By: Greg Holman

In light of the recent events in Haiti, there are a number of ways to support in the relief efforts. Here are two ways you, or your school can donate with a renewable/solar twist! Both of these items will not only help with the dire situation right now, but help the people of Haiti with cooking and lighting for years to come. Know that both of these organizations take donations of any amount, and have been on the ground in Haiti long before the earthquake. Sometimes, when everyone helps a little, it adds up to a lot!

Here is a summary about each opportunity:

From Kirk Weaver, Sunlight Solar:

Your students might find it interesting to find the Light Haiti Project on the Clinton Global Initiative web site – for more information. SunNight solar is the Commitment Maker for this project. We are currently in discussions with the CGI people a significant expansion of the project due to the immensely greater need now due to the earthquake.

Best regards,
Kirk
www.lighthaiti.org

From Paul Munsen, Sun Ovens International:
Sun Ovens International has been working in Haiti for the past 11 years. During that time deforestation has increased the need for an alternative to cooking with wood and charcoal. The recent earthquake has intensified the need for solar cooking and water purification. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are homeless and camps will need to be opened to provide food and shelter for Haiti’s Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Plans are underway to provide Sun Ovens to the IDPs in Haiti. We are partnering with the Friends of Haiti Organization (FOHO) to send as many Sun Ovens as we can to Haiti. On January 28, 2010, FOHO in partnership with Feed My Starving Children will be sending a shipping container with 270,000 meals and Sun Ovens to Port au Prince, Haiti. There is room for additional Sun Ovens to be included with this shipment and additional shipments are being planned. Donations of any amount will be greatly appreciated. Checks should be made payable to:

Friends of Haiti Organization
P. O. Box 222
Holland, OH 43528
(Please note the donation is for the Sun Oven project.)
FOHO is a 501C3 nonprofit prganization so all donations will be tax deductable. 100% of the donation will go directly to sending Sun Ovens to Haiti. No administrative expenses will be deducted. FOHO has been working in Haiti for 45 years and has sent over 1,400 Global Sun Ovens and 12 Villager Sun Ovens to Haiti.

www.sunoven.com

Students at Paradise Intermediate School have purchased and used both the Sunoven and the BOGO Solar Light. These are durable products that will be an excellent source of baking and light in areas with no electricity.

Students in the Evergreen 6 program have sold items baked in ovens that were part of a Pacific Gas and Electric “Bright Ideas” grant in 2006. In addition to this revenue, they collected donations to be able to support these projects. We hope that you can too!

In Cypress Fairbanks, the solar school project is at the Science Resource Center(SRC).  The Cypress Fairbanks ISD has a number of schools within its district including the Arnold Middle School which is directly across the street from the Science Resource Center (SRC).  The National Energy Education Development Project is administering the educational  part of the TXU Energy Solar Academy Project and has conducted one teacher training workshop at the SRC already.

TXU Energy donated the pole mounted solar electricity system and you can see the data at the following web site:

http://www.txunews.com/solaracademy/solarmap.html

The mission of the SRC shows how it serves as the science support center for the district.

Mission: The mission of the Science Resource Center is to support and enrich the science program in
Cypress-Fairbanks I.S.D. so that our graduates will achieve the goal of scientific literacy.

With a staff of seven, the SRC provides science teaching aids for every school in the Cy-Fair district.  In the spring, they stage field trips for kindergarten, first and second grades.  Volunteers are trained there to teach demos appropriate to different grade levels, often using live animals which are housed at the SRC.  “Big Events” are provided for each grade level in elementary school.  First grade receives fertilized chicken eggs to incubate and watch hatch.  Second gets painted lady butterfly caterpillars to raise and watch metamorphose into butterflies.  Third and Fifth grades go to the district nature trails behind Millsap elementary school and each school gets the use of an inflatable planetarium for one week during the year to teach fourth grade students about the universe.   To supplement the solar panel, each elementary school in the district is provided with a “NEED kit,” assembled by the SRC staff.  It contains materials for six different stations that teach about different types and sources of energy.

The SRC is located just to the East of Highway 290.  It is just a few minutes from Houston up Highway 290 and it is located in what I would call “Northwest Houston.”

