Plan It Green! A Videogame for the Environment

Most video games feature unlimited resources with little to no environmental impact for using them. Researchers are urging developers to start teaching costs and benefits of resource management into every day video games in order to start teaching kids early how their choices affect the world around them. In Plan it Green, players are given the chance to be mayor of their own city. They get to build and can invest in different renewable resources to try and keep their city green.

Dish-washing versus Dishwasher?

Believe it or not, washing your dishes by hand is less environmentally friendly than running your dishwasher! The average dishwasher uses six gallons of water per load (four or less for energy efficient models) while the average faucet pumps out two gallons per minute.

Now, imagine hand washing all of your dishes while using only two minutes worth of water. Even with electricity use factored in, a dishwasher uses less electricity than is used to heat the water running through the faucet.

Greenhouse Project

The Manhattan School for Children wanted to give their students a solid foundation in the environmental concerns about living in a big city. So they built a greenhouse science lab on their roof! The idea was that students “grow food, while learning hands-on about nutrition, water resource management, efficient land use, climate change, biodiversity, conservation, contamination, pollution, waste management, and sustainable development.” The project was so successful that there are now 25 labs at schools throughout New York City and their goal is 100 labs by 2020. NYSunWorks