geo-engineering. Geo-engineering is about the way we look at changing the world while keeping in mind the big picture. Sustainability is one of the components involved with engineering the earth. A main focus is eliminating the effects of climate change. She told us about some of the earth-saving inventions, such as panels that deflect sunlight and how it ultimately deflects heat; naval ships that can do chemical reactions for climate change; and man-made trees that suck in carbon dioxide and transfer it into hydrogen.

We definitely learned a lot from the meeting and we are hope to have a chance to follow up on all the ideas we discussed to launch a great website for CGSI.

Sprouts of Hope: Collecting Socks for Homeless People

Participating in the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Sock Drive

By Eliza

For the second year in a row, the Sprouts of Hope decided to participate in the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP)’s sock drive. BHCHP is a city-wide nonprofit organization that provides health care for homeless people in Boston, and every year in the early spring, they have a sock drive. Socks can reduce the risk of skin infections, prevent frostbite, and foster good hygiene. Many homeless and poor people do not have access to clean socks.

When we went to the sock drive finale and delivery party, we learned more about BHCHP and their yearly sock drive. We found out that last year, 13,000 pairs of socks were donated during the sock drive. That is a lot of socks, and hopefully this year there will be even more!

We listened as Cecilia Ibeabuchi, who works at the BHCHP clinic as a nurse, explained that homeless people aren’t allowed to take their socks off in shelters in order to prevent infections and bad smells. But this means that homeless people’s socks get really dirty. Often, this means they have to use plastic shopping bags as socks.

She invited us to come by the foot clinic so we could see how our socks are being used —and learn more about what she and the volunteers do when people arrive there with foot problems.

The Sprouts contributed 65 pairs of socks to the sock drive, and it felt great to be supporting people in need. We were able to exchange business cards with nurses and volunteers who work at BHCHP and we hope to continue our partnership with them in the future. Overall, it was an inspiring event and a cause worth learning about and celebrating.

Giving Back: Volunteering to Help Others

Donating Clothing for Boston Health Care for the Homeless

By Risa

A few weeks earlier four of us—Lilly, Maya, Kaya and me—donated winter clothing in a benefit for the Boston Health Care for the Homeless. We used some of the money we’d raised to buy new pieces of winter clothing like hats and gloves and scarves and mittens. (They wanted items of clothing that were new, not used.) Then we got to go skating at the amazing huge rink at Bright Arena at Harvard University.

This was our way of showing support for the terrific work of Boston Health Care.

Last spring we were a part of its spring drive to get lots of white socks for people who they treat who are homeless. Eliza, especially, got lots of people to donate socks as part of her bat mitzvah project at her temple and the rest of us convinced some of our friends to donate socks, too. After we gathered several big bags of socks, we took them to the main building of Boston Health Care for the Homeless. And Dr. Jim O’Connell, who has directed Boston Health Care for the Homeless for more than two decades, gave us a tour of the new facilities across the street from Boston Medical Center.

We learned about all of the ways the staff of doctors and nurses and dentists and social workers take care of people who are homeless. So when we heard about this clothing drive, we wanted to do what we could to help.

All of us had a great time at the skating event, and we felt great about donating the clothes to the homeless. We even got to take pictures with Santa! It was a great way to spend a few hours of our weekend— hanging out, skating, and helping a great cause.

Energy Efficiency: A Field Trip to Navigant

Machines and the Energy They Use

By Kaya

On December 8^th the Sprouts of Hope took a field trip to visit Tim Sutherland, an energy efficiency expert who heard of us being interviewed on the Callie Crossley radio show on June 22nd. At that time we were talking about the new book we’d written called “Energy Lite,” and how it was going to be in the Cambridge Public Library for families to borrow along with a Kill A Watt meter.

Tim was driving in his car when he heard us talk about our Kill A Watt book project. He told us that he was excited to hear us —as teenagers—talking about using the same kind of meters that he relies on to measure the energy efficiency of machines like air conditioners and washing machines.

When we met him, Tim told us he thought it was amazing that we’d done this book about saving energy by using Kill A Watt meters—and he wanted to meet us.

He works for Navigant Consulting where he does projects for the U.S. Department of Energy. He is paid to figure out how technology can be made more energy efficient. He works with Heather Lisle, and on the day we visited, their colleague Judy Reich was there, too, with her son and daughter, who are about the same age as we are.

Tim and Heather spend their time taking apart different kinds of machines, such as washing machines, refrigerators and freezers and window air conditioning units. They both studied science in college and Tim majored in aerospace engineering and rocket science at MIT before he decided that he wanted to do something about energy efficiency. We found out that Heather graduated from Dartmouth after studying earth science and physics. Judy studied mechanical engineering, aerospace, and science research.

Now they all work on these projects at Navigant, where they take apart and test appliances. By doing so they learn the best designs that create more energy efficient machines. They use a sophisticated meter to gauge the energy use of each machine as well as its stand-by (vampire) power usage. With a washing machine, the goal is to find ways for the machine to use about 0.01 watts when the power is off.

After Tim and Heather told us about their work, they showed us various parts of a washing machine that they’d taken apart—and we learned how magnets can work to make them more energy efficient.

Tim also told us about LEDs, which stands for Light-emitting diode, and he explained how these lights are even more energy efficient than compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL). You can see Eliza holding an LED in her right hand and a CFL in her left.

Right now the LED bulbs are very expensive compared with CFLs and incandescent bulbs. But as was the case when people started to use CFLs to replace incandescent bulbs, these new LEDs cost a lot more to buy. However, they also last a lot longer than CFLs and consume less energy. So pretty soon it’s likely that more and more people will be using them. And LEDs don’t have the mercury problem that CFLs do, so they aren't a health problem if you drop them and disposing of them isn't so complicated.

Since we've gotten accustomed to using CFLs and like knowing how much energy we were saving by using them, we were shocked to find out how much more energy can be saved by using LEDs. Thanks to Tim and Health for showing us this difference.

We had a fun time visiting with Tim and Heather and Judy and learning about their jobs and seeing where they work. Hopefully sometime we can work together on a project.

Endangered Species: Our Roots & Shoots Youth Summit

Face-to-Face With a Dodo Bird

By Maya

On November 13^th we went to our third annual Youth Summit held by the New England Roots & Shoots. This year the theme was endangered species. We started the day by listening to a speech and watching a power point presentation about various endangered species. We learned about how extinction is a natural process, but also how it is now caused in part by what humans do.

At the end of the opening session, the Sprouts once again won an award for our work with environmental issues—and for being New England Roots & Shoots’ most active group. During the rest of the day we split up to go to our different sessions. In them, we learned about polar bears, sustainable eating, parrots in Guyana, projects in Brazil and Ecuador, and recyclable art.

During our lunch break at the summit there was also a photo shoot going on. The photographer was our good friend John Tagiuri, who my mom and I first met at an energy efficiency fair in Cambridge. The Sprouts met him when he asked us to dress up like the Statue of Liberty and hold a CFL bulb where the torch would be.

Last year at the Youth Summit, John took cool photographs of us standing on the earth (okay, it was really a ball) and kicking plastic water bottles away while we held reusable ones.

This year he came up with a really fun idea that involved endangered species. He had us pose with an extinct animal—the Dodo Bird. Each of the Sprouts posed for numerous shots—and then we posed together. John printed them while we were there and then hung them on the wall. Later we got to take them home after we filled out a form about our summit experience.

We received T-shirts and bags full of coupons and snacks. It was really a great opportunity to meet new Roots & Shoots groups and to hear about the projects they are doing. The Youth Summit was a lot of fun, thanks to the incredible efforts of Roots & Shoots director Kellan Hays. Thank you, Kellan!