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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

FCPS Starts New School Year With Environment in Mind

When students begin the 2007-08 school year in Fairfax County Public Schools on Tuesday, September 4, a number of environmentally friendly changes will have taken place in their school buildings and on school grounds, many of which won’t be apparent.

FCPS has installed energy efficient upgrades, such as improved lighting, climate control systems, and windows in 100 buildings, saving $2.4 million per year in energy costs and reducing carbon emissions from these buildings at the equivalent of emissions from 5,000 vehicles each day.  Low power consuming EnergyStar computer desktops and laptop computers, LCD monitors, and power-saving programs are being used by the FCPS Department of Information Technology, resulting in $1.6 million per year in energy savings.

Artificial turf has been installed on two high school stadium fields that will save approximately 400,000 gallons of water that would have been used to water natural grass fields.  Replacing natural grass with artificial turf on just one football field reduces the amount of hydrocarbons (4.22 pounds), carbon monoxide (331 pounds), oxides of nitrogen (2.83 pounds), and particulate matter (.05 pounds) as a result of mowing (approximately 32 cuts per season).  Artificial turf also saves introduction of nitrogen (172.8 pounds), phosphorus (86.4 pounds), and potassium (as potassium oxide) by 144 pounds with the elimination of fertilizer.

As new facilities are constructed and existing facilities are renovated, designers are emphasizing the use of natural light as well as using low-emission paints and adhesives and other environmentally friendly materials.

All of FCPS’ diesel vehicles, including its school buses, use ultra low sulfur fuel, reducing emissions from those vehicles.  As older buses are replaced with new buses, the projected emissions will continue to drop because the newer buses are more energy efficient.  The chart below outlines the projected emissions, in pounds, per bus per year based on average miles for the bus fleet.

FCPS prohibits school buses from idling when waiting for passengers, reducing bus fuel consumption by approximately 12,000 gallons per year for every five minutes of nonidling.  While exact figures are not available, the school system believes that the average bus could idle between 10 and 15 minutes each day if the practice was not prohibited.

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