Environmental
This type of waste makes up the majority of items collected during beach cleanups, and takes up to 450 years to decompose
What is plastic?
This percentage of a California household's electricity bill is typically wasted through inefficient habits like leaving lights on and standby electronics.
30%
This Cupertino plant nursery, founded in 1948, was one of the two local businesses audited for our Sustainability Action Project.
Yamagami's Garden Center
This is the layer of the atmosphere that absorbs harmful UV radiation from the sun, and was being depleted by refrigerants called CFCs before the Montreal Protocol.
Montreal Protocol
Our group's three sustainability actions targeted three different scales, a business audit, a home audit, and this third type of environmental action
A beach Cleanup
When plastic trash is left on a beach, this natural process carries it from storm drains into the ocean.
What is runoff?
This is the single largest energy use category in most California homes, making it the top target for residential energy audits.
Heating and Cooling
At Omei Academy, every student receives 2 of these per session with 10–15 pages each, identified as the single largest daily waste source at the program
Paper Packets
This greenhouse gas, released by livestock, landfills, and wetlands, is 80 times more potent than CO₂ over a 20-year period.
Methane
This is the name of the after-school program on Imperial Ave in Cupertino that was audited as the second business in our project
Omei Academy
This is the term for plastic particles smaller than 5mm that marine animals mistake for food, found on nearly every beach on Earth.
What are microplastics?
How many neighbors were contacted to help us with the local house audit?
5
This is the number one sustainability gap identified at Yamagami's, something Wendy said the business would most want to fix but hasn't due to infrastructure cost.
This is the term for species that are brought into a new ecosystem where they have no natural predators, often outcompeting native species and disrupting food webs.
Invasive Species
Wendy at Yamagami's said 90% of all conversations at their info center are about teaching customers to do this, their most impactful ongoing sustainability action.
Conserve water while watering plants
This is the name for dead zones in the ocean caused by fertilizer runoff triggering algae blooms that deplete all oxygen in the water.
Hypoxia (or eutrophication)
This is the term for the total amount of greenhouse gases, measured in CO₂ equivalent, produced directly and indirectly by a household's daily activities like driving, heating, and electricity use
Carbon Footprint
Yamagami's sources from 15–20 of these types of suppliers, all small family businesses located primarily in Watsonville, Santa Cruz, and the Central Valley
Local California Growers
This cycle was disrupted at Yamagami's by excess cement on the property preventing water from soaking into the ground and instead sending it rushing into storm drains.
Water Cycle
What was a Tier 2 recommendation for Yamagami's Plant Center
-Contact Santa Clara Valley Water District to schedule a free water commercial audit
-Replaced at least one paved or cement surface near a primary drainage point
Scientists estimate that by this year, there will be more plastic in the ocean by weight than fish, if current trends continue.
2050
Residential and commercial buildings combined account for this percentage of total US greenhouse gas emissions according to the EPA, making home audits one of the highest-impact actions individuals can take.
31%
What was a Tier 1 Recommendation for Omei Academy?
-Set up a labeled recycling bin next to every trash can
-Switch printer default to double-sided
-Create an end of day staff checklist to confirm AC, lights, computers are off before leaving
This economic concept explains why individual homeowners and businesses continue consuming cheap fossil fuel energy even when the environmental costs far exceed the price they pay, because the true cost of pollution is never reflected in their electricity bill.
Negative Externalities
What was a Tier 3 Recommendation for Omei Academy?
Install Rooftops or solar panels, or transition to shared tablet assignments