Great News!!!
Thanks to the help & initiative of Ruth, we now have an abundant amount of recycling containers strategically placed throughout the SBA! :)
We also, have our GREEN MAPS placed by the elevators on each floor showing the location of bins on the respective floor!
Take a look & pass on the word!
If there is a need for any other recycle bins, please let me know! (Faculty Services, 725-5099, facultyservices@sba.pdx.edu) We will be happy to help!
Also, if you would like a copy of our green maps, let us know! We can happily pass those along! :) Thanks for all your help, guys!! And thank you, Ruth!!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Interdepartmental Green Team Meeting
I was finally able to attend the interdepartmental green team meeting last week and I am so happy I went! I believe that if we would like to move forward as an active green team, these meetings are critical to our success. They allow for a pooling of resources, are great motivation, and the people leading them are so helpful!
I would like to share with you what I learned at the meeting (as I will recap at our April meeting). I hope this reflection will allow us to start thinking about the future endeavors we would like to take on! I certainly have a few ideas about this and am hoping to spark some brainstorming this upcoming month!
Below were the main things I took from this meeting:
Green Teams on Campus:
There are currently 23 active Green Teams on campus!
(However, remember that we are still one of the few academic green teams- a kudos to us and a reason to be motivated!)
There are 3 Recycle Works awarded Green Teams, including HATS and HR (an endeavor that I believe we should take on in the near future!)
Green Teams are quickly growing and it is Sustainability's goal that soon the Green Team grass root movement will meet a Top-Down movement and PSU will unite in endeavors to make PSU as sustainable as possible.
Upcoming Themes
As a result of the feedback they have gotten, all Green Teams will soon be united in specific focuses each quarter. The Sustianability team will gear all their endeavors each quarter toward those themes to aid green teams in our focus! I think this is a wonderful idea and will be helpful not only in helping us succinct goals, but will unite the Green Team force. I have outlined the "themes" for each quarter of the upcoming year below:
Winter 2009
Recycling, Waste Management
Spring 2009
Transportation, Food, Green Events (Kelly is currently working on coming up with a green guide for events! Keep a look out for this!)
Summer 2009
Purchasing, Planning
Fall 2009
Paper, Energy Conservation
Motivation, Resources
Another major topic of discussion that came up during the meeting is how to get people motivated when there is so much to do and this is such a large goal. Obviously, the themes will be an attempt to make this a little easier. However, there was also a lot of discussion about feeding off of each other. I believe we, as one of the few academic departmental green teams, need to make an effort to make our presence known & to pool resources as much as possible! Sarah, Kelly, Thomas Wah (BAO), and Noelle have made themselves extremely available to us as resources & we should attempt to communicate with them about our needs. Kelly likes to come to green team meetings & I plan on inviting her to our next one. Let's utilize the enegery & motivation that this group has started!
My thoughts on things to think about for our April meeting:
1) I believe we should at least start investigating what we would need to do to get Recycle Works Awarded. I believe Kelly will be a good resource to start this endeavor.
2) I believe we need to come up with goals each quarter associated with the theme & attempt to meet them
3) I would like to see us attempt to recruit other academic departments (especially School of Education). This would be a great motivator for us to start the "competitions" we would like to see happen!
4) Staying updated on the Ecowiki is imperative! If we aren't paying attention to the resources we have, we are missing out on opportunities.
5) I would like to brainstorm about campaigns to get our faculty involved. This could be as simple as "advertising" to them in their office hall ways. The Applied Linguistics department attended this meeting and they were faculty members & super excited. It was great to see & I would love to see more faculty take an interest in making the SBA Greener. I think we just need to target them more & they will be motivated :)
All right! I believe I have said enough for now! Thanks for reading & I look forward to seeing you at our next meeting in April!
I would like to share with you what I learned at the meeting (as I will recap at our April meeting). I hope this reflection will allow us to start thinking about the future endeavors we would like to take on! I certainly have a few ideas about this and am hoping to spark some brainstorming this upcoming month!
Below were the main things I took from this meeting:
Green Teams on Campus:
There are currently 23 active Green Teams on campus!
(However, remember that we are still one of the few academic green teams- a kudos to us and a reason to be motivated!)
There are 3 Recycle Works awarded Green Teams, including HATS and HR (an endeavor that I believe we should take on in the near future!)
Green Teams are quickly growing and it is Sustainability's goal that soon the Green Team grass root movement will meet a Top-Down movement and PSU will unite in endeavors to make PSU as sustainable as possible.
