2010 Sustainable Tacoma Grant Close Out Summary Report

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1 2010 Sustainable Tacoma Grant Close Out Summary Report 1. Arcadia Montessori School, Composting and Recycling, $ CASTINGS and McCarver Elementary Peace Makers, Zina Linnik Park Project, $2, First Creek Neighbors, Puyallup Tribe Community Garden, $2, Friends of Julia s Gulch, Trail Plan, $2, Green Tacoma Partnership/Cascade Land Conservancy, Planting Project, $3, Jason Lee Middle School, Operation Green School, $5, Washington-Hoyt Elementary School PTA, Lunch Waste Composting, $ Lyon Elementary School, Raised Garden Beds, $2, Mt. Tahoma High School, Lunchtime Waste Reduction, $2, Point Defiance Elementary School, Polar Bears Go Green, $1, Point Defiance Zoological Society, No-Idle Public Awareness Campaign, $3, Stadium High School & Downtown: On the Go!, Stadium High School Bike Club, $4, Tacoma Community College Foundation, Recycling Educational Campaign, $1, Tacoma School of the Arts Partners, Stewart School & Community Garden, $5, Transportation Choices Coalition, Tacoma on the Move, $5, University of Washington Tacoma, Energy Reduction in UWT Science Building, $3,994

2 Arcadia Montessori School Composting and Recycling Each day at Arcadia, staff makes a conscious effort to ensure the students are recycling and composting everything that they can. The school purchased a large composter for the garden area to show students how easy it is to compost. They also purchased a rain barrel to water the garden. They have seen success in the amount of compost coming out of the composters and returning to the earth instead of a landfill. A student using a composting bin. The children have become extremely aware of the importance of recycling and composting, and police each other if they see someone placing something in the garbage that could be recycled. Work meets play above, and the new barrel below

3 CASTINGS and McCarver Elementary Peace Makers, Zina Linnik Park The goal for CASTINGS and McCarver Elementary School was to build a school and community garden at McCarver Elementary School in McCarver Park. Once the gardens were built, CASTINGS provided supporting opportunities for the students and their families to learn healthy alternatives through growing their own food. In what was once an abandoned field, where illegal activities had become a problem, now would stand raised beds, and spiral and potato sack gardens, becoming a community hub for the Hilltop community. Success was measured by our ability to involve the McCarver students in every aspect of the process and introduce them to new ideas that will later help them in life. Tacoma School of the Arts Partners Stewart Middle School Gardens Students constructed and prepared 30 plots for community use, and included a paved patio for handicapped accessibility. Purchase and use of tools to construct and lay out community garden Construction of brick patio for handicapped access garden Construction and placement of special needs bed in handicapped access garden Planting a student giving garden Work aligned with plans from landscape architect Obtained and spread mulch in garden area Obtained and used TAGRO soil for beds Rain garden pre-construction Beginnings of composting spin-off project for garden The goal of the project was to create a community garden to bridge a gap between the community and the school. Far too often a school sits like a desert during the summer with no community involvement. This is prime gardening time. Now that we have garden spaces being used by the community, a greater deal of interaction is seen daily, this includes greater numbers of families meeting in the evening as they come to the school to attend their plots, students harvesting food for the giving garden project during summer school hours, and increase in community walking the track or just walking through the garden.

4 First Creek Neighbors Puyallup Tribe Community Garden 58 raised bed boxes have been built and filled with Tagro potting soil. They are ready for planting produce in the spring of An additional 12 boxes have been built and filled with soil appropriate for native plants. Unfortunately because of the unusually wet spring and summer, it was impossible to get the lot leveled until June. Water was installed in July. This put the project considerably behind schedule. Therefore, unfortunately, no vegetables were grown this season. The garden was built over 15 Saturdays. About 30 boxes were built in April. In August, September, and October the rest of the boxes and the fence were built and the boxes were filled with Tagro. In total 60 people volunteered to build the Good Medicine Garden. The Good Medicine Garden has transformed a vacant lot into a garden; thereby, improving land use. The main environmental impact of this project will be in the future. Residents will grow and eat organic produce. The health of gardeners and the environment will improve as the community begins to use native plants both as food sources and landscape plants. Native plants will be grown and transferred to open spaces to replace invasive plants. A volunteer working to build one of the 58 raised beds

