Colorado

Rooftop Gardens

2012 Berthoud, Colorado, USA

Alex Liebman is a senior at Berthoud High School. She placed 4th at the Northern Colorado watershed contest with her project to implement rooftop gardens on the schools in the Northern Colorado area. The gardens will serve as insulation for the school, reduce water runoff that could potentially be polluted, lower erosion levels, and provide a learning experience for students at the schools.

rooftop-2 The garden consists of a square foot section of the roof that is covered with plants that will greatly benefit from the rain water that would otherwise be directed into the gutters, and sent into the school parking lots where the water will mix with possible toxins that could potentially be harmful to the watershed. Berthoud High School will serve as the pilot project.

Green Roofs of Colorado, LLC the company that installed the rooftop garden on top of the EPA building in Denver, Colorado, (photo to the right) will use Berthoud as a referral to have additional schools in the area also install a green roof.

“I am extremely thankful to Nutrien for their donation of $1,008.60 to implement the project from the estimated cost budget.” Says Alex.

Escape To The World Of Xeriscape

2012 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Josh Croft & Stephanie Lopez, Northridge High School, xeriscaping project started out as four pieces of land located in their school’s front parking lot, but because of a new set of greenhouses installed on the east side of the building, the project was relocated.

Croft & Lopez completed most of the planning, landscape design and budgeting during the spring of the year. Ruth Quade, Water Resource Specialist with the City of Greeley, continued to mentor the team through the selection of the type of plants, planting arrangement and purchasing locations.

Removal of the existing plants was delayed throughout the summer. Both students graduated in the spring and headed off to college but before packing their bags, they passed off the 2nd place proposal to the Northridge Horticulture students in order to achieve full implementation. The Horticulture students contacted Eaton Grove Nursery to purchase the selected xeric plants. The low-water landscaping has been installed in front of the newly constructed greenhouses and will be part of the entry way to plant growing spaces. Future plans include placement of signage by the club to identify the plants, water saving advantages and to help inform others how this idea really works.

The Northridge Grizzles appreciate the support from Nutrien to bring the contest to Colorado and the donation of $1000 to implement this solution at our school.

Biodiesel: The Magic Green Bus

2012 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Vanessa Martinez, Jose Martinez & Eric Trujillo from Northridge High School stated “within our watershed there are hundreds of diesel engine buses that transport thousands of students to multiple schools in the Greeley-Evans area. The diesel engines are not only expensive, but are also hazardous because of contaminants they emit into the air of our watershed and environment.”

Thus, their solution is to convert one diesel engine bus into a bio-diesel engine and compare the two. The goal is to show the difference bio-diesel engines can make. It will help make the transportation safer for the children of District 6, and help keep the air cleaner.

The school district was unable to get biodiesel buses because of lack of biodiesel fuel however they are getting energy saving, natural gas-based buses instead which enabled the students to implement their project. We will continue to work with the district to follow up with data comparisons between regular buses and the new natural gas fueled buses. The expected completion date is the spring of 2013.

“We aspire to eventually convert all the buses in our district once we have the effective data needed as reasonable evidence to prove natural gas bus’ better efficiency.”
-The Magic Green Bus Team

The students expressed their appreciation for the support from Nutrien to implement the project, funding from a local natural gas company to purchase the buses, and the district’s willingness to fund the cost of this project to complete it.

Energy Efficient Dishwashers

2012 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Lance Mosness Jr. & Philipp Chmura from Union Colony Preparatory High School had the idea to install low energy dishwashers in Greeley, Colorado.
Americans themselves use the most water out of any one in the world. The implementation of this solution was to install two low energy dishwashers into community buildings, such as schools in Greeley. Installing these dishwashers into these areas will lower their water use, thus reducing the overall water use of the Poudre Watershed. Just using a dishwasher is more water efficient than hand washing dishes, but the best solution is installing and using low energy dishwashers.

Implementation Timeline:

Summer 2012-Selected and ordered built-In and portable dishwashers ($958.)
Fall 2012-Install dishwashers in schools, ($200, donated)
Late Fall 2012-Estimate water and cost savings
Winter 2012-Media release on the results of our solution

The students’ purchased two energy star dishwashers. During the next two weeks they will be installed at both of the schools. Nutrien donated $958 to implement our project- Thank You!

“Even though our watershed is just a small part of the total water used around our country, a small change here could make a big difference.” – Lance Moseness

Rain Gardens

2011 Fort Collins, CO, USA

The Environmental Club is proud to bring to Poudre High School’s campus a rain garden, also called bioremediation garden. A rain garden is a depression that catches rainwater runoff from hard surfaces such as parking lots and roof tops. The plants help improve absorption and filter the water as it soaks into the ground. It is a simple and effective way to reduce the pollution that travels in Stormwater and eventually ends up in our waterways, like the Poudre River. On the surface, a rain garden consists of various plants and grasses that are able to survive in both wet and dry environments. Other materials can be found in the garden as well, such as rocks, mulch, and soil. Here’s why it is useful: as runoff water and precipitation percolate through the rain garden, the plants and natural materials filter out and adsorb to pollutants. As a result, the water that leaving the garden is cleaner, and so are our rivers!

A huge thank you to Nutrien for donating $1,000 to implement this project.

Toilet Heroes

2011 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Alyson Foust, Jesse Freeman and Levi Trevino from Greeley Central High decided to become “toilet heroes” to help their school become more environmentally friendly.

Central high school contributes to the misuse of water. Approximately 1,500 students and staff use the restrooms each at the school. With each flush draining 3.5 gallons, about 5, 250 gallons are flushed each day. Each month students are in school – approximately 22 days each month – 115,500 gallons are flushed. 1,155,000 gallons are flushed each school year (10 months).

This implementation is able to have a large impact on the Cache la Poudre watershed. With the help of the Greeley Schools Facilities Department, who actually did the plumbing and the students’ mentor, Ruth Quade, who guided them through the rebate process with the City of the Greeley, the students’ replaced ALL the toilets in the school to low flow toilets.

This project was able to change 41 toilets in the school to water saving low-flow toilets. The newly installed toilets will act as a pilot to converting toilets into low flow toilets throughout the districts 30. This would have a dramatic, positive, impact on the local watershed of Cache la Poudre. The project was completed in August of 2011. The students are especially grateful to Nutrien for sponsoring the Caring for our Watershed contest in Colorado and the $1,000 used to implement our Toilet Heroes Project at Greeley Central High School.

“Our goal is to save water to further help sustain our watershed.” -Alyson Foust.