Upcoming Themes
As a result of the feedback they have gotten, all Green Teams will soon be united in specific focuses each quarter. The Sustianability team will gear all their endeavors each quarter toward those themes to aid green teams in our focus! I think this is a wonderful idea and will be helpful not only in helping us succinct goals, but will unite the Green Team force. I have outlined the "themes" for each quarter of the upcoming year below:
Winter 2009
Recycling, Waste Management
Spring 2009
Transportation, Food, Green Events (Kelly is currently working on coming up with a green guide for events! Keep a look out for this!)
Summer 2009
Purchasing, Planning
Fall 2009
Paper, Energy Conservation
Motivation, Resources
Another major topic of discussion that came up during the meeting is how to get people motivated when there is so much to do and this is such a large goal. Obviously, the themes will be an attempt to make this a little easier. However, there was also a lot of discussion about feeding off of each other. I believe we, as one of the few academic departmental green teams, need to make an effort to make our presence known & to pool resources as much as possible! Sarah, Kelly, Thomas Wah (BAO), and Noelle have made themselves extremely available to us as resources & we should attempt to communicate with them about our needs. Kelly likes to come to green team meetings & I plan on inviting her to our next one. Let's utilize the enegery & motivation that this group has started!
My thoughts on things to think about for our April meeting:
1) I believe we should at least start investigating what we would need to do to get Recycle Works Awarded. I believe Kelly will be a good resource to start this endeavor.
2) I believe we need to come up with goals each quarter associated with the theme & attempt to meet them
3) I would like to see us attempt to recruit other academic departments (especially School of Education). This would be a great motivator for us to start the "competitions" we would like to see happen!
4) Staying updated on the Ecowiki is imperative! If we aren't paying attention to the resources we have, we are missing out on opportunities.
5) I would like to brainstorm about campaigns to get our faculty involved. This could be as simple as "advertising" to them in their office hall ways. The Applied Linguistics department attended this meeting and they were faculty members & super excited. It was great to see & I would love to see more faculty take an interest in making the SBA Greener. I think we just need to target them more & they will be motivated :)
All right! I believe I have said enough for now! Thanks for reading & I look forward to seeing you at our next meeting in April!
Ooligan Submission
Last week we enthusiastically submitted our form to be included in Ooligan Press's upcoming green book project, highlighting green endeavors on campus.
It was a nice reflection of what we have been working on.
I have included the write up below for everyone to review! I hope you use it an inspiration for us to move forward!
Your mission:
We, the SBA Green Team, seek to initiate more sustainable practices and operations within the School of Business at PSU. We believe that behavior change is a key component to achieving this goal. Therefore, we aim to provide SBA faculty, staff and students with the information and tools necessary to make sustainable decisions within the School of Business.
Some specific project or events you have completed or are being planned:
We have adopted three main goals for our first year. They are listed below:
1) Information! Provide the SBA faculty and staff with quick sustainability facts along with quick and easy practices that we can do to promote sustainability each week through an email.
2) Recycle! Recycle! Recycle! Bring in more recycle bins to the SBA, while putting out clear maps of their locations and what can/can't be recycled.
3) Let's save some paper! Make a conscious effort to save paper and track our paper usage.
In what ways has this project been successful? What are you learning?
We have been successful in a number of ways:
• We have made our presence known as a promoter and collaborator for sustainability.
• We have started to provide faculty and staff with sustainable tips and practices that can be used both within our building and within their every day lives.
• We have started a blog aimed at reporting our success & current endeavors to the SBA. You can visit it at: http://sbagreenteam.blogspot.com/
• We are in the process of making recycling more convenient in the SBA. We will soon have at least 2 recycling locations on every floor and “Green Maps” that show the location of the recycling bins throughout the building.
• We have been tracking our paper usage and will be reporting back to the faculty and staff our success in saving paper.
• We are exploring sustainable options for acquiring new technology equipment such as recruiting corporate sponsors.
How does your group define “sustainability?”
To us, sustainability is the adoption of actions, practices, and behaviors that support the long term viability of our environment.
Why do you think it's important for people in your department to focus on sustainability issues?
We, as a school, would like to be a leader in sustainability. We house the Center for Global Leadership in Sustainability and have a number of passionate staff and faculty members who have exemplified themselves as leaders and advocates for sustainability. Therefore, we, as a school, feel that it is our responsibility to show our commitment to sustainability. We have a deep value in social responsibility and want that to be a focus for our department.
How do you interact with the PSU community?
So far we have mainly been starting by interacting with the School of Business Community through email, our blog, meetings & general promotion. However, we are beginning to interact with the rest of the PSU community through the interdepartmental Green Team Meetings and are brainstorming events that will allow us to further interact.