5 Friends of Julia s Gulch Trail Plan This grant provided funding to have a consultant complete a trail plan that can later be used to construct trails in Julia s Gulch. This plan, with approval from the City of Tacoma and the Port of Tacoma, will allow the habitat stewards to raise more funds to complete successive stages of implementation. With trails in place, even small sections, access to this natural area will become easier for school groups and other community members This project has been successful in that it provides the habitat stewards with a feasible blueprint to begin implementing a trail system. Without having had a consultant to assess the layout of the gulch, including slope and soil conditions, topography, hydrography, viewpoint and connection opportunities, it would have been difficult if not impossible for them, having no experience in this line of work, to think about undertaking such a project. The numerous site visits and conversations that led to the trail plan, both with the consultant, Carl Fabiani, as well as with planning and environmental staff from the City of Tacoma, the Port of Tacoma and Forterra, ensure buy-in and understanding of the ultimate goals from all stakeholders. Creating the plan has been crucial to stimulate interaction between all parties.

6 Green Tacoma Partnership/ Cascade Land Conservancy Planting Project The Green Tacoma Partnership (GTP) and the Cascade Land Conservancy purchased 635 native trees including: douglas fir, western red cedar, western hemlock, Sitka spruce, vine maple, and cascara. The planting project spurred treeplanting events at six sites around the city, with many of these sites holding multiple events. Site included Garfield Gulch and Puget Creek in the North End, the Tacoma Nature Center and Franklin Park in Central Tacoma, Julia s Gulch in Northeast, and First Creek on the Eastside. The Julia s Gulch and First Creek planting sites were held on City-owned property, while the other plantings are on a mix of Metro Parks and neighboring private property. Planting at Julia s Gulch Volunteers at Garfield Park The number of volunteers exceeds 125, which does not include staff from the city, metro parks, and non-profits such as Forterra and Puget Creek Restoration Society. Planting at The Tacoma Nature Center

7 Jason Lee Middle School Operation Green School In February 2010 Jason Lee formed a Green Team, partnering with Washington Green Schools, and began meeting twice a week. They held activities for water consumption, waste and recycling, transportation, and indoor air quality throughout the year to acquire certification levels from Washington Green Schools. On May 19 th the Green Team hosted a Sustainability Fair, which had over 200 community member attend. For this event the team partnered with: Environmental Science students from UWT sharing their work, Foss Waterway Seaport Museum with a trash vs. recycling activity, Tacoma Light passed out CFL light bulbs, Metro Parks shared local activity opportunities for kids and families, EnviroChallenger hands on sustainability activity, solar energy display showed solar energy in action heating water, Wheel of Fortune from the Foss Seaport Maritime Festival with water quality questions, as well as local restaurants who catered a light meal. In fall 2011 the team began working on waste reduction in the school, by purchasing new recycling bins and facilitating more recycling. The team also created a PowerPoint presentation titled Green Planet 101 to share sustainability ideas with the school and the larger community. 85 people have already downloaded the presentation. The grant helped put programs in place at Jason Lee that have impacted our sustainability behaviors. Classrooms and offices now how reminder signs for using natural light vs. electricity, and turning off the lights and electronics when you leave the room. More teachers are consciously using natural light in their rooms.

8 Washington Hoyt Elementary School Lunch Waste Reduction Lyon Elementary School Raised Garden Beds At Washington Hoyt Elementary School, a lunch composting system was established. Students calculated that, over the course of the school year (170 days on which lunch is served), they will divert 5,100 lbs (2.55 tons) of food from the landfill to the compost factory, from the 3-5 th grade lunches. From this point the program will expand to all six grades. The food waste is collected each lunch time and then picked up each Friday by the City s truck to be delivered to the Compost Factory. The students are not only learning environmental habits, they are excited to become environmental stewards. Each week, four students volunteer to serve as our Green Partners, who run the lunch recycling station for that week at 4th-5th and 3rd grade The grant was originally intended for McKinley Elementary School, but it was closed by the district. The students at Lyon Elementary School planted 600 tulip and daffodil bulbs in the garden boxes in The original intention was for students to plant vegetables, but the timeline changed so the students will plant vegetables in the spring of The projects used TAGRO potting soil and a rail barrel to water the gardens to have a larger environmental impact. Almost every child at the school was involved in moving dirt and helping with the garden. Also, every class had an opportunity to plant flower bulbs, and in the spring they planted vegetables to harvest and eat. lunches. Green Partners step right up and take their responsibilities seriously ensuring the beverage containers are properly processed for recycling, monitoring the waste food bin to remove stray plastic and paper items, and informing their fellow students that we are all wasting too much food!

