Just when you thought the holidays were over…

In the spirit of recycling, reusing, and reducing, let’s have the first ever ERG wrapping Paper Swap!

• When:  Next week ONLY (January 12 through 16)
• Where:  Gregg Hall, 2^nd Floor Lounge
• What:  Unwanted/unused wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, gift tags, and greeting cards.  These can be for any occasion, not just Christmas.  All items should be unused and in good condition. 

Bring any of these items and leave them in the designated box. Take what you want.  It doesn’t have to be an even exchange.  You can take things even if you didn’t bring anything. The idea is to find new homes for unwanted items. At the end of the week, anything left will be taken to Good Will or permanently recycled.

So what’s this blog about, anyway?

We co-realized that we each spend a lot of time thinking about the tiny choices we make in the world. Many of those choices have something to do with the environment, and what kind of impact we want to (or don’t want to) have on it. Purchases, food, states of mind–they all impact something, somewhere, in some way. And we are the kinds of people who consider every side of the equation before moving ahead. Now, that doesn’t mean we always make an ecologically sound decision. And it doesn’t mean that everything we buy is made from compostable hemp-based plastic grown on a co-op farm and processed in a fair-labor factory. Or that we are any kind of Super Green Ladies. We think the point is that we think, and consider, and move from a place of contemplation. We try to tread lightly, and sometimes that works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. We like to talk about that. And that’s pretty much it.

So this is a place where we get to talk about Tiny Choices. Ours, yours, and theirs.

Just a reminder from the UNH Energy Task Force: Before you pack up your things to enjoy the company of family and friends, we ask that you take a moment to power down — turn off and unplug — your computer, printer, and other electronics and appliances while you’re away from campus. If everyone on campus participated, the university could save $20,000 in energy costs and save greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing 50 cars from the road for one year. A small effort can make a big difference! 

See more at the Energy Task Force website, http://www.unh.edu/etf/powerdown.html.

UNH Energy Office offers some awesome energy saving tips on their website. They also have an easy to install monitor sleepware program (click on the picture of the monitor on the left side). It would be great if everyone tried to implement at least one of these tips in their office so that we can work toward a more sustainable building! ~Kristin

http://www.unh.edu/news/campusjournal/index.cfm

- Whitney

Hi Folks,

Today Bergen and I went outside to do some reading.  We’re sitting on the bench at the back of the building and he woofed, “bike rack”.

We have a new (well, it came from Ham Smith) bike rack! It’s located on the South side of the building. Use away.

- Whitney and Bergen

Cyndy recently suggested that we add the paper towels from the bathrooms to our compost.  We discussed this at some length at today’s Green Team meeting and, after looking up some interesting data, we concluded that our compost is already out of balance in that we aren’t producing enough nitrogen-rich waste. Since paper towels are so carbon-rich, they would put the balance even further out of whack. It’s a great idea though and we can revisit in the future.  Thanks for the idea Cyndy!

I received email today from Liz Soper of the National Wildlife Federation about a series of workshops to train individuals to give NH Carbon Challenge presentations in their communities. The first workshop is on Saturday, Nov. 8 in Peterborough. If you’re interested, visit the workshop page here. Actually, the whole website for the New Hampshire Carbon Challenge is interesting. It includes town rankings, calculators, resources, and helpful information. Check it out here. – Colleen

The Green Team Advocates for Bicycle Shelters.

What was discussed in the last meeting:

1)      Location of existing racks, snow removal, flooding, and safety issues (at Gregg Hall).

Facilities are attempting to take care of the flooding and snow removal issues with the hi bay racks. If there is any problems contact Tom Byron of facilities. I reiterated the safety concern with the fact that the rack is located in a loading zone and is unsafe for bicyclists.

2)      Options we discussed:

a) Individual shelters/lockers for employees… Pretty well shut down by Steve, due to a high cost/bike and management issues. However, there is still optimism about perusing this on our own, i.e. get Gardner a locker. After all, everyone has a parking space why not support his efforts to reduce his footprint… We will continue to discuss our options for this. Also, they are considering lockers for the rail station.

b) Purchase shelters from manufacturing company.

I have sent Stephanie and Steve links to multiple options. These can be found with a simple google search of bicycle shelters or lockers… The design has to be approved by Doug (campus architect) before it can be implemented. Also, funding for shelters would not come till July ’09.

c) Hold a design contest.

This idea was passed over by them, not surprising; however I restated this idea in my last email to Stephanie.

      This would raise awareness, education, and participation… Comments/ideas???

3)      Move rack next to parking lot to gable end of Gregg Hall and cover with shelter. The cost of moving this rack is more expensive than moving a ‘sled rack.’ We were told a sled rack will be brought over from in front of Ham Smith, but they were talking of trying to put it between two hi bay doors or extending the hi bay rack towards the underpass in the last email. I responded that the location is a safety concern and restated our suggestion of placing a rack at the gable end of the building facing the underpass.

As far as the shelter goes: Gregg Hall could be the prototype (because we are not in the center of campus). The design has to be approved and the funding would come from next year’s budget. 

UNH’s Current Efforts:

-13 new racks being installed this year with a budgeted install goal of 15-20 racks per year.

-A ‘Bike Pod’ (bike shelter to accommodate 100+ bikes) is to be built at the Morris Hall circle, the main entrance to Kinsgbury.

Run by the UNH student group the Ecological Advocates, the Challenge is an energy use reduction competition held on the UNH Durham campus every fall semester! The major goal is to engage students living on campus in activities that reduce their ecological footprints – in particular, energy use. Students compete as a residence hall or apartment complex to reduce their per capita energy and water consumption compared to their building’s average usage from the past three years… To read more click here.

Wouldn’t it be super if UNH did this challenge for academic buildings on campus!