What about the community outside PSU?
We are beginning to explore the options around corporate sponsors and grants that may be available for some of our larger ambitions.
It was a nice reflection of what we have been working on.
I have included the write up below for everyone to review! I hope you use it an inspiration for us to move forward!
Your mission:
We, the SBA Green Team, seek to initiate more sustainable practices and operations within the School of Business at PSU. We believe that behavior change is a key component to achieving this goal. Therefore, we aim to provide SBA faculty, staff and students with the information and tools necessary to make sustainable decisions within the School of Business.
Some specific project or events you have completed or are being planned:
We have adopted three main goals for our first year. They are listed below:
1) Information! Provide the SBA faculty and staff with quick sustainability facts along with quick and easy practices that we can do to promote sustainability each week through an email.
2) Recycle! Recycle! Recycle! Bring in more recycle bins to the SBA, while putting out clear maps of their locations and what can/can't be recycled.
3) Let's save some paper! Make a conscious effort to save paper and track our paper usage.
In what ways has this project been successful? What are you learning?
We have been successful in a number of ways:
• We have made our presence known as a promoter and collaborator for sustainability.
• We have started to provide faculty and staff with sustainable tips and practices that can be used both within our building and within their every day lives.
• We have started a blog aimed at reporting our success & current endeavors to the SBA. You can visit it at: http://sbagreenteam.blogspot.com/
• We are in the process of making recycling more convenient in the SBA. We will soon have at least 2 recycling locations on every floor and “Green Maps” that show the location of the recycling bins throughout the building.
• We have been tracking our paper usage and will be reporting back to the faculty and staff our success in saving paper.
• We are exploring sustainable options for acquiring new technology equipment such as recruiting corporate sponsors.
How does your group define “sustainability?”
To us, sustainability is the adoption of actions, practices, and behaviors that support the long term viability of our environment.
Why do you think it's important for people in your department to focus on sustainability issues?
We, as a school, would like to be a leader in sustainability. We house the Center for Global Leadership in Sustainability and have a number of passionate staff and faculty members who have exemplified themselves as leaders and advocates for sustainability. Therefore, we, as a school, feel that it is our responsibility to show our commitment to sustainability. We have a deep value in social responsibility and want that to be a focus for our department.
How do you interact with the PSU community?
So far we have mainly been starting by interacting with the School of Business Community through email, our blog, meetings & general promotion. However, we are beginning to interact with the rest of the PSU community through the interdepartmental Green Team Meetings and are brainstorming events that will allow us to further interact.
What about the community outside PSU?
We are beginning to explore the options around corporate sponsors and grants that may be available for some of our larger ambitions.
SBA Green Team Tip of the Week (3/16/09)
The Importance of Honey Bees:
As you might have heard, the honey bees are in trouble (therefore, we are in trouble) and we need pollinators. You and your kids might enjoy learning about the importance of pollinators called Mason Bees right in your own back yard. What are Mason Bees? Mason bee, /Osmia lignaria/, also known as the blue orchard bee, is friendly and an efficient pollinator for fruit such as apple, cherry, almond and blueberry. Beediverse houses are an excellent way to encourage these pollinators into your garden.
To learn more:
At Beediverse, we offer How-to information in the form of the book "Pollination with Mason Bees",
the DVD video "All About Mason Bees",
the Mason Bee Life-cycle poster,
and the online Learn-at-Home Mason Bee Course.
This might be a fun project for you and your family this summer. Don't wait too long to order your crop of cute little bee larvae, they are going fast.
http://beediverse.com/
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
As you might have heard, the honey bees are in trouble (therefore, we are in trouble) and we need pollinators. You and your kids might enjoy learning about the importance of pollinators called Mason Bees right in your own back yard. What are Mason Bees? Mason bee, /Osmia lignaria/, also known as the blue orchard bee, is friendly and an efficient pollinator for fruit such as apple, cherry, almond and blueberry. Beediverse houses are an excellent way to encourage these pollinators into your garden.
To learn more:
At Beediverse, we offer How-to information in the form of the book "Pollination with Mason Bees
the DVD video "All About Mason Bees
the Mason Bee Life-cycle poster
and the online Learn-at-Home Mason Bee Course
This might be a fun project for you and your family this summer. Don't wait too long to order your crop of cute little bee larvae, they are going fast.
http://beediverse.com/
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
SBA Green Team Tip of the Week (3/9/09)
Clean the Office Air with Plants
An old fashioned, low tech suggestion, kind of like Mom's chicken
soup.... house plants in the office
Start small by cleaning the air with plants. Use large plants in lobbies
to create a healthier indoor environment, but then spread that out to
employees. Each cubicle or office should house a plant or two. The
effect of plants on increased productivity is being studied.