9 Mount Tahoma High School Green Mount Tahoma Lunchtime Waste Reduction Mt. Tahoma s student led Green Team created an on site compost program for their cafeteria, greenhouse and garden to reduce their waste output and eliminated the need for purchasing compost from a third party. The composted material is used to expand their current garden that provides organic produce to more than 25 staff and student families. Point Defiance Elementary Polar Bears Go Green New recycling effeorts have been made at Point Defiance Elementary. New recycle bins were presented at an assembly, staff were encourage to shred papers that were formerly tossed in the trash, and a rinse and recycle program for milk cartons started in the lunchroom. The effort has been very successful and the school is filling three additional recycle bins every other week. This resulted in the night custodian hauling out less than half the trash she used to. The recycling effort is helping reduce the amount of waste headed to the landfill. The school hopes to instill recycling into their student, so they learn how important it is.

10 Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium No Idle Project The Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (PDZA) began a campaign to educate visitors to the zoo about the facts about idling a car. They handed out window clings for cars and pocket cards, The Truth about Idling Your Engine to visitors at the polar bear exhibit. Two signs were installed along the visitor loading/unloading zone at front entrance. Signs read: Be a Polar Bear Pal; Turn your engine off if waiting 10 seconds or longer; Save gas and money; Help us all breather cleaner air; Help keep the planet cooler for polar bears and other wildlife; Idle Free Zoo. Two Idle Free Zoo banners were placed on light poles in front of the loading zone and at Parking Lot A. These signs and banners are permanent and were visible to the close to 213,000 adults who visited the zoo during the 2011 peak season Over 25,000 visitors had conversations with education staff regarding polar bears and actions they can take to reduce their carbon footprint, including idling less. This campaign will continue for at least the next five years using existing materials and with any necessary financial support from the PDZA Green Team

11 Stadium High School Bike Club Stadium Bike Club was student-led, having more than 20 students on the club s roster. Bike to School Week resulted in 154 bicycle trips equaling 760 miles ridden, overfilling the bike racks at Stadium High School every day. Students continued this momentum through the year, averaging more than 10 cyclists per day (more than doubling the amount of cyclists that biked to school prior to their efforts). TCC Recycling Education Program The Recycling Educational Campaign specifically targeted TCC s diverse student population. Its primary objective was to increase awareness in becoming a greener campus. The project was launched with the hosting of the TCC Trash Audit. This event took place on November 16, It was held on campus in the lower level of the Science and Engineering Building and was facilitated by Robert Dieckmann of Pierce County Solid Waste Division. Despite inclement weather (which moved the event indoors), the event was well attended and was successful at encouraging dialogue and building awareness of how well TCC recycles for those in attendance. The project also included the printing and laminating of posters in multiple languages to encourage recycling. A total of 210 posters were printed. The posters were printed in English, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese. In addition to planning and conducting Bike to School events, the students realized it is not realistic for many of them to bike to school every day. But they agreed that it is not sustainable to drive alone every day.

12 Transportation Choices Coalition Tacoma on the Move Forty five participants took part in a transit incentive program. The program targeted lowincome and ethnically diverse communities in East and South Tacoma. The program tracked the number of trips on transit by the 45 participants, 1030 trips in total. They also tracked walking and biking trips the participants made a conscious effort to make short term trips to the grocery store and friend s houses. Tacoma on the Move was able to give ORCA cards to dozens of individuals who simply did not have enough money to buy an ORCA card and load it with money. Some of the participants were infrequent transit riders who became frequent riders. Prior to joining the program many could not afford to ride the bus. This became one of the best outcomes from this project; the realization that for many low income families the biggest barrier to riding transit has little to do with the bus system, it was pure economics. University of Washington Tacoma Energy Reduction in the UWT Science Building: A Model for Campus Sustainability The proposed project was to install sub-meters for monitoring electricity usage in the UWT Science Building along with a student-led project to examine energy saving from autoshutdown software for computers in the building. So far, the project has accomplished the purchase of energy meters for the UWT Science Building, which are currently under installation. Due to delays caused by a campus-wide effort to choose one energy dashboard for the campus and the requirement that the energy meters be compatible with this dashboard, the project has not yet been able to initiate the student project or to collect evaluation data. Later students will collect data and submit an update with their findings.