ACAP Cape Breton Earth Week Eco Espionage Begins April 19th

ACAP Cape Breton will be unleashing its ‘eco-spies’ for Earth Week 2010. Each day, starting April 19th, these spies will be in different communities catching people ‘green handed’ and rewarding them as they do something beneficial for the environment.

You never know where our eco spies will be. They could be outside of restaurants rewarding those who don’t idle, visiting bus shelters, and ‘catching’ people who randomly pick up litter or recycle right.

Congratulations!  You have been caught “green handed” by our Green Force Eco Espionage Unit.  To find out just why you deserved a reward, choose your option on the menu:

Avoiding the Drive Thru

Taking the Bus

Using Active Transportation

Planting Trees or Shrubs

Picking up Litter

Reduce

Reuse

Recycling Right

Carpooling

Other

Avoiding the Drive Thru

CO2 emissions from our vehicles are a major contributor to climate change. The transportation sector is the 2nd largest contributor of carbon dioxide emissions in Canada.  Much of this CO2 is caused by people doing nothing, just idling their cars in one of our many drive-thrus.  By avoiding the drive-thru, you have helped to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere!  Thank you!

Idling facts:  45 seconds of idling uses roughly the same amount of fuel as driving a kilometre. Idling for more than 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting the engine in most vehicles.  Starters in modern cars are able to withstand a lot of starts and stops and the main reason why is to reduce unnecessary idling.

Excessive idling can actually damage engine components, including cylinders, spark plugs, and the exhaust system. It can also cause water to condense in the vehicle's exhaust, causing corrosion and reducing the life of the exhaust system. One of the main problems is that idling causes unburned fuel to contaminate the engine oil.

Source: www.drivewiser.ca, http://www.acapcb.ns.ca/idlefree.htm

Taking the Bus:

Personal vehicles are a major contributor to climate change.  Each time an engine burns fuel, it is releasing carbon dioxide and other gases that cause the Earth’s atmosphere to warm.  By taking a bus instead of a car, the emissions produced are shared by all of the passengers, and therefore less CO2 is produced per person.

Switching from driving a car to work to taking public transit can cut daily carbon emissions by 20 pounds, or more than 4,800 pounds a year.  In addition to lower CO2 emissions, public transit also produces an average of 92 percent fewer volatile organic compounds, 95 percent less carbon monoxide, and 48 percent less nitrogen oxide per passenger mile compared to private vehicles

Taking public transit helps you go green because...

• By taking cars off the road, greenhouse gas emissions are lessened, congestion is cut, noise is decreased, and motor vehicle accidents are reduced.
• The land area required for automobile parking is decreased, which reduces water runoff and pollution.

Without a doubt, individual car drivership is one of the biggest carbon dioxide contributions made by the average North American. This habit also requires tremendous infrastructure that's not only destructive in its making, it's a drain on physical space, too.

Thanks for making such an environmentally friendly choice!

Source:  www.greenyour.com

Using Active Transportation:

Active transportation involves choosing modes of transportation that require human power, such as walking, cycling, in-line skating, skateboarding or skiing. In utilizing these modes of transportation we can begin to achieve a cleaner environment and improved personal health.  By choosing a form of active transportation, you have helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Thank you!

Environmental benefits of active transportation:
• Greenhouse gas emissions reduction
• Air pollution reduction
• Noise reduction
• Improved water quality

Source: http://www.acapcb.ns.ca/activetransport.htm

Planting Trees or Shrubs:

Carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is one of the major contributors to climate change. 

Since a tree is made of half carbon, trees represent one of the best ways to extract carbon (which enters the tree as CO2) from the air.  Overall, scientific calculations suggest that the average” Canadian tree will sequester about 200-225 kg over an 80-year period.  Plus, you have done your part to make your community a nicer place to be!  Thank you for your good green deed!

Source: www.treecanada.ca

Picking up Litter:

The 2008 Litter Survey showed that Nova Scotians are littering 21% more than they did in 2004.  Besides looking awful, litter can cause serious public health hazards:

Discarded cups full of rainwater make perfect breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes. Rats, insect infestations and bacteria all love litter. Litter can clog storm drains and cause serious flooding. Litter also affects tourism. It can harm animals, plants and other wildlife, and can leach toxic chemicals into the environment.

Litter also often gets washed into storm drains, streams, rivers and eventually, our oceans. About 80% of the garbage in the ocean comes from land-based sources. Plastic debris does not biodegrade, it only breaks down into smaller and smaller particles which are still plastic. In some areas of the Pacific, plastic particles outnumber plankton 6:1.

So look what a good job you’ve done, helping your community and the environment by picking up litter!  You did a great job, enjoy your reward!

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nse/waste/links.asp

Reduce:

Your actions have helped the environment by reducing the amount of energy or resources you’ve used, or the amount of waste you created.  Whether it’s turning off lights or energy-using appliances when you don’t need them, choosing to buy items in bulk or those with less packaging, you have done your part for the environment by using the first (and most important) of the 3 R’s.  Some people don’t realize that even the process of recycling paper or plastic packaging uses energy, and that the best way to reduce waste, energy and emissions is to simply reduce the amount of stuff we use every day.  Thanks for your eco-friendly choice!

Reuse:

Reusing items in our everyday lives is a great way to help the environment.  Whether you got a cup of coffee with a reusable travel mug, brought along cloth bags to do your groceries or donated clothing or other items to goodwill, you have done a great job reducing the amount of waste you create and saving the energy needed to make new disposable items. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Recycling Right:

We all know that recycling is good for the environment.  Recycling also allows municipalities to recover valuable resources that would otherwise have been discarded.  By recycling right – sorting your waste into the proper containers and making sure the items are clean and dry – you have done your part to ensure that the CBRM’s recycling program is a success!  Thanks for making the right choice! 

Carpooling:

Without a doubt, individual car drivership is one of the biggest carbon dioxide contributions made by the average North American. Each time an engine burns fuel, it is releasing carbon dioxide and other gases that cause the Earth’s atmosphere to warm.  By carpooling instead of taking your own car, the emissions produced are shared by all of the passengers, and therefore less CO2 is produced per person.

Thanks for making such an environmentally friendly choice!

Source:  www.greenyour.com

Other:

Your green deed did not fall under any of our criteria for this contest but it impressed us so much that we thought you deserved a reward.  Thanks for your awesome deed, mysterious stranger.  You are an Environmental Hero!

For more information please contact:

Katherine MacDonald

Senior Project Manager

ACAP Cape Breton

902.567.1628

kmacdonald@acapcb.ns.ca