Bangkok Police Going Green?

Over my 6 years in Thailand I have seen this country slowly become more green minded. From increase in tree planting, to shopping malls hosting green events and starting to consider reducing plastic bags, to more sky trains, and even having buses switching to natural gas fuel. But I was pleasantly surprised to find this video about the police department. 3 cheers for the cops!



Want to see Bangkok go even greener? Keep your eye on Carrotmob. Coming soon.

No More Bottled Water

The HS Green Panthers selected one of their project this year to be trying to stop the sale of bottled water at ISB. We are in the beginning stages, but there is movement happening. There are many concerns and issues with the move, so it is not as simple as it might seem. We would need to supply more fountains around campus, we want to provide every student with a water bottle, and people need to be educated about this issue. These are only some of the main concerns.

We have narrowed it down to two bottles; Vapur, which is the anti-bottle and has some unique characteristics, such as rolling up when empty; and the Water Geek. Both are BPA free and have other qualities we are looking for.

Samples will be here soon. What would you want to use?

I know other schools out there have gotten rid of bottled water. Please send us any information you might have that can help us.

Pammy and the United Nations

I'm a little late reporting this one, but back in September we took 10 ISB students (5 MS and 5 HS) to the U.N. building to help in a worldwide conference on Climate Change. It was called Seal the Deal and was hosted in Korea, but we were video conferenced in as were others from Brazil, Canada, South Africa, China, and more.

We were 10 amongst 1000's of youths collaboratively working together in real time around the world on a common cause. Together we helped form the proposal for Seal the Deal. This proposal will be taken to the Climate Change meeting in Denmark in December.

The last major meeting on this cause before the Copenhagen talks were held in Bangkok. We were honored to have our very own Green Panther, 'Pammy' selected as guest youth speaker for the United Nations. Congratulations Pammy!

Stuart Scott

In October we were fortunate enough to have a visit and presentation by Stuart Scott about Climate Change. Stuart has been trained by Al Gore on the subject. He spoke with students from grade 5-12 and also met with the ToK class. Stuart is is Thailand to discuss this topic with as many influenced people as possible. A colleague of mine, Robin Bulsza, also wrote a class blog about this.

I would like to thank Stuart for giving us his time and sending the message of action loud and clear. Recently Stuart has been granted an audience with Pope Benedict. Let's hope something positive can come of it.

To find out more about Stuart and what he is doing go to Interfaith Declaration.

350 - Can ISB do it?

On Oct 24th people from all around the world will mark this day with a 350 design. This is the safe number of Co2 we can have in our atmosphere. Watch this video(s) and think about if ISB should join.

Good News from the Cafeteria

A while back the Q3 environmental class surveyed students to see how they felt about some possible environmental changes. Most of the results were encouraging, thus we followed up with a survey to the teachers/staff and then the parents. Again most results were encouraging. One of the changes was to switch to recycled/unbleached napkins. However, these napkins are more expensive and we asked people if they would donate money for this cause. More than 140 people said they would donate and I thank you all for your support, however the money is no longer needed. The cafeteria (Epicure) kindly agreed they would pick up the tab on this one since they believe in the cause and want to contribute to the environmental movement at ISB. We are also partnering up with a new business on this. You may have noticed the new smoothie stand at Villa called Twist. Well, their owner is also very aware of environmental issues and will have the same napkins.

It’s great to see other businesses getting on board and actively looking for solutions. Let’s give a big thanks to Cynthia U. from Epicure and Mike R. from Twist for making this happen. For the rest of us, let's make sure we do our part and listen to the message: Be part of the solution; take only what you need.

Saving Paper in the Library

5 years ago ISB delivered a blue box to every classroom and office to collect waste paper for recycling. This still continues today and although it is good to recycle, it is much better to just use less paper in the first place and then reuse what you can. The library is now taking measures to make this happen.
According to Stephen Lehmann the print/copy numbers at ISB has reduced 5% even though student numbers increased during that time. Mr. Lehmann also states that “Now in the MS/HS library students use their card to make photocopies and the money is deducted from their campus card account. For printing, if it color the student is charged to their card. If is black and white printing there is no charge but there is a monthly limit of 100 copies. When printing color or black and white the student has to go to the printer and release the job.” Doing this ensures the print jobs are always picked up. At the end of the day, any jobs that were printed and were not picked up are canceled.
According to some library staff, the amount of wasted paper before just piled up each day without being picked up and since these new measures have come in, there is little to no waste. Thus, the measures have not stopped students from printing when needed, but has reduced the amount of careless and unnecessary printing. In other words, they have to be more responsible and less wasteful.