Green Moves in ETS
From ETS
Note: Let's skip adding our initials to contributions in the text. If you'd like to leave your mark, include four consecutive tildes and your user ID will be added along with a time stamp. I've used it at the end of this note -- Cwc5 16:40, 1 July 2008 (EDT)
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Overview
Lots of discussions about how to live more green in ETS. I'd like to invite you all to share ideas about how we can start a movement to a more responsible office environment. Please contribute if you have ideas to share.
Simple Ideas
- Dump the styrofoam cups for our own consumption. Use compostable cups if you absolutely have to have temporary cups on hand [1]
- Use our spare TLT Symposium mugs for hot beverages for ourselves and keep a collection of clean ones (maintained by the community) for guests
- Kill the water bottles in conference rooms
- Place Brita water filters on the faucets
- Get a couple of the Brita water filter pitchers for the fridge
- Hook up the Ice Maker in the big fridge so we have ice on hand for filtered water
- Switch to a laptop instead of using a desktop computer and cut three-quarters off your electrical use. Turn off the laptop at the end of the day.
- Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and/or unplug, when not in use. (Power cubes are 60-80 percent inefficient.)
- Turn off the lights when you aren’t using them and reduce your direct lighting energy use by 45 percent.
- Stop using heat-producing halogen lamps (they can also be fire hazards). Install occupancy or motion sensors on outdoor lights
- General tip: Feel things in the morning when you arrive at the office (or in the morning at home). Anything that's warm is drawing power. Laptop chargers are usual culprits.
- Work from home and/or attend meetings remotely when feasible.
- If possible, an ETS carpool would be a nice idea. Most of the people (I think) from my way already take the van, but I wonder if any others could organize something. My wife and I both work at PSU, so we drive one car to and from work.
- Provide shower/changing facilities for bicycle/jogging/walking commuters. PSU nominally encourages "alternative transportation," but without adequate infrastructure it seems doubtful that many people will change behavior.
- Pack a lunch in a reusable container instead of going out to eat or having food delivered; enjoy lunch with co-workers in Cafe ETS or outside (weather permitting). This eliminates Styrofoam packaging. Bonus: packed lunches are generally much healthier and less expensive than food from restaurants.
Suggestions from Down Under at http://www.cleanup.com.au. The top 10 True Green @ Work things you can do are:
- Keep a mug at work for coffee rather than the disposable cups or use cups from recycled paper.
- Switch to using long-life refillable pens made from recycled plastic, paper or timber, or from fully biodegradable bioplastic (derived from cornstarch).
- Choose recycled paper, rather than paper made from virgin timber -it makes up 70 per cent of office waste.
- Set your printer to double-sided copies to save paper.
- Keep a paper recycling tray in addition to your waste bin.
- Bring your own lunch to work in a reusable container to reduce packaging waste.
- Remove your phone charger from the power point when not in use, as it continues to consume up to 40% of the current used to charge your phone.
- Set your computer to sleep if you are away from your desk for more than 10 minutes, which reduces power consumption to about 5 per cent of full operating power.
- Look to maximize the natural light in your office, rather than relying on artificial light.
- Join the environmental/sustainability committee in your workplace. If none exists, take the initiative and form a green task force!
External References
- Treehugger - How to Green Your Work [2]