Plant suggestions for the office include: Dracaena, Ficus, Philodendron,
Spathiphyllum and Diffenbachia. These plants remove toxins from the air
and offer a green relief from a sterile office.
From:
http://www.lifescript.com/Life/Money/Work/14_Eco-Friendly_Business_Practices.aspx
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
An old fashioned, low tech suggestion, kind of like Mom's chicken
soup.... house plants in the office
Start small by cleaning the air with plants. Use large plants in lobbies
to create a healthier indoor environment, but then spread that out to
employees. Each cubicle or office should house a plant or two. The
effect of plants on increased productivity is being studied.
Plant suggestions for the office include: Dracaena, Ficus, Philodendron,
Spathiphyllum and Diffenbachia. These plants remove toxins from the air
and offer a green relief from a sterile office.
From:
http://www.lifescript.com/Life/Money/Work/14_Eco-Friendly_Business_Practices.aspx
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
Green Team Meeting Minutes 3/5/09
Hello, Everyone! We had our March Green Team Meeting at the beginning of the month and here is rough recap of what happened:
*Fran and Rachel attended a Faculty Council meeting and gave a brief description of the Green Team and what we do
*Fran has been working on getting recycled electronic equipment from corporate sponsors. She's working on that with Kristin in the Dean's office and Glen.
*Rachel will attend the next intradepartmental green team meeting next week, others are encouraged to attend with her if you can
*Rachel has started tracking the paper usage and is still working on getting the recycle bins. The sustainability office is out of them at the moment.
Thanks and we look forward to hearing more endeavor ideas soon!
*Fran and Rachel attended a Faculty Council meeting and gave a brief description of the Green Team and what we do
*Fran has been working on getting recycled electronic equipment from corporate sponsors. She's working on that with Kristin in the Dean's office and Glen.
*Rachel will attend the next intradepartmental green team meeting next week, others are encouraged to attend with her if you can
*Rachel has started tracking the paper usage and is still working on getting the recycle bins. The sustainability office is out of them at the moment.
Thanks and we look forward to hearing more endeavor ideas soon!
SBA Green Team Tip of the Week (3/2/09)
Ecofonts
Make your printer ink last longer! Go to http://www.ecofont.eu/english.html
The prints we make for our 'daily use' not only use paper, but also ink. According to SPRANQ
"After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well."
Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink. Free to download , free to use.
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
Make your printer ink last longer! Go to http://www.ecofont.eu/english.html
The prints we make for our 'daily use' not only use paper, but also ink. According to SPRANQ
"After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well."
Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
SBA Green Team Tip of the Week (2/16/09)
Worried About the Harmful Chemicals in Household Cleaners?
The website www.greenlivingtips.com has compiled a list of ways to replace household cleaners with lemons!
Here are just a few:
*All purpose cleaner -An equal amount of lemon juice and water added to a spray bottle is an effective kitchen and bathroom cleaner
*Microwave -Heat a bowl of water and lemon slices in your microwave for 30 seconds to a minute; then wipe out the oven. Stains will be easier to remove and old food odors neutralized
*Fridge -Half a lemon stored in your fridge will help control and eliminate unpleasant smells
*Glass and mirrors -4 tablespoons of lemon juice mixed with half a gallon of water makes an effective window cleaner
*Degreaser -Straight lemon juice can be used as a general degreaser
The complete list of tips can be found at http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/136/1/24-handy-lemon-tips.html
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
The website www.greenlivingtips.com has compiled a list of ways to replace household cleaners with lemons!
Here are just a few:
*All purpose cleaner -An equal amount of lemon juice and water added to a spray bottle is an effective kitchen and bathroom cleaner
*Microwave -Heat a bowl of water and lemon slices in your microwave for 30 seconds to a minute; then wipe out the oven. Stains will be easier to remove and old food odors neutralized
*Fridge -Half a lemon stored in your fridge will help control and eliminate unpleasant smells
*Glass and mirrors -4 tablespoons of lemon juice mixed with half a gallon of water makes an effective window cleaner
*Degreaser -Straight lemon juice can be used as a general degreaser
The complete list of tips can be found at http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/136/1/24-handy-lemon-tips.html
Questions? Want to join the SBA Green Team? Email: greenteam@sba.pdx.edu for more information.
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