Katy, Texas is a city just west of the City of Houston.  You travel west on the I-10 freeway and between 10 and 15 miles you come to the Katy exits.  The Katy Independent School District has over 50,000 students and one of its elementary schools is Morton Ranch Elementary.  Morton Ranch Elementary opened in 2008 and is a member of the TXU Energy Solar Academy and is one of a number of Texas Solar Schools.  There is a 1 kW pole mounted system behind the school (facing south of course) near the playground.  There is a live data collection system and you can see the data by clicking the icon just west of Houston at the TXU Energy Solar Academy web site:

http://www.txunews.com/solaracademy/solarmap.html

By Stephanie Ghertner

Gateway High School is a San Francisco public charter school serving approximately 450 students in grades 9-12. Designated as a California Distinguished School, Gateway was one of only two San Francisco Unified District High Schools to receive the award in 2007. In just over 10 years of existence, the school has demonstrated success in providing quality education to urban teens, and its distinguished staff deserves a great deal of credit.

One faculty member who has made a large impact is Will Parish. A modern day Renaissance man, Mr. Parish came to Gateway eight years ago, after a long and varied career as an attorney, entrepreneur, alternative energy advocate, and more. Not to mention, he’s a flight instructor and author (check out his adventure book “Around the World in a Jeep!”). As the Environmental Science teacher at Gateway, Mr. Parish brings a fresh perspective into the classroom, inspiring a new generation of leaders who will draft future environmental policies that will ultimately be responsible for saving our world.

Using innovative activities and hands-on experiences, Mr. Parish brings the topic of renewable energy out of the textbook and into the classroom. Students don’t simply read about how solar energy powers electricity; they see it first-hand. Mr. Parish and his students built a “solar charging closet,” a recharging station (and yes, it is an old-fashioned closet) where students can recharge batteries, cell-phones, iPods, and other devices using a solar-powered electricity system. The system uses solar panels to collect sunlight that is then converted to electricity stored in two large batteries outside the classroom. Once charged, the batteries are brought into the closet and connected to an inverter that provides the electricity to power up to 40 outlets in the closet. Educational AND useful. Pretty neat!

On the playground, solar activity is abundant. The “solar power house” that sits next to the basketball courts has multiple purposes, acting as both a meeting place for students and a model for energy efficiency. Within its walls, one can watch renewable energy at work – there’s even a solar thermal energy system that uses the sun to heat water! On some sunny days, the “solar snack shack” attracts students to its counter to enjoy “solar smoothies” (the blenders are run by solar electricity!) Also nearby is a 1 kilowatt solar generation system, accompanied by an online monitoring tool that provides real-time data on the system’s activity and amount of electricity generated. The photovoltaic system, donated by PG&E, was installed in Spring 2009, and will be incorporated into the environmental science curriculum this year.

Gateway’s environmental efforts have received a great deal of recognition, thanks in large part to the school’s dedication to raising environmental awareness and to the students’ enthusiasm. Recycling bins dot the halls, compost boxes – worms included – sit outside, garden boxes of edible greens and other plants rest nearby, and a student “Team Green” club organizes campus activities. There’s simply no escaping the school’s greening initiatives. And that’s a very good thing. It’s fantastic for Gateway students and families, teachers and staff, friends and visitors, the community and the planet.

At Gateway, students are exposed to demonstrations of environmental protection and renewable energy inside and outside the classroom. Whether they participate in energy generation experiments in Mr. Parish’s environmental science course or notice the solar house’s photovoltaic panels during break, Gateway students are learning important lessons about sustainability. The result is not only a product of Mr. Parish’s contagious passion for environmental education but also a testament to Gateway’s commitment to innovative approaches to academics.

Solar for Africa and the Amazon – Solar Electric Light Fund – fighting climate change and poverty with solar - Give Now

Solar Advocacy – support the solar advocates doing work around the US – Vote Solar - Give Now

Solar for Turtles – La Tortuga Feliz – help support the next phase of solar work at the sanctuary and the turtles year round - Give Now

Solar Affordable Housing – Grid Alternatives – low income housing and green jobs in California - Give Now

Solar Education – 100 People Foundation – connecting more schools and profiling solar leaders in the US and around the world  - Give Now

This is by no means an exhaustive list…pick your solar cause, and let’s change our solar present and future together!

by Stephanie Ghertner

Project Open Hand was founded in 1985 by Ruth Brinker, a retired meal service manager and grandmother, as a grassroots response to the nutritional needs of people with AIDS. In a San Francisco church basement, Ms. Brinker enlisted the help of friends and began preparing meals for seven people with AIDS. Today, Project Open Hand serves over 3,000 people with HIV/AIDS, in addition to seniors and homebound people living with serious illnesses or other debilitating conditions in San Francisco and Alameda counties. In an average month, Project Open Hand provides over 30,000 meals and 11,000 grocery bags to clients living with HIV/AIDS, prepares over 29,000 meals to seniors, and delivers 3,000 meals to people who are homebound with a critical illness. The group now serves more than 7,000 clients – one-thousand times the number of people first touched by Ms. Brinker’s generosity. For nearly 25 years, Project Open Hand’s partnership of volunteers, donors, and staff has provided healthy meals, groceries, nutrition counseling, and emotional support to those in need, and the groundbreaking organization continues to be a model for similar groups around the world.

The cutting-edge nature of Project Open Hand’s mission is also reflected in its progressive approach to operations. The non-profit organization is not only focused on increasing the effectiveness of its programs and services but also the efficiency of its activities. In 2005, Project Open Hand launched the Green Solutions Initiative with the objective of “greening” its facilities. The goal was two-fold: lower operating expenses and reduce environmental impact. Project Open Hand started with basic changes – increasing composting and recycling efforts, converting to energy efficient bulbs, conducting regular water pipe maintenance, and asking employees to turn off lights and computers when not in use. The result of such simple efforts? $60,000 in savings per year! Next, Project Open Hand started to upgrade its fleet of delivery vehicles, replacing 9 mile-per-gallon gas-guzzling vans with fuel-efficient, compact Scions that tripled the fuel economy. The impact? Overall fleet operating costs were reduced by 70%, and the EPA-rated fleet greenhouse gas score increased by 300%!

With its propensity for innovation, Project Open Hand demonstrated what’s good for the environment can also be very good for business. The aforementioned actions maximized economic resources and minimized environmental impact, and the community started to notice. In support of Project Open Hand’s greening efforts, PG&E donated $200,000 to install a state-of-the-art solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal system in 2007. The 22kW, 34-panel solar system produces more than 30,000 kW hours of clean renewable energy each year without emitting any greenhouse gases, and the 10-panel solar thermal system is capable of heating 170,000 gallons of water per year and offsetting the emissions of almost 2 million pounds of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Combined, the two solar systems will save Project Open Hand approximately $12,000 annually in energy costs and more than $600,000 over the life of the system. Most importantly, the savings will allow Project Open Hand to serve an additional 6,700 home-delivered meals each year.

“Thanks to PG&E, we have a clean energy system that’s functioning great,” Director of Operations Dan Shuman said. The system symbolizes the kind of forward-thinking organization that Project Open Hand is and makes the non-profit’s operations even more attractive to current and potential donors. The publicity received by the solar system has allowed Project Open Hand to secure additional grants and reach a broader audience, thus increasing its community impact.

While Project Open Hand is proud of its accomplishments, the organization recognizes that there is still more to do. The solar system can be expanded by an additional 30% to produce even more energy, motion sensors can be added to reduce electricity produced by ceiling lights, inefficient refrigerators can be replaced to minimize energy usage, and so on. Green is an ongoing process, and Project Open Hand is always looking for further support to help make these changes happen.

Project Open Hand’s Green Solutions Initiative is evidence that seemingly small behavior changes can create powerful results. The non-profit organization’s multi-faceted approach to greening their daily operations showcases the many ways that individuals and businesses can make a difference. By carefully utilizing its resources and reducing its dependence on non-renewable resources, Project Open Hand serves “meals with love” to the Bay Area community with compassion for the planet.