NVHS Greenhouse and Composting System, CAP 4th Quarter - 2007

We decided that for our 4 Days in May project, and our
action project, we would create a Greenhouse and Composting System for NVHS. We thought this would be a good thing to do because,
after we are all gone from NVHS, future students would have a CE or Workshop
that focused on the concepts of composting and growing that a greenhouse could
provide.

In order to set up this resource, however, we had to do a
lot of legwork in the community. We
contacted professional growers and gathered their advice on what kind of
greenhouse to build and what type of operation to run. The following are some of the people we spoke
with:

· We met with Growing Gardens, a community gardening
project and facility in Northern Boulder. They were very helpful in explaining to us
the different types of greenhouses and composting systems.

· We also met with Cyndra Deitz, Eco-Cycle’s
School Recycling and Environmental Education Program Director, who instructed
us what type of composting system would work best for the scale of our project
as well as the potential future applications of our program.

· Boulder Compost Company owner and operator Eric
Simenson was kind enough to share his knowledge of “vermiposting,” which is
composting using the help of worms. He
brought in some bins to demonstrate the process, and he also gave us a great
plan for building our own worm composting bin and system.

· Bryce Brown, founder of Our Love of Children Foundation,
spoke to us about the project at Creekside Elementary where the school garden
is used to augment school lunch for students. He shared visions of what a school garden could grow into and got us all
very excited to continue our project.

In addition to speaking to professionals in the community,
we also were given a huge amount of support from local businesses interested in
our project.

· ReSource, a sustainable building supplier using
recycled construction and building materials, donated ANY materials we could
find in their yard for absolutely FREE. This was really great and it made us see that some businesses really do
practice what they preach.

· McGuckins Hardware was very supportive in their
donation of $120 of building supplies towards the creation of our greenhouse
and composting system. Again, we were
surprised by these local businesses’ belief in our action project.

Ultimately, we spent over seven weeks getting the logistics
together so that this greenhouse could be built. It is with great enthusiasm that we are
passing on this project to future CAP classes and look forward to seeing the
structure up and running soon!

Sustainable Businesses - CAP 3rd Quarter, 2007

This quarter, CAP chose to work with local businesses in
order to help them become more sustainable. However, in order for us to offer anyone
advice on sustainability, we thought it’d be a good idea to figure out exactly
what a sustainable business is!

Sustainable Business

Over the course of two weeks of research, we learned that
sustainable businesses are those that are able to meet the needs of their
particular operation without jeopardizing future generations or
ecosystems. In other words, sustainable
businesses use resources and products that are not depleting or damaging
existing ecosystems, social systems and economic systems. Likewise, sustainable businesses provide
products or services that do the same. We learned that, worldwide, it is estimated that only about 6% of
businesses in developed nations are considered sustainable. Interestingly, this percentage is much higher
in developing nations because of the lack of industry and the use of agriculturally-based
production.

Now, if you think of most businesses in our Boulder community, you can see that many of their practices do not adhere to the sustainable
business model. We thought that 6% was
too low for the developed world, so we thought we would try to help a few local
businesses to change some of their practices in order to become more
sustainable. Obviously, we couldn’t
expect business owners to buy solar panels and renovate their heating and
cooling systems because of the high costs. So, we decided to focus on smaller, more practical steps that businesses
could take to change their degree of sustainability.

We teamed up with local businesses The Rio Grande, Boulder
Ice Cream and Pekoe Tea House to see what we could do to help them become more
sustainable. We provided an audit in
which each business would discuss products used, utilities used, resources consumed,
etc. We then analyzed each questionnaire
and addressed non-sustainable practices and offered alternative, sustainable options
for the business. In many cases, these options
had to do with cleaning products, energy conservation practices and recycling
and disposal practices. The local
businesses were extremely receptive to our project and we were really surprised
by how much they were willing to hear what we had to say. We thought they wouldn’t care about what a
bunch of high school kids had to say but, in reality, they thought it was neat
that we were providing a free environmental consultation.

In addition to talking and working with local businesses, we
made t-shirts that supported our campaign and we each learned a ton about
sustainability in the business world. We
hope that future CAP classes continue to work with this topic because there is
so much more that can be done and people are really excited to change to
sustainable business models!

Sustainable Businesses Action Project, 3rd Quarter 2007

This quarter, CAP chose to work with local businesses in
order to help them become more sustainable. However, in order for us to offer anyone
advice on sustainability, we thought it’d be a good idea to figure out exactly
what a sustainable business is!

Sustainable Business

Over the course of two weeks of research, we learned that
sustainable businesses are those that are able to meet the needs of their
particular operation without jeopardizing future generations or
ecosystems. In other words, sustainable
businesses use resources and products that are not depleting or damaging
existing ecosystems, social systems and economic systems. Likewise, sustainable businesses provide
products or services that do the same. We learned that, worldwide, it is estimated that only about 6% of
businesses in developed nations are considered sustainable. Interestingly, this percentage is much higher
in developing nations because of the lack of industry and the use of agriculturally-based
production.

Now, if you think of most businesses in our Boulder community, you can see that many of their practices do not adhere to the sustainable
business model. We thought that 6% was
too low for the developed world, so we thought we would try to help a few local
businesses to change some of their practices in order to become more
sustainable. Obviously, we couldn’t
expect business owners to buy solar panels and renovate their heating and
cooling systems because of the high costs. So, we decided to focus on smaller, more practical steps that businesses
could take to change their degree of sustainability.

We teamed up with local businesses The Rio Grande, Boulder
Ice Cream and Pekoe Tea House to see what we could do to help them become more
sustainable. We provided an audit in
which each business would discuss products used, utilities used, resources consumed,
etc. We then analyzed each questionnaire
and addressed non-sustainable practices and offered alternative, sustainable options
for the business. In many cases, these options
had to do with cleaning products, energy conservation practices and recycling
and disposal practices. The local
businesses were extremely receptive to our project and we were really surprised
by how much they were willing to hear what we had to say. We thought they wouldn’t care about what a
bunch of high school kids had to say but, in reality, they thought it was neat
that we were providing a free environmental consultation.

In addition to talking and working with local businesses, we
made t-shirts that supported our campaign and we each learned a ton about
sustainability in the business world. We
hope that future CAP classes continue to work with this topic because there is
so much more that can be done and people are really excited to change to
sustainable business models!