e-Team Meeting Notes 1/22/10

Present: Sue Keene, Brian Shelley, Jeanne Gulnick, Charmaine Daniels, David McCall, Jackie Sovas, Chuck Prinn, Stuart Leckie, Frank Daggett, Sue Kelly, Suzanne Murphy

Notes by Suzanne Murphy

1. “Recyclemania”- Jeanne explained that SJC is participating in this national contest to minimize waste on campus. Tonnage of recycled materials will be reported for 8 weeks. Jeanne will post the weekly standings on the BB outside the café. Student Eco-reps are already involved in this project.
2. “Freecycling”- We discussed the idea of having either a web page or a physical Bulletin Board for people to post items they are willing to give away. We did not come to a conclusion on this and need to follow up with an action plan.
3. “Habit of the Month” for February- We agreed on the topic of “energy conservation” (heat and electricity). Several people will research details such as tax credits for weatherizing your home, rebates for solar panels, physical tips for saving energy, statistics, etc. and Suzanne will take all this info and come up with a catchy flyer. Please get your info to her by Monday Feb. 1.
4. “Low Carbon Diet Day”- Annual event sponsored by Bon Appétit on Earth Day, April 22. We started discussing ways to partner with Bon Appetit for that week but wanted to also include the Eco-reps’ plans since in the past, they have done multiple activities the entire week. Needs to be revisited at next meeting.
5. In a wild Friday afternoon burst of silliness and creativity, we came up with the concept of “Ugly Mug Day.” Stuart had mentioned that Bon Appetit loses a high number of the ceramic mugs out of the café every semester. Someone (please identify yourself to get credit!!) suggested asking staff, faculty, and students to donate mugs they never used at home in order to establish a returnable mug system, like the take-out containers. Students would no longer have to sneak mugs out as it would be allowed. The message to the campus community would be: “Bring back a dirty mug and get a new clean one. Track ‘your’ mugs as they circulate around campus.” We thought this would build community and be a lot of fun. Stuart will initiate this project in the near future. It will also include a “mug amnesty” for those who have hoarded the BA ceramic mugs in their office or dorm room.
6. After much discussion of the best day of the week to meet this semester, we decided on Fridays. Our sincere apologies to those who cannot make it on Fridays.
   
   NEXT MEETING: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5 AT 1PM IN THE KNEELAND DINING ROOM

Merry Christmas from the E-Team!

The SJC eTeam Wishes You a GREEN Christmas!

Here's how to have one:

• Give more love, less stuff! Offer your own services or give memberships to groups working for a better planet as greener gifts.
• When replacing holiday lights, use LEDs that use 90% less energy.
• Use recycled or repurposed wrapping paper, like tea towels, scarves, pillow cases, and children's artwork.
• Buy only those decorations you really love: Simplify!!
• Choose a local Christmas tree that has not been trucked from a distance.
• Embrace the outdoors. Take a walk, skate, or ski with friends.
• Make a resolution to reduce your carbon footprint in 2010.

For more information on how to green your holiday, check out:

http://eartheasy.com/give_sustainchristmas.htm or

http://sierraclub.org/holidays/

ETeam’s Habit of the Month: November

Save $$$ AND the Planet: TRANSPORTATION

American cars, trucks, motorcycles, and buses drive more than 3 trillion miles per year. Our transportation system is responsible for 28% of our nation’s energy use and produces a substantial fraction of our global warming pollution. On average, Americans use roughly 3X as much energy for transportation per person as Europeans. But you can change this!

What You Can Do to Reduce CO₂ Emissions, Promote Health, and Save $$$$:

• Carpool when possible. Do you have a suggestion on how to connect SJC students, faculty, and staff for carpooling?? The E-team is looking for ideas. Please send your ideas to smurphy@sjcme.edu or bshelley@sjcme.edu.
• Walk or bike rather than drive the car for short trips.
• Take public transportation when possible.
• Consider a smaller, more gas-efficient vehicle or hybrid.
• Ask about high-quality, re-refined motor oil (e.g., America’s Choice and Nature’s Choice).

Want to get better fuel economy out of your existing vehicle? Here are a few quick ways to save $$$:

Slow down! A car or truck loses about 1% in fuel economy for each one mile per hour over 55 mph. Today’s vehicles are designed to operate efficiently at 55 mph.

