Make it a Green Halloween!

Have a fun, safe and efficient Halloween, everyone!

Please remember to re-use and/or recycle your costumes and decorations. And don't forget to compost those jack'o lanterns .

It's Energy Awareness Month

From the home office in White Bear Lake, see the inspiring and personal message below from Class 5 Energy Inc., the parent company of Schools for Energy Efficiency, in recognition of Energy Awareness month.

KEYS

Keys... in drawers, we all have them, many keys sit in drawers for years until you can't remember what the key is from so why not recycle them? Redtail Ridge Elementary students in Savage are collecting keys for recycling as a fund raiser for their school. The students are currently trick or treating for keys asking for old, discarded and unused keys for recycling.

Here a couple of things to keep in mind:

• Approximately 16 keys weigh 1 pound
• 1 pound of yellow brass recycled currently yields $1.95
• K & K Metal Recycling will return 100% of the profit to Redtail Ridge
• 700 pounds of keys would yield $1,365 for the school

You can drop off your keys at Redtail Ridge, 15200 Hampshire in Savage (near PLHS) through November 11th or at the District Services Center in Prior Lake, 4540 Tower Street (behind the Post Office) through November 9th.

Today's Energy Thought

Be sure to run full loads of dishes and laundry. Using your clothes or dishwasher for frequent small loads wastes water. By running these machines when full, you will save up to 20 gallons of water per load, or 7,300 gallons a year. That is as much water as the average person drinks in their lifetime.

Recycle Bowl is Back!

Last year Grainwood Elementary in Prior Lake participated in the first year of this national event and was the named the top recycling elementary school per capita in the state of Minnesota winning a $1000 prize for their efforts.

So just what is the Recycle Bowl?

Recycle-Bowl is a free competition and benchmarking tool for K-12 school recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities. School recycling programs across the nation compete in a race to collect the most recyclables.

The contest runs for four weeks beginning in mid October. Stay tuned for more details and information on each school as our students participate in this fun and environmentally responsible recycling contest.

Today's Energy Thought

One emphasis in the fourth year of the SEE program is on water conservation. See how you do with today's question about water.

The largest use of household indoor water in the United States is for

A)  Laundry and cleaning

B)  Toilet flushing

C)  Consumption and cooking

D)  Showering and bathing

      Scroll down to check your answer...

If you said D) Showering and bathing, you are correct.
          Check out these insightful water facts:

• A five minute shower uses about 15 – 25 gallons of water. A ten minute shower uses around 40 gallons of water.
• If your shower can fill a one-gallon bucket in less than 20 seconds, you are using too much water and may want to consider replacing the showerhead with a water-efficient showerhead.
• By installing a low flow showerhead can you reduce water consumption by more than 50%.
• On average, a bathtub requires about 36 gallons of water.
• If you turn off the water while you brush your teeth, you can save 4 gallons of water a minute. That could be over 200 gallons a week for a family of four.
• Turn the water off while you shampoo and condition your hair, and you could save more than 50 gallons of water a week.

Where is Energy?

It's Here... And We Can Save It!

Schools for Energy Efficiency^® (SEE) program is here again this year and continues to help us focus on energy-saving strategies that can be easily implemented by our school’s operations, education, and administrative staff.  Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools’ goal is to achieve a 10-percent reduction in annual energy use, engage staff and students in energy-saving behaviors, and achieve national recognition through ENERGY STAR^®. Because of your commitment during the past three years, we are continuing to meet our annual goals and as a result, our total amount avoided/saved since implementing SEE through June of 2012 totals $554,107.00!

This is a year of discovery for our district’s staff and students. Learning simple methods will inspire us to share our knowledge helping to educate each other, our families, and the community.  We’ll learn fun ways to infuse classroom lessons with energy-saving activities inviting students to discover their place in our goal to conserve our resources. Helping to revitalize the launch of this year’s program is our new campaign theme, EDUCATE: Where is energy? inviting us all to learn and then live energy saving methods that will help our schools run more efficiently. You will notice this new direction in the posters, classroom tip sheets, and light switch stickers throughout our schools.

Energy is one of the top expenditures in our district, with an average yearly cost of $250 per student. A 10% percent energy savings translates into more than $175,000.00 per year of avoided cost for our district. After seeing the results of the previous years, I am very excited and committed to continuing this program within our facilities.  As we’ve seen, the results are attainable, and can make an immediate, measurable impact in our district.

So, once again, I thank you for your dedication to our mission and ask for your continued support with our energy-saving efforts during this school year.  Where is energy? It’s in each one of us and we’re motivated to use our team-fueled efforts to save it, helping our district, our community, and our world!