Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
VIRGINIA BEACH - The city schools are leading the charge to protect the environment and saving money at the same time.
Last year, Tidewater Fibre processed more than 1,200 tons of trash from Virginia Beach public schools.
Recycling is just one part of a much larger plan to preserve the environment.
Tim Cole, who oversees the district's efforts, helps design new construction and renovation which must be "LEED Certified."
The under construction Renaissance Academy has energy and environmental design features, like the roof, which slopes in to collect rain water.
“We're collecting all the rain water off the roof and we're storing that in 50-thousand gallon cisterns. We store that rain water and it is used to flush all the toilets and that will save us about a million gallons of water a year," Cole explains.
Metal shelves installed on brackets below the windows will bounce natural light into specially designed classrooms.
That should help with test scores.
"There have been all kinds of studies that show kids learn much better in natural daylight situations," Cole adds.
Even the air conditioning system is a money saver.
"We also have 523 geothermal wells all around here. This is a 285-thousand square foot building that will be heated and cooled by geothermal,” he says.
Green construction costs more initially -- on Renaissance Academy about two percent more -- but Cole says it's a good investment.
"You pay that money upfront in the design costs, but the payback is 20 times that on the back side. So when you’re talking about the life of these buildings and how much money you're saving immediately in energy savings, it pays for itself right away."
The building will be used as a teaching tool. All of the system functions can be monitored from a kiosk in the school and they can be accessed from students anywhere around the country or around the world through the internet.
Virginia Beach Schools also is using more environmentally-friendly practices.
Hermitage is Virginia's first LEED-certified elementary school.
Raymond Hawkins is the head custodian. He's been with the schools for 37 years and has noticed the changes.
"The chemicals are better, safer, the ammonia and the stuff that you smell, you don't smell it anymore. It's a lot better."
At LEED-certified schools, all the chemicals are “Green-seal Certified." Even the paper towels are made from recycled materials.
Hawkins’ night crew works as at team, only lighting one part of the building at a time. That practice saves energy and time.
It all adds up to a healthier environment has helped improve attendance and subtracted from the number trips to the nurses office.
It is important to eliminate mold and harsh chemicals.
"That will trigger an asthmatic attack, and it will also trigger eyes watering the nose running, and it's stopped, it has stopped since we got the new building," says Lynn Muir, the school nurse at Hermitage Elementary.
Virginia Beach Schools’ ultimate goal is to have zero energy schools.
“For it to be a really sustainable school means it is a school that can be sustained by our natural environment," stresses Cole.