Use your cruise control to maintain a constant speed and get 5-10% fuel savings. You can also save fuel by cutting out “jackrabbit” starts and gently and steadily increasing acceleration.

Put money in your pocket and cut pollution in the air by ceasing any unnecessary idling. If your wait is going to be 30 seconds or longer, turn the engine off. The Department of Energy estimates that 145 million autos idling for 5 minutes each wastes four million gallons of gasoline. 24 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions could be avoided every year if all American drivers cut their idle time by 10 minutes a day.

The Department of Energy states that a badly tuned engine can increase your fuel consumption by 20%. Replacing a bad oxygen sensor alone can improve mileage by 15%.

Check tire pressure to ensure that your rolling resistance is balanced and save in fuel bills.

How the ETeam Can Help

If you would like to be more involved with these efforts, please contact a member of the ETeam.

Habit of the Month: October

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE...PAPER

Costs & Impacts of Paper Consumption

• The item most frequently encountered in landfills is plain old paper—on average, it accounts for more than 40 percent of a landfill's contents. (Source: http://www.epa.gov)

• If everyone recycled their Sunday paper, 550, 000 trees would be saved each week. (Source: http://www.earthday.net)

• The typical office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. (Source: http://www.ibm.com)

What You Can Do to Reduce Paper Consumption

• Change your word processing program’s default settings so you can put more on each page. Set your margins to smaller numbers and reduce font size to 10 point to decrease the amount of paper required.

• Purchase paper with post-consumer recycled content. Look for paper that carries the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) logo.

• Use the blank sides of printed sheets for scrap paper or for sending faxes.

• Are you receiving junk mail at work? Contact the companies and ask them to take your name off their mailing lists.

Also, Please Think Before You Print. Pushing the print button is too easy…and can be wasteful.

• Before you print a document, ask yourself if you really need a hardcopy of it.

• Use the print preview function before printing any document to avoid mistakes.

• Edit and proofread documents on the computer instead of printing hardcopies.

• Use direct computer faxing and email whenever possible.

• Print on the blank sides of used sheets of paper.

• Be sure to recycle used paper.

How the ETeam Can Help

If you need assistance implementing any of the suggestions in this document, please contact a member of the ETeam.

Green Computing Reminder (September's Habit)

• Practice energy management: Optimizing the energy settings for your computer and other electronics can be more than a modest energy saver. Set computers to energy-saving settings so they automatically use less energy if you are not using it.

• Turn off your computer/screen/printer when not in use overnight: Computers left on unintentionally overnight can eat up $100/year in cost and the corresponding amount in electricity. Use a power strip, so you can easily turn it off each night before you leave.

Many Thanks!

Our first annual Fall Sustainability Fair was a great success! The eTeam would like to thank these wonderful folks for making the event to enjoyable:

Izzy Cheesecake
Little Alaska Farms
Smiling Hill Farm
Summit Spring Water
Gifford’s Ice Cream
Performance Food Group
Silver Moon Creamery
Green Thumb Potatoes

Ron Cronkhite and his honeybees
Berlin City Honda
Bon Appetit
Campus Ministry (SJC)
Dr. Joe Lee
EcoMaine
Eco-Reps (SJC)
eTeam (SJC)
Green Products Suppliers
Maine Green Store
Maine Inter-Faith Power and Light
MEEP (Maine Energy Education Program)
Pearson Farm
Portland Water District
RePower America
Revision Energy
Roy Cronkhite and his honeybees
Scott Fuller and his solar glazed lamp
WCLZ
Windham Land and Trust

We also wish to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU for the crews who set up, worked through, broke down, cleaned up, and had anything to do with contributing to such a fun time!

Reminders...

• Fall Sustainability Fair in conjunction with Bon Appetit's "Eat Local Challenge": Tuesday, Sept. 29th from 11-2...FOOD, FUN, EDUCATION!

• Single-Streaming at SJC! Check out the post below for what can and cannot be recycled.

• Power Down your Computer! Have you done it? Follow these steps and save energy: https://sebago.sjcme.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=c79c48a32e5c4638b465ad2af996c50c&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.screencast.com%2fusers%2faschwieterman%2ffolders%2fJing%2fmedia%2fc10671f2-a0a7-4959-8642-a756818